IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS

Australian Aboriginal, Dreamtime, The Dreaming, The Stolen Generations, Spirit Ancestors, Mimi Spirits, Creation Stories, The Dawn of the Universe, Cosmology, Rainbow Serpent, Spirit Beings, Sacred Sites, Carpet Snake, Dreaming Tracks, Labyrinths, Shapeshifting, Transforming, Daughters of the Rainbow Serpent, Sirens, Imberombera, Grandmother Goddess, The Great Mother, The All Mother, Spirit Children, Six Fingered Hands, Guloi Tree, Tree of Life, Jurtus, Wilmi, Billabong, Wandjina Spirit Beings

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL SERIES

July 2010 PLEASE NOTE: At the moment there is a great controversy and debate raging in Australia over the right of non Aboriginal people to draw inspiration from Dreamtime images and spirit beings. I posted the following comment on the ABC Law Report last week - and I stand by this:

 "My observation as an artist and shamanic practitioner is that all over the world indigenous leaders and shamans are starting to share sacred information that used to be secret. This is all part of our world entering a new era of greater spiritual awareness.
My feeling is that the Wandjina controversy is part of a greater process of The Dreamtime being brought to a wider audience, inviting more people to connect with sacred ancient teachings and the world of spirit. Knowledge and inspiration isn’t a static dead thing: it is living breathing evolving energy. People engaging with ancient sacred concepts breathes life into those concepts and sends them out in the world reborn... It is a very great honour.

 I hope that the indigenous peoples of Australia will see that maybe the time has come to share the ancient teachings and wisdom of the Dreamtime. After all: the teachings and knowledge of industrialised Western society have brought our beautiful planet to her knees. Western people live in a culture that has lost its soul and its spiritual underpinnings. Maybe it is time to embrace the ancient sacred teachings of the Dreamtime, the Wanjinas and other Spirit Beings. This may just save our planet from self-destruction."

(I would like to add here: I am not saying that the indigenous peoples of Australia (or indeed anywhere) SHOULD share anything. I am saying I HOPE they will. There is a big difference between the two).

 Imelda Almqvist  16 July 2010

COMMUNICATING!   (80 X 100 cm)   £599

It is my hope that this webpage will bring the spiritual values of the Dreamtime to a wider audience. We have much to learn from the indigenous peoples on all continents. For me seeing Australian Aboriginal Art was a lifechanging experience.

We got married in the year 1996 and travelled to Australia and New Zealand for our honeymoon. We flew to Cairns and travelled north from there to Port Douglas and the Daintree River. There we had the opportunity of going for a walk in the rainforest with an Aboriginal Medicine Man. It was an eye-opening experience! What looked like 'just trees' to our eyes, was a complete pharmacy once he explained what things were used for. From this leaf you can make a painkiller, particularly good for headaches. You can boil the bark of that tree, boil up some herbs and plants - the best cure for stomach upsets. This reduces infection and that's good for broken limbs. And so forth! He even pointed out what plants and objects found in the forest could be used for sorcery and magic spells.

He issued an invitation and said I was welcome to come and live with him in the rainforest for half a year and he would teach me all he could! A tempting offer, but one that did not agree with work commitments back home in London (not to mention the fact that we had been married for only one week at that point!) Anyway, ever since I have been particularly interested in Aboriginal Australian art and culture.

 It is incredible but true that it was only at the referendum of 27 May 1967 that Aboriginal residents of Australia were granted full legal status as Australian citizens. This is mind boggling when one considers that Aboriginal Australian peoples occupied the land for tens of thousands of years before white Europeans arrived on the scene.

JELLYFISH SPIRIT   (SOLD)

Traditional Aboriginal people were multilingual. Originally there were around 300 (possibly even 500) Aboriginal languages. Today these languages face the threat of extinction. Many languages are weakening and no longer spoken to or understood by the younger generation. (See also the LANGUAGE & MARK MAKING page).

ANCESTORS DREAMING  (80 x 100 cm)   £499

Following colonisation successive white governments regarded the Aboriginal societies as uncivilised and brutal practises were committed. From widespread (I typed 'whitespread' - a Freudian slip!) massacres in some regions, to government policies of 'protection', where children were forcible removed from their parents and relocated in orphanages, missions and foster homes. These children were then indoctrinated in the values of the dominant culture. A handful of these children - now known as 'The Stolen Generations' - have tracked down their parents, but thousands never returned to their homes. This has led to an incalculable loss; whole generations torn from their famiies and alienated from their own cultures.

