Since, 2003, Stella’s Gallery is proudly showcasing authentic Australian aboriginal artwork from several indigenous artists. Our artwork gallery showcases contemporary and traditional aboriginal artwork of Australia for sale in Penrith. Our collection of indigenous art is sourced from various native Australian villages. We are one of the reputed aboriginal art galleries in Penrith offering indigenous Australian artwork to art lovers.
We have become a launching platform for indigenous artists in Australia. While being working in this field for 16 years, we provide high quality and genuine aboriginal artwork at the best rates. Our artists who are working in our gallery have a diverse knowledge of indigenous style and they are well versed in their own unique culture.
Each of our Australian artwork has a particular aboriginal theme, so you can get various Aboriginal art for sale depicting Australian culture and landmarks.
Our gallery also has an in-house studio where the indigenous artists perform the framing of the artwork. We provide some distinctive range of artwork by recognizable and experienced aboriginal artists.
Stockroom collection- Our stockroom collection is the cross-section of aboriginal paintings which are placed in contrasts and comparisons
Collector’s Gallery- this gallery depicts paintings from the great aboriginal artists who have an interest in collecting aboriginal artwork
Large aboriginal paintings– this artwork is best for large spaces where the frame ranges from 2m to 3 m in width
Aboriginal landscape art- This collection of art that defines and extends the diversity of landscape painting from native Australia
Aboriginal artifacts- This collection involves paintings that are hand-carved and authentic. It involves hunting tools, bark paintings, weapons, and carvings.
To buy indigenous artwork online, consult with our art specialists now!
Stolen Generation means a person of aboriginal descent who was taken from their families under past assimilationist policies as a ward of the state, adopted or separated under duress, forced or otherwise removed and alienated from their family, community and country. Those Aboriginal people fostered, adopted or institutionalized and their intergenerational family members are deemed as ‘Stolen Generations’. These Poetry from the Stolen Generation Marie Melito
Dedication -Koori Women by Ann Marie Melito
We are koori Women
Our people roam this land
And as you walk among us
You will begin to understand
The rhythm of our spirits
Spiral sacredly to the stars
We watch over our people
Help keeping the dreams alive
We see the elders smiling
When our hearts are strong and free
We hear the voices calling us
Spiritual women are we
We are of this land
Creating as we grow
Ancient the knowledge
That our people know
Singing in our hearts
Are our people songs
We hear our people calling
Our sprits standing strong
We are Koori Women
Our people roam this land
Or blood that is so ancient
Were proud to be Koori women
Where is My Mother by Ann Marie Melito
I grew up as a White person
But no one knows the pain
Hidden from my family, whom I waited for in vain
Mother, Oh! Mother where could you be?
I remember your tears when they came for me
I was put in a place called a Whitefellas school
They called me names and treated me cruel
I knew what they taught me wasn’t quite true
So, I’d close my eyes and dream about you
I remembered the things that you had taught me
And longed for my spirit to roam free
I know you are out there with memories gone past
And the days grow into