In 1934 an Aboriginal man by the name of Albert saw an art exhibition being held at the Lutheran Mission of Hermannsburg, Central Australia. The exhibition was arranged by mission superintendent Pastor F.W. Albrecht and featured the works of traveling artists Rex Battarbee and John Gardner.
Over the two day exhibition more than 300 Aboriginal people attended. They stood bewildered and amazed at the sight of their tribal lands as portrayed by the European artists. The western style and outlook was unfamiliar. Instead Western Arrernte Aboriginal people interpreted their land topographically. Their art was symbolic. It consisted of totemic markings which represented storey, people and nature. These patterns were made up of wavy, parallel lines, semi and concentric circles. This visual language was written on sand, rock and sacred objects such as Tjurungas.
The exhibition fired Alberts imagination and interest in painting. He endeavored to learn the new craft. One that would bring him fame, but also despair, as an age-old race collided head on with the hypocrisies and rhetoric of western civilization.
The foundation of the Hermannsburg school turned the cottage industry of indigenous craft making into a vibrant art movement and provided a platform for the contemporary Aboriginal art market which thrives today, some 70 years later. This more recent movement owes its origins to the community of Papunya. It was here in 1971 that a school teacher by the name of Geoffrey Bardon introduced Aboriginal people to a new medium to transfer their symbolic sand drawings. Aboriginal art of all styles gives an insight into a highly evolved culture and ensures the passing on of knowledge for generations to come.
Alberts success encouraged a new generation of artists. Walter Ebatarinja was one of the first to take up painting. He was soon followed by the Pareroultja brothers and Alberts sons. In 1941 Rex Battarbee founded the Aranda Art Group. This group controlled the supply of materials and helped handle the business affairs of the emerging artists.
The Arrernte artists were inspired by the subjects story. How it came into being and its connection with the Dream Time. This inspiration gave their landscape works a unique dimension of narrative. In the best works by Otto Pareroultja trees were painted as ancestral beings with body like trunks & arm like branches. Works by Albert and other Hermannsburg artists also conveyed this spiritual connection with the land. One thing they shared was an intimate knowledge of the lands on which they had lived for thousands of years.
Some criticised the typical gum tree and landscape scene. This formulated approach became more common in later years when many artists were working from memory. Early works had been painted from subject which meant for more varied composition. Works with a gum were also more popular amongst buyers given their iconic status in the landscape. Not to mention Alberts extraordinary ability to capture it. Otto would paint the same sacred scene (Mt. Ziel) over and over, rippling with energy at the peak of his dreamings . The trees (Ancestors) would vary in form and intention, such was his creative ability. It is important to note that Ghost Gums are sacred and form an important part of Western Arrernte mythology.
All Hermannsburg watercolours portray distinct Aboriginal qualities. These include observation of detail, expressive colour palette and sensitive choice of subject. By adopting the western influence the Arrernte artists were sharing their unique view of the land and bridging the gap between both cultures.

The Western Arrernte People are an indigenous tribe of Central Australia. Their lands lie within the confines of the Macdonnell Ranges. An area characterized by rugged mountains, deep gorges and arid plains. It is some of the most spectacular country in Australia, but also the harshest, stricken by drought and temperatures in excess of 40 degrees. The Arrernte people prospered in these conditions by living as an organized community. One in which each member played an important role. Men used their remarkable tracking ability to hunt, women collected honey ants, prepared food and cared for the children. Tribal elders knew bush medicine and performed sacred ceremonies like corroborees. Necessities like food and water were shared equally throughout the group. C.P. Mountford writes in regard to traditional custom and tribal law, These laws have made them a happy people. Laughter is ever present amoung them. That is so even today, when the blight of our civilisation has fallen upon them and robbed them of their ancient hunting grounds, The Art of Albert Namatjira 1944.
Aboriginal spiritual beliefs are closely linked to nature. Dream time stories are passed on from generation to generation. They explain how ancestral beings shaped and formed the earth, how every landform, living thing or phenomenon came into being.
Considered by the European invaders to be primitive, the Arrernte people were a highly advanced race. Descendents of the first people to arrive in Australia over 40 thousand years ago, they lived culturally rich lives in peace and harmony. Their strictures emphasized the importance of living as a community. Ruled not by greed, power or ambition, their social structures were incorruptible. Respecting nature as a life source, Aboriginal people embraced a spiritual connection with the land.

