The Unsettled Business of Tradition, Indigenous Being, and Acrylic Painting By Fred Myers

Myers focuses on the Pintupi-speaking people of the Yayayi community in Australia in this article. He approaches questions of aboriginality amongst them. What makes something or someone “Aboriginal”? What are the boundaries of Aboriginality? In fourth world communities such as the one Myers focuses on, tradition has been used to divide the Aboriginal people, by empowering some over others. In particular, Myers focuses on the acrylic paintings of the Aboriginals and the role they play in their traditional societies. Although acrylic paintings have been called nontraditional by some, “…Aboriginal producers do regard acrylic paintings as authentic”.
Linda Syddick, a Pintupi woman, creates Aboriginal Christian paintings through the use of dots. Her paintings do not fall neatly into any aesthetic categories, but rather signify that her tradition is always unsettled. They both show their relationship to local Aboriginal identities and also engage with wider themes of loss and disturbance. Syddick was adopted by Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi when her biological father passed away. Her paintings depict both her feelings of her biological father and of Shorty’s care for her. As Myers states, these images were seen as “artistic communication” and as evidence of the way in which place and its representations might convey significance for Pintupi (pg.187).” Her paintings were therefore creating universal images of loss and passing, as well as specific cultural relevances.