Christian missionaries of various denominations played their role in this. They demanded that Aboriginal people drop their 'pagan beliefs' in favour of the Christian faith. Though harm was done, many Aboriginal people today have found a way of incorporating their understanding of Christianity into their Dreamtime cosmology in ways they experience as positive and complimentary. In some places it was accepted as 'whitefella Dreaming': 'God must have made the Spirit Ancestors because he made everything'.

SHAPESHIFTING   (80 x 100 cm)   £525

Personally I believe that non-Aboriginal people can learn a lot from the Dreamtime legacy - what we would call 'the wisdom of the earth'. We have lost as well as gained from the way the Western World has developed. There is a lot to learn about 'not possessing and controling nature', not oppressing indigenous people and cultural minorities and developing a whole new, more respectful and holistic, relationship with the planet we live on.

TRIBUTE TO THE MIMI SPIRITS!   (80 x 100 cm)   £545

MiMi figures are small stick-like spirits. They are said to live in bush and rock crevices in Arnhem Land in the very north of Australia. They are regarded as great artists because they like painting their portraits in red ochre on rocks! Mimi spirits are not Creator Beings, but they taught the ancestors of the present-day Gunwinggu tribe the art of painting. Mimi spirits can be enchanting creatures, but one must realise they can be malevolent as well as benevolent. As a painter I felt like painting a tribute to the Mimi spirits for giving human beings the art of painting!

All cultures have myths or religious beliefs about Creation. In Australia it is believed that Ancestor Spirits formed, named and breathed life and language into all that exists in the known Universe. This is the touchstone of all Aboriginal culture and religious practice. This divine inheritance is known as the Law. It is continuously being re-enacted in ceremonial activities. Aboriginal people recognise that they have a spark of their Spirit Ancestors within them and that they thus have an unbroken link to the Creation Epoch, known in English as 'The Dreamtime' or 'The Dreaming'. The dawn of today is essentially the Dawn of the Universe.

AB OVO   (80 x 100 cm)   £485

(Is Latin and means 'from the egg', i.e. from the beginning)

Aboriginal people believe that before the world came into existence, there was a mass of dark and formless matter, what the Ngarinyin people call ngallalla yawun, 'everything soft like jelly'. The Spirit Ancestors lay deep beneath the surface of the shapeless, nameless world and came forth as Rainbow Serpent Women, Kangaroo Men, Sisters from the Sky, Bush Fig Men, Mulga Seed Women, and so forth. These Spirit Ancestors became the prototypes of all creatures alive today and established a line of descendants for the human, plant and animal worlds.

ALCHERINGA: DREAMTIME   (SOLD)

Creator Serpent, Mother Of All Being

It can't be emphasized enough that the Dreamtime is not something that happened in the past. All time exists in the present moment. There is no 'thing' that is 'nothing'. Everything has its place in the divine order, from dung beetle or poisonous snake to human being. The Spirit Beings did not only make everything, but they also gave plants and animals their names and distinctive markings. They created the sacred teachings of the Dreaming: hunting, fire making, dancing, ceremonies, language etc. After the Dreamtime ancestors completed their tasks they returned once more to a state of slumber. They can change their shape and some disappeared back into the earth while others became distinct features of the landscape (sacred mountains, waterholes, markings on rocks and so forth). The fact that they are hidden from view does not mean that they are no longer alive, conscious and  powerful! In Aboriginal spiritual tradition the force of the Spirit Ancestor resides at their resting place and this spiritual power can be tapped through ritual by those who understand how to use this power. These are sacred sites and have profound significance for Aboriginal people.

The Rainbow Serpent

THE RAINBOW SERPENT    (80 x 100 cm)   £599

I started off by making just one painting of the Rainbow Serpent (whose name has always spoken to my imagination). But then companion paintings followed and this one painting became a group of paintings

THE CARPET SNAKE   (80 x 100 cm)   £525

Serpents of all kinds make a frequent appearance in Australian Aboriginal Mythology. There is the Rainbow Serpent, an archetypal Creator Being found among tribes inheriting the Central Desert. It represents fertility and the water element in nature.

Then there is the Carpet Snake, whose dreaming tracks stretch along the coast of Eastern Australia. It is believed that the so called 'Dreaming Tracks' in the Australian bush were carved out by the Carpet Snake as he moved around. Another believe is that Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a giant egg of the Rainbow Serpent!

These great snakes guard sacred places and punish those who defile them.

This painting shows The Carpet Snake and the Dreaming Tracks he leaves behind. Those Dreaming Tracks are labyrinths in essence, which is why these two paintings can be found in the Labyrinths Series as well. (Please click to see and read more!)