The Finke River Mission (later known as the Hermannsburg Mission) was established in 1877 by Lutheran Missionaries Pastor Kemp and Schwarz. On October 23rd, 1875, the missionaries departed from the German settlement of Bethany in the Barossa Valley, north east of Adelaide, South Australia. Their journey into the arid centre of Australia would test the spirit and courage of the two men, Kempe writes, How gladly I would have preferred to relate only good news. Yes often our courage nearly fails us. Often I have been almost tempted to exclaim in the words of the prophet: It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am sick at heart. These words were written 500 miles north of Adelaide as the missionaries battled the elements and logistics of their journey. On Friday, June 8, 1977, afer 20 months and over 1,000 miles from their origin, the missionaries chose the site of Hermannsburg on the banks of the Finke river. They remained at the remote outpost for 13 long years, erecting several buildings including a church and school before abandoning the mission in 1891. Three years later, on Ocotber 8, 1894, Pastor Carl Strehlow arrived to find the settlement in state of degradation. Over the next few years, Strehlow worked tirelessly to improve conditions at the mission. A talented linguist, Strehlow did much research into Aboriginal cultural practices and was responsible for translating the Western Arrente language. In his 28 years service at the mission, Strehlow had gained not only the respect and admiration of his white pears but had also earned the title of Ingkata (chief) by the Aboriginal people who he had so passionately fought for. H.A. Heinrich took over temporarily in 1922 after Strehlows death until the appointment of Pastor F.W. Albrecht in 1926. Aboriginal people called this area Ntaria.
The missions goal was to provide Aboriginal people with religios instruction, white mans education, and employment. Its policy of working for rations encouraged adults to work on the Cattle run or in associated trades such as carpentry or leatherwork. In the late 1920s while holidaying in Adelaide, Pastor Albrecht saw for sale Aboriginal artefacts ornamented with tribal symbols. On his return to the mission he encouraged some of the men to carve and decorate weapons by burning designs into them with redhot fencing wire. The new venture proved successful and formed a base for the larger art movement which followed.
Having no permanent supply of water, the mission struggled in times of drought. Paticularily during the 1920s when a long drought ravaged Central Australia. The drought finally broke in 1929, by which time it had claimed many lives including 85percent of children. It was the impetus for a project to supply water to the mission. In 1934, after funds were raised in Melbourne, a pipeline was laid and water was pumped from Kaporilja Springs. This event was depicted on several boomerangs made by Albert.
The mission stands at the base of Mt. Hermannsburg, 125kms West of Alice Springs. Its name originates from a town in Germany where the missionaries had trained. The Lutherans handed the mission back the the Arrernte people in 1982. Today it is a popular stop for tourists who marvel at the historic 19th century buildings and revel in its rich artistic history.

Rex Battarbee grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria. As a young man he joined the Army and fought in the First World War where he was seriously wounded and left on the battlefield for two days before being rescued. After spending four years recovering from his injuries he took up painting.
In 1932 Battarbee set off on a motoring trip to Central Australia with friend and fellow artist John Gardner. Traveling in a Model T Ford, adapted as a caravan, the two artists headed for Hermannsburg. At the mission they met with missionaries and many local Aboriginal people before making the long trip home. Two years later Battarbee and Gardner returned. After painting in the surrounding area for four months Pastor F.W.Albrecht arranged to hold an exhibition of their work. Albrecht accepts Battarbees invitation: Prior to their return to Victoria, Battarbee called and, in gratitude for what we had done for them, invited us to view their paintings. Of course we would like to see your work, I said, but why us only, why not the Aboriginals as well? Both men gladly consented, and the following Saturday the seats were removed from the old school house and the room was turned into an art gallery. Over the two day exhibition more than three hundred Arrernte people attended, including Albert. On his return to Melbourne Battarbee won the 1934 Centenary Prize for one of his Central Australian landscapes. He returned unaccompanied to the mission in 1936, giving Albert his first lessons in watercolour painting.
As chairman of the Aranda Arts Council, Battarbee played an instrumental role in handling the affairs of the artists. In the early 1950s he held numerous exhibitions at his home in Alice Springs and acted as Alberts agent until 1956. Battarbee later opened his own gallery from where he continued to support the movement. By introducing the Western Arrernte people to a new style and medium he played an instrumental role in taking Aboriginal art to the world.

One can only wonder how it must have felt to be living in such a landscape? Alive with mythological beings embroiled in titanic battles and love stories, played out since the beginning of time. Stories which define your very existence and relationship with the world.
The best Hermannsburg watercolour paintings portray this surreal world of Aboriginal Mythology. They are not symbolic, rather a present viewpoint of a mythologically based world of Ancestral beings & spirits. Direct representations of how the landscape & its creation looked through the eyes of an Aboriginal tribesman.
C.P. Montford writes, For untold generations Alberts forefathers had roamed in this distinctive country, a country made alive to them by the creation stories that tell of the time when their progenitors, large and immensely powerful, raised the steep-sided hills, formed the mighty gorges, and caused the river-valleys and water-holes to come into being. Each family had its own land, sufficient for its needs. It was theirs not by conquest, nor by purchase, but by inheritance through countless generations. To them the land, with its legends, songs, ceremonies and associations, is an integral part of their life, and visible evidence of the truth of their philosophy and their beliefs. It is the place that links the people of the present, through a maze of myth and legend, to their strange unearthly progenitors of the ghostly past.
The creation myths bellow give us an insight into Aboriginal mythology and the stories which inspired their art. We may never be able to fully interpret these paintings,such is the secret unknown of Western Arrernte mythology. A lack of knowledge may guard their secrets, but perhaps will continue their mysterious beauty.

