Gond, a tribal art of India and Australian Aboriginal art are both visual storytelling mediums, the canvasses become a witness to years of history; bearing philosophy, culture and guarded knowledge.
Venkat Raman Singh Shyamoth , an important contemporary artist of our age while taking about the similarities between Indian tribal art forms like Gond and Bhil and Australian Aboriginal art discusses the shared history and geography. He explains that the similarity in themes and representation comes from the very fact that Aborigines have their own stories about creation just like we do, and they too present it through dashes and dots. He also traces geographical confluence between the two communities and is of the opinion that Gond is very similar to Aboriginal art for the simple reason that the Aboriginal art and Gond art have their geographic connection as well. Both are originally from the same continent of Gondwana. He says of the time, “...when there were just two continents, Gondwana and Laurasia. India and Australia came from Gondwana and America came from Laurasia.”
This interesting way of putting the concept of common shared history of all humanity also finds resonance in the idea of Collective unconscious, a term coined by twentieth century’s famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. It is the idea of an analogous history because the structures of the unconscious mind are shared among organisms of the same species. As per Jung, certain instincts run human being’s unconscious collectively, this is the reason for existence of universal symbols, called archetypes such as The Noble Mother, the Wise Elderly Man, the Tree of life etc. Most of these archetypes can be observed in both Indian and Australian tribal art.
The dots and dashes for the Gond community are representative of the sum total, they stand as a microcosm of the entire world, and similarly the Australian art too tries to weave stories of its own understanding of human existence and their role on earth. It is also said that dot painting originated from the time of white Australian settlement where secret knowledge was protected closely and fiercely by the Aboriginal people, by coding stories that could be only decoded by members of the same community. This later became a part of their technique.
The use of striking colours is common to both art forms as well; the Gonds believed that painting their houses and walls with bright hues would herald good luck. Yellow, red, black and white dominate a Gond canvas, these were traditionally extracted naturally from organic and easily available sources. ‘Chui Mitti’, the local sand helps in creating yellow hues, ‘Gheru Mitti’ is used for creating the brown colour. Black colour is obtained from charcoal, plant leaves add green and Hibiscus is used for getting the bright red shades.
The sacred Aboriginal colours are said to have been given to the Aborigines in a ‘dream’, there are also Red, Black, Yellow and White. Black is representative of the earth. Red represents fire, energy and blood; these provide strength to the living. Yellow is used to represent water. White stands for the sky and the stars, the sky is usually painted filled with stars which are said to be Aborigines ancestors who are believed to have returned to the sky after taking part in creating earth.
These here are paintings by Charmaine Pwerle, who uses these stunning colours to represent an energetic aspect of dreaming. Dreaming, an intrinsic idea of aboriginal philosophy is often defined as the ongoing process of creation that unifies the past and present to determine the future.
Visually comparable to this are Gond paintings by the artist Rita Shyam, who beautifully illustrates various birds, abstract patterning on the body of the birds keeping the visual interest of the painting intact and very similar to Australian Aboriginal art. Rita Shyam is an artist associated with CCDF, she has been mentored and encouraged to explore the abstractness of this art form to make it much more suited to contemporary tastes without losing indigenous flavor.
These two art forms are divided by miles and miles of physical distance between their creators but are closely united and connected in its sentimentality and emotional core which are the definitive features of any art form.
This article is shared by Craft and Community Development Foundation and is authored by Shreya Seth.