NGALYOD GIVING BIRTH    (80 x 100 cm)   £565

A third painting of the Rainbow Serpent shows Ngalyod giving birth. The 'Daughters of the Rainbow Serpent' are similar to the sirens of European mythology.They inhabit rivers and creeks. They are lovely but lethal! However feminine and enchanting they may look, they are alien and dangerous creatures. Woe betides a man who falls in love with one! Like Homer's sirens they lure men to their death with songs that weave a spell.

(This painting is not for sale: my six year old son has picked it out as his wedding present, "for when he is 25 and marries his girlfriend, of five years!, Olivia)

It is interesting to note that, like in Inuit mythology, marriages between different species never end well. They are not meant to be.

Grandmother Goddess

From beyond time,// beyond oak trees and bright clear water flow, // she was given the work of weaving the strands // of her body, her pain, her vision // into creation, and the gift of having created, to disappear

Paula Gunn Allen 'Grandmother' 

 IMBEROMBERA   (size?)   £399

Imberombera is the Great Mother, the All Mother. Sometimes she is referred to as Grandmother, because for Australian Aboriginal people to call someone 'old' or 'grandfather' is a sign of great respect. (Not an insult or put-down, as it can be in our culture)

Imberombera had a great stomach in which she carried many children. She wore a headband with yams hanging from it. She also carried a digging-stick. As she walked the country, she planted yams and left spirit children (i.e. souls of babies waiting to be born) in waterholes. She told her spirit children where to live and what languages to speak. These spirit children were seen as the ancestors of the different tribes who came to inherit and inhabit the land

An interesting detail is that it was believed that the Rainbow Serpent could take on different guises. And that Imberombera was one of her guises. For that reason my painting is 'framed' by the Rainbow Serpent appearing along the edges of the canvass

Another detail is that in the painting I have given Imberombera six fingers on both hands. It was believed that this was a sign of someone being 'not quite human', but an incarnation of the 'divine'. It is interesting to note that this same idea appears in Mesoamerica. Gods are depicted with six fingers as well.

TINGARI ANCESTOR   (80 x 100 cm)   £350

People in our culture don't grow up with the concept of shape (and even gender!) shifting. However, the Rainbow Serpent undergoes endless transformations. From vastly pregnant cosmic giant, to a blind woman, a man with daughters to an ordinary looking snake. The closest we get to understanding this is to think of the Greek God Zeus on Mount Olympus tranforming himself to chase and seduce mortal women. (He pursued Danae as a shower of gold, Europa as a bull, Leda as a swan and so forth. His shapeshifting was always for nefarious purposes!)

The Guloi Tree of Life

GULOI TREE   (80 x 100 cm)   £585

 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL TREE OF LIFE

The so called 'Guloi' tree is a native plum tree. This painting was inspired by rock art made by the Ngarinyin people. The single footprint at the very bottom has ten toes. It symbolises the track of an individual ready to journey along the pathway of knowledge. The foot is attached to the tree by several roots that symbolise family blood and family connections. Education comes from 'climbing the tree' and is represented by rings on the trunk. Rain descends from the sky onto the tree. This symbolises the arrival of monsoon rains, when lightning triggers the ripe fruit to swell and burst, then crack open and release new seed.

For the Ngarinyin people this is the Tree of Life that feeds everyone. It symbolises the responsibility they have to new life, their duty to set young people on the right pathway to tradition and wisdom.

To read more about Trees of Life, please click on Sacred Trees Series.

 JURTUS (detail)   (size?)   £295

Jurtus are tiny spirit children who descent to earth in raindrops, looking for a human mother. Similarly there are Wilmi: spirals of mist are seen as evidence of children to be born gliding along. People living on the coast believed that the spirits of unborn babies reside in shallow waters and coral reefs at low tide. There was a very general belief that spirits of children to be born resided in waterholes (see "Billabong" below).

A few words about motherhood. For an Aboriginal mother a birth that occurs today as a literal and personal experience, is also an archetypal event linked to the mythic birth of the world. In carrying out ascribed responsibilties to the land and all kin, Aboriginal peoples honour their connection with the ancestors and preserve their culture for future generations. The Rainbow Serpent is possibly the most significant Creator Being in Aboriginal mythology. She is associated with rocks and waterholes and is the Ancestor of all forms of life, the Mother Of All Being.

