Australia's Twilight of a Dream Documentary (Spencer Mottley)

     In the documentary "Australia's Twilight of a Dream." The two main methods of Aboriginal painting 

were explored, these methods are rock painting, which can take place inside caves or on rock faces, and a

type of painting known as bark painting, where an artist first cuts a large sheet of bark from a tree

then cures the bark to make it suitable for painting, before painting a red background on the bark to make

the images stand out. The act of painting is a religious practice for the Aboriginal people and is said to

connect the artist to their mythic origin, which in Aboriginal culture is referred to as the Dreamtime, a

time when ancestral animals, such as giant Kangaroos, created the world. The artist paints these animals to

ensure they will continue to exist in abundance. Aboriginal people go to caves to worship their religion

and ask permission from the spirits to enter. This is similar to Western religious practices in the sense

many of us have communal places of worship like churches, synagogues, and mosques, and sometimes

(especially if you are a non-believer) you have to get permission to go inside the said holy site. A

difference between Aboriginal and Western religious practices are the fact religous mythology is only

passed on orally in aboringinal culture. Whereas in westeren religions, religious mythology is recorded in

texts such as the Bible, Torah, and Quran, and is often learned through reading such texts. Another

difference between Aboriginal and Western religious practices is the fact morden day aboringinal pepole

don't relate to their earliest paintings and actually paint on top of their old paintings. Whereas in many

western religions, old religious paintings, and murals are often still highly regarded in their original

form and in many cases undergo extensive preservation measures, to keep them in good

condition. While historically, painting played a large role in the maintenance of the aborigines' cosmos.

Unfortantly there has not been a major Aboriginal rock painting since the mid nineteen sixties. Since then,

the power of the Aborigines' Dreamtime has been diminishing. After watching this documentrey I was left

with questions and an answer to those questions. My first question was, why would an Aboriginal person

need to "mark their territory" with an oral prayer ritual before entering a cave? My answer to that question

is to let the spirits know they want to enter the cave, so the spirits can notify the person whether or not it is

ok to enter. My second question was why do aboringinal pepole (besides for cultural/religious reasons) 

take effort into ensuring animals such as kangaroos and crocodiles remain in the Australian landscape?

My answer to that question is that many of these animals provide an important food source to these people 

and without these animals present, the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle would cease to exist.