Mountford expedition

 After the last war, in 1948, Australia decided to learn something about the country they fought such a fierce war about. An expedition was sent to Arnhem Land, thus far hardly known part of the country. It was led by Charles Mountford. During the expedition paintings on bark were collected. Those paintings show what Aborignal bark paintings were like before trade in them started.

Later missionaries were bying bark paintings and reselling then in the cities of the coast. They paid the artists according to the time spent on painting. So it paid (literally) to spend as much time as possible painting it. Which is why later paintings have a multitude of little strokes, but the ones gathered earlier seem to be much simpler.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

 In the settlement of Utopia native children went to school, taken there by their mums or grannies. While the children were at school, their mums (or grannies) waited for them under a tree in front of the school. So it was decided to give those mums something to do. Paint for example. The mums painted, exhibitions were made, they (the exhibitions) toured coastal cities and were immediate success.

One of those ladies was Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She started painting in her seventies, before she only painted designs on bodies. Nevertheless she became the best know Australian artist of them all. She even exhibited at the Biennale in Venice.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Papunya Tula

 Papunya is the place where all the nomads from the inhospitable western desert of Australia were resettled. In the 1950s the British wanted to try out their atomic bomb in the western desert, they didn't want to drop it on somebody's head, so when it was discovered that some people lived there, they were restettled. In Papunya it was discovered that these people were born artists. So far their medium was coloured sands with which the earth was prepared for a corroboree, but in 1970s some of them started painting on boards and canvasses. They formed a school which was called Papunya Tula. They became so popular that in time they sold their work for thousands of dollars. Which meant prosperity for the tribe, because any money was divided among relatives.

Of course this could happen because at the time in Europe abstract paintings were considered art. A mere 100 years earlier none of those natives would be considered an artist. 

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

School of Hermannsburg

 A mission of Hermannsburg lies in the middle of Australia. An inhospitable place, but at the same time very pretty. Which is why when a painter Rex Butterbee arrived there, he painted landscapes. He even had an exhibition in the very Hermannsburg where he painted. The Aborigines who lived in the mission could see it. One of the Aborigines showed more than a passing interest. In fact he asked Rex Batterbee whether he could teach him how to paint similar landscapes. Butterbee agreed and it turned out that his disciple, Albert Namatjira, became more famous than the teacher (though I guess this was probably because Alber Namatjira was an Aborigine, unlike Rex Butterbee). He became famous, so his pictures became sought after, so he earned quite a few bob. So he taught his children how to paint similar landscapes, thus School of Hermannsburg was formed.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Shimenawa

Another sign in Japanese Shinto shrines that something may be holy is shimenawa, a rope of rice straw, often tapered. Also sacred trees are marked with straw rope.

Gohei

 In Japan in Shinto shrines one can see paper strips folded in zigzags. This is a gohei, a sign that there is a “body of god”, or shintai, in the shrine. In Shinto they have a transfiguration ceremony, similar to a Catholic one. During this ceremony an object becomes a “body of god”, and after this it is shut in the shrine and never shown to the public. This paper zigzag is a sign that there is a “body of god” in the sanctuary. It is a bit like a sanctuary lamp in a Catholic church.