Australian Aboriginal Art 2

Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2

In the second of our units on Australian Aboriginal art Kinder, year 1 and year 2 students can design a boomerang.  We’ll use Aboriginal symbols to decorate the boomerang and kids create a colourful artwork using their own design.  We also look at Australian Aboriginal totem animals. Aboriginal people have a totem animal chosen for them and they should resonate with the characteristics of that animal. Read about some of the Australian Animals and make a clay plaque of your chosen totem animal.

Students will draw on the elements of colour and shape, form, texture and contrast in the creation of these works. We will use a scratch art technique with paint and oil pastel on paper to make the boomerang artwork. We will also create and carve into a clay tile to make an animal totem artwork. A list of 15 Australian Animals and their characteristics is included in the animal plaque lesson plan. 

Grade 3 and Grade 4

We look at contemporary Aboriginal artist Brian Richardson from the Torres Strait Islands. He creates 3D artworks of vibrant coloured flowers. Students can create a painted paper collage artwork inspired by his series of works entitled, ‘Bloom’. 

X-ray art is a traditional form of painting from northern Australia, Arnhem Land. The X-ray style is used to depict local animals and Aboriginal stories. The paintings show some anatomical structure of the animal depicted. We explore this style of art with an x-ray fish painting on brown paper.

Grade 5 and Grade 6

In the 5-6 grade category, students will explore two artworks inspired by contemporary artist Malaluba Gumana and traditional artist Rover Thomas.

Malaluba Gumana is an Australian Aboriginal artist from northeast Arnhem Land. She often paints her mother’s clan designs including the waterlily. She uses a fine cross hatching technique that is painted with a fine hair brush, painted on bark.  In this project we look at leaf forms and choose one to create an oil pastel drawing inspired by her art.

Rover Thomas was born on the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. He is known for his ochre paintings of the Kimberley region and Dreaming subjects. Rover Thomas painted a number of map like artworks of the region with each work featuring sites of ancestral or historical significance. We create an aerial map view of where your students live inspired by the work of Rover Thomas.