Hunting Dreaming

"Hunting Dreaming", Letty Nakanarra, before 1990

The Aranda people of northern Australia have a long tradition of mythology and spirituality which focuses upon the landscape of their homeland and the Dreamtime; a period that had a beginning but has no foreseeable end, in which the actions of mythic beings shaped and humanized the natural environment. Stories of Dreamtime have been passed down through generations through songs, and through symbolic paintings, like this one. Hunting Dreaming depicts women and men working together to collect food. The four U-shaped figures in the center are women digging for grubs beneath a witchetty bush (the large circle), while the men (the U-shapes in the corners) hunt for large lizards with their shields, spears, and boomerangs (seen in other corners). Both groups are placing the food they find in the canoe-shaped coolamon (carrying vessels) beside them. The other shapes around them depict the environment in which they are living.