Maruku Dot Painting workshop

The history of Aboriginal dot painting, a deceptively simple art, is quite fascinating. Before the 1970s, the preferred mediums for these drawings were smoothed-over sand and bare skin. In an attempt to eternalise the ephemeral, art teacher Geoffrey Barden encouraged Indigenous students to apply their technique to canvas. However, this created a certain problem. Tribes used their drawings to pass down sacred knowledge which they didn’t want to reveal to others. So dots and wiggly lines were used to encrypt the meaning of each painting. Learn more about this sacred Indigenous art by signing up for a 1.5 hour Maruku Dot Painting workshop.