Aboriginal Art Sale from the Central Australian Desert  View more

Footprints

In Most Paintings The Artist Will Depict The Subjects As Seen From An Aerial View. They Are Shown As Indentations Left In The Ground.

All Tracks Represent Either Ancestral Travels Or Recent Travels And Events That Have Taken Place Within The Artists Country.

There Are Many Different Icons Representing All Beings That Live In The Central Desert. This Icon Represents A Human.

Footprints In Paintings Represent Either Male Or Female Aboriginals. They Show A Person Traveling Through Their Country, Hunting Or At Initiation Ceremonies Or Ancestral Travels Across The Artists Country.

As Described By Janet Long Nakamarra

In The Old Days People From Another Family Would Travel Back To See Their Families. They Would Travel By Foot. Sometimes They Wouldn’T Know Their Way. So What They Would Do Is Make A Big Bush Fire So The Family Could See The Smoke In The Distance And Would Let Them Know Some Family Was Lost.

They Wouldn’T Know Who They Are. So They Go And Look For Them. They Could Come To Where They Spent The Night. They Couldn’T Tell Whose Family They Were. Then They Would Follow The Tracks Until They Recognized Their Footprint Of The Lost Family. They Would Then Follow Their Tracks And Find Them.