…first settled by maritime peoples roughly 50,000 years ago, Australia’s aboriginal peoples still practice one of the world’s oldest continuous artistic traditions. Australian rock art is some of the most spectacular in the world.
UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Pre 500 BCE
Today these ancient artistic traditions live on in a variety of media and motifs, including the polychrome bark paintings of Arnhem Land—imbued with both myth and mystery. For many years, the traditional arts of the Australian Aboriginal people were of interest primarily as anthropological or ethnographic curiosities.
australia
How far back?
Point in Timeline | Pre 500 BCE
25%
2020 | Present