Gond, sanaa ya kikabila ya India na sanaa ya Wenyeji wa Australia, ni vyombo vyote viwili vya hadithi za kuona, vitambaa vinavyokuwa mashahidi wa miaka ya historia, na kuwa na falsafa, utamaduni na maarifa yaliyohifadhiwa. Venkat Raman Singh Shyamoth, msanii wa kisasa muhimu wa enzi yetu, wakati wa kuchukua juu ya kufanana kati ya aina za sanaa za kikabila za India kama Gond na Bhil na sanaa ya Wenyeji wa Australia, anajadili historia na jiografia ya pamoja. "Mwanamke huyo anaeleza kwamba kufanana kwa mandhari na uwakilishi kunatokana na ukweli kwamba Wenyeji wa Australia wana hadithi zao wenyewe kuhusu uumbaji kama sisi, na wao pia huonyesha hadithi hizo kwa kutumia alama za ""dashes"" na ""dots.""" "Mwanamke huyo pia anaelezea ""mshuko wa kijiografia kati ya jamii hizo mbili na ana maoni kwamba Gond ni sawa sana na sanaa ya Wenyeji wa Asili kwa sababu rahisi kwamba sanaa ya Wenyeji wa Asili na sanaa ya Gond pia zina uhusiano wao wa kijiografia.""" Wote wawili wanatoka bara moja la Gondwana. Anasema juu ya wakati, <unk>... wakati kulikuwa na mabara mawili tu, Gondwana na Laurasia. "Hii ni kwa sababu ""India na Australia zilitoka Gondwana na Amerika zilitoka Laurasia"" - na kwa sababu hii, ""Ulimwengu wa pamoja"" ni jina la karne ya ishirini la mtambuzi wa kisaikolojia Carl Jung." Ni wazo la historia sawa kwa sababu miundo ya akili isiyo ya fahamu inashirikiwa kati ya viumbe wa spishi moja. "Kama Jung, baadhi ya instincts kukimbia binadamu ya akili ya pamoja, hii ni sababu ya kuwepo kwa ishara ya ulimwengu, aitwaye archetypes kama vile ""Mama Noble,"" ""Wise mzee,"" ""Mti wa maisha"" na kadhalika." Mengi ya mifano hiyo ya kale yaweza kuonekana katika sanaa ya kikabila ya Wahindi na ya Australia. Dots na dashes kwa ajili ya jamii ya Gond ni mwakilishi wa jumla, wao kusimama kama microcosm ya dunia nzima, na vivyo hivyo sanaa ya Australia pia anajaribu weave hadithi ya uelewa wake mwenyewe wa kuwepo kwa binadamu na jukumu lao duniani. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""picha ya nukta"" ilitokana na wakati wa makazi ya wazungu wa Australia ambapo maarifa ya siri yalilindwa kwa ukaribu na kwa ukali na watu wa asili, kwa kuweka hadithi ambazo zingeweza kufunuliwa tu na wanachama wa jamii hiyo hiyo." Baadaye hilo likawa sehemu ya mbinu yao. Kwa mfano, watu wa Gond wanaamini kwamba kupaka rangi nyumba zao na kuta zao kwa rangi nyangavu kungeleta bahati nzuri. Rangi ya manjano, nyekundu, nyeusi na nyeupe huongoza kwenye canvas ya Gond, hizi kwa kawaida zilitolewa kwa asili kutoka vyanzo vya kikaboni na vinavyopatikana kwa urahisi. <unk>Chui Mitti<unk>, mchanga wa mahali hapo husaidia kuunda rangi ya manjano, <unk>Gheru Mitti<unk> hutumiwa kuunda rangi ya kahawia. Rangi nyeusi hupatikana kutoka makaa ya mawe, majani ya mimea huongeza kijani na Hibiscus hutumiwa kupata vivuli vyenye rangi nyekundu. Rangi takatifu za Wenyeji wa Asili zinasemekana kuwa zilipewa Wenyeji wa Asili katika <unk> ndoto<unk>, pia kuna Nyekundu, Nyeusi, Njano na Nyeupe. Rangi nyeusi inawakilisha dunia. Rangi nyekundu inawakilisha moto, nishati na damu; hizo hutoa nguvu kwa walio hai. Rangi ya manjano hutumiwa kuwakilisha maji. "Nyota za mbingu na mbingu za juu ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu"" na ""mbingu"" ni ""mbingu.""" Picha za Charmaine Puerle, mchoraji wa filamu ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza ya kuigiza Ndoto ni wazo la asili la falsafa ya asili, mara nyingi hufafanuliwa kama mchakato unaoendelea wa uumbaji ambao unaunganisha zamani na sasa kuamua siku zijazo. Picha za Gond za Rita Shyam zinaonyesha ndege mbalimbali, na muundo wa abstract kwenye mwili wa ndege unaohifadhi maslahi ya kuona ya uchoraji na sawa na sanaa ya Australia ya Aboriginal. Rita Shyam ni msanii anayehusishwa na CCDF, amefundishwa na kuhamasishwa kuchunguza abstractness ya aina hii ya sanaa ili kuifanya ifanane zaidi na ladha ya kisasa bila kupoteza ladha ya asili. Aina hizi mbili za sanaa zimegawanywa na maili na maili ya umbali wa kimwili kati ya waundaji wao, lakini zimeunganishwa kwa karibu na zimeunganishwa katika hisia na kiini cha hisia, ambazo ni sifa za mwisho za aina yoyote ya sanaa. Makala hii imesambazwa na Craft na Shirika la Maendeleo ya Jumuiya na imeandikwa na Shreya Seth.