The Story of The Monoliths of Palm Paddock (The Art of Albert Namatjira, C.P. Mountford)

These monoliths are the metamorphised bodies of a euro man and his two sons; that on the left, the father, and on the right, his sons. In the creation or Dreaming Stories, these mythical Euro people made their camp at this place, so that they could catch kangaroos for their evening meal. All the incidents of the hunt are commemorated in the various natural features of the locality, at one place a large isolated rock represents a heap of edible meat, at another are low rounded hills that grew out of the skin and bones that were thrown away, and still another a shallow depression in the plain, where the kangaroo was cooked.

The Story of Mt Ziel (Related by Wenten Rubuntja)

Mount Zeil is called Urlatherrke - ayeparenye caterpillar. That hill is all the little ayeparenye caterpillars. Everybody used to go there and worship, and the women used to dance to make the children grow up quickly just like the little ayeparenye caterpillars do.

The Old-man and his Six Sons, the Namatuna

The following story has been transcribed by Roland Robinson (The Feathered Serpent, 1956) while researching Aboriginal Mythology in Central Australia 1954. This particular story was related to him by Tonanga (Albert Namatjira) note. The Namatuna (also known as a bull raorer) is an object whirled traditionally on a string of human hair in corroboree ceremony.
Forward by Roland Robinson
The theme of this myth is obviously that of the creation and distribution of native population by a wandering ancestor. As in the northern myths, the significance of the dilly bag as a mother or womb in the possession of this ancestor is clearly revealed. Graphically illustrated too is the magical power and meaning of the six stone namatuna, contained in the dilly bag, which repeatedly become the ancestors six sons. The stone tjurunga of the ancestor contains the indestructible spirit of this individual.

An OLD MAN started out from a cave in a hill at Merina, which the white man calls Haasts Bluff. He carried a big tjurunga with him, and he carried a spear and a woomerah. Six namatuna, who were his sons, he carried a dilly bag round his neck. If the old man wanted meat, he sent his six sons out to get it for him. He would take the namatuna out of his dilly bag, rub some goanna-fat on them, and the namatuna would stand up as six men, his sons. The old man would give each of his sons a spear and a womerah and his sons would go out hunting.
Those six sons did not eat meat. They fed only from a vein on the old mans arm. The old man would open a vein in his arm, fill up a womerah with his blood, and the six sons would eat from the blood in the womerah.
The old-man came close up to a big camp. He stopped and took the six namatuna out of his dilly bag and sent them out hunting. Those six sons had to come back to the old man just after sundown. The old man went into the camp and sat downand made a big smoke. Some women came up to the old-man and said to him: Hey, old man why do you make this big smoke? The old man told the women to make six camps for his sons. He told them that he had six sons to give them in marriage that night.
Just after sundown the six men came into the old mans camp. They brought backwith them kangaroo and emu, euro and printi, and put the meat down in six different heaps near the smoke. The six sons sat down in the smoke in the camp of the camp of the old-man. The old man called up the six women and told them that they must each take one of his sons in marriage. The old man did not sleep near the six men and women. He made his camp a little bit away from them. Early in the morning the old-man got up from his camp. He came up to his sons who were still sleeping with the six women. From the hair on the head of each man he pulled out the namatuna and put each one back in his dilly bag.
When the women woke up, the men were gone. Each women looked about the camp for the man who had been given to her. The men were nowhere in the camp. The old man had travelled away with the six namatuna and put each one back in his dilly bag.
The old man came to another camp. He took the six namatuna out of his dilly bag and sent them out hunting. The old-man came into the camp and made a big smoke again. He told the women in the camp to clear and clean the sand all round where he was making the smoke. The women asked him: Why do you want to clean this sand? Clean that sand said the old man. I have six sons to give to each of you in marriage tonight.
The women made the sand clean and after sunndown the six men came back from their hunting and sat down in the smoke. To each of the women the old man gave one of his sons. The old man went a little way off and made a camp by himself. In the night the old-man got up and took the namatuna out of the hair of the six sleeping sons and put them in his dilly bag. Then he hung the dilly bag up in a tree near his camp.
Early in the morning the old man started away with the dilly bag. The women woke up and found the six men gone. They looked about for tracks of the men but could not find any. They asked one another: Where are those men who were given to us for our husbands last night? The six women found the tracks of the old man and followed after him. When the women caught up with the old-man they asked him: Where are your six sons, old-man? The old man talked another way.