Australian pigments mined from the earth gave Aboriginal artists their original palette of colours created by the iron content in the soils. Much of the central and northern landscape is dominated by the red earth that is the result of the oxidised iron content in the soil. When found in soft porous form the ochres could be broken and crushed to produce pigments that were easy to use for painting , for body decoration, and for colouring artefacts and fibres used for decoration.
The colours available in ochre form varied from deep purple reds to red-browns, orange-reds, pinks and yellows. Ochres that were sourced as yellows could be heated in the fire to turn to a darker orange tone. Colours were traded across the Australian continent, and highly prized deep reds were moved along trade routes across the Central desert. The ochres were associated with ceremonies where the dancers marked symbolic designs on their bodies to identify clan groups and totems.
The ochre colours were complemented by the use of white from calcium based pipe clay and black from ground charcoal, both these colours being part of the original traditional colour palette but not from an ochre base.
Communities in the north of Australia continue to use the ochre colours in their artwork, most notably from the Kimberley – Warmun, Mowanjum, Kalumburu – and from Arnhem Land – Oenpelli, Maningrida, Yirrkala, Tiwi Islands and other coastal communities. The colours have a warm earthy tone and carry the texture of the earth, as well as being capable of being used for very fine line work by skilled artists. Contemporary artists use ochre on canvas, paper and bark and the styles vary greatly according to the region and culture where the artists reside.