BILLABONG   (size?)   £399

Billabong is the Australian Aboriginal word for a waterhole. It was believed that billabongs (as well as freshwater lagoons and coral reefs) were places where the spirits of unborn babies lived. These are also the places where the souls of the dead will return. Here I have painted the billabong as a labyrinths surrounded by totemic spirits standing guard. The labyrinth shape is because birth, death and rebirth are all part of life's great journey. (This painting belongs to the LABYRINTHS & MAZES SERIES as well)

To emphase the cyclical nature of this process this painting does not have a proper top or bottom. It can be rotated and viewed in four different positions!

 "SWALLOWING & REGURGITATING"   (size?)   £399

THE RAINBOW SERPENT'S CYCLE OF REBIRTH

In contemporary Western cultures the word 'myth' has come to mean fantasy, lie or erroneous belief. This is a reversal of its original meaning. Myths were, and are, the spiritual beliefs underpinning religious practises of many world cultures.

 Last but not least I will post two paintings inspired by Australian Aboriginal languages! You can also find them on the LANGUAGE & MARK MAKING page along with many other concepts from world languages!

YUYURUNGUL (The sound of a snake sliding through the grass)  

(30x 30 cm)   £250

This is an Australian Aboriginal word. It illustrates the concept 'onomatopeia' (i.e. the way the word sounds expresses its meaning). If you say 'yuyurungul' in a hushed tone of voice repeatedly (as I do in talks about Art & Language) then you hear the snake gliding through the grass...

Australian Aboriginal people have been marginalised and treated extremely badly by the white European settlers. (See AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL SERIES). For that reason if felt important to include some Australian Aboriginal words in this series alongside words from other world languages. I like the fact that this word is about a snake, as the snake called the Rainbow Serpent' is one of the most important characters in Australian Aboriginal mythology.

ALCHIRANGA MITJINA (The timeless dimension of dreams)

(30 x 30 cm)   £250

 I hope that you have enjoyed this webpage, I am always keen to hear from people who share my interest in the aboriginal peoples of our world!

DAUGHTER OF A RIVER   (80 x 100 cm)   £545

Imelda Almqvist

(Last Updated August 2010)

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Wandjina Spirit Being

In the North Kimberley region of Western Australia the name Wandjina is given to the ancestral spirit beings of the Dreaming. They appear in famous cave paintings. These Spirit Ancestors wandered the earth in the Dreamtime Epoch. After engaging in many heroid deeds of Creation they transformed themselves into rock paintings.

They are broad-shouldered cloud-like figures - they remind a little of the way we picture angels - their heads are surrounded by radiating lines. They are associated with fertility and spirit children. Their power brings cyclones and monsoons to the Kimberley region.

They have no mouths. Some people say that the Rainbow Serpent sealed their lips. Others say that if mouths were painted on the figures it would rain forever...

Vesna Tenodi is the author of a book titled 'Dreamtime Set in Stone'. Based in Australia she has organised a Dream Raisers project. The link is www.modrogorje.com  Her initiative is about encouraging all of us to re-discover the spirituality of Australian Aboriginal peoples by connecting to spirit beings called Wanjinas. However, her project has triggered a great controversy and debate in Australia. Some people agree that breathing new life into the ancient sacred ways of indigenous peoples is our only option is our only forward in repairing our relationship with Gaia. Other people feel that she has no right to "steal" concepts from a cultural group she does not belong to. The debate rages. 

BIBLIOGRAPY

WISDOM FROM THE EARTH  The Living Legacy of the Aboriginal Dreamtime  Anna Voigt & Nevill Drury  Shambhala Publications  Australia  1997  ISBN 1-57062-325-2

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ART  Ronald M Berndt & Catherine H Berndt with John Stanton New Holland Publishers Pty Ltd Australia 1982  ISBN  1 87633 402 9

ABORIGINAL ART  Wally Caruana  Thames and Hudson  1993  ISBN 0-500-20264-8

THE RAINBOW SERPENT  Charles E Hulley  New Holland Publishers Pty Ltd  Australia 1999 ISBN  1 86436 532 3 

Australian Aboriginal, Dreamtime, The Dreaming, The Stolen Generations, Spirit Ancestors, Mimi Spirits, Creation Stories, The Dawn of the Universe, Cosmology, Rainbow Serpent, Spirit Beings, Sacred Sites, Carpet Snake, Dreaming Tracks, Labyrinths, Shapeshifting, Transforming, Daughters of the Rainbow Serpent, Sirens, Imberombera, Grandmother Goddess, The Great Mother, The All Mother, Spirit Children, Six Fingered Hands, Guloi Tree, Tree of Life, Jurtus, Wilmi, Billabong, Wandjina Spirit Beings

IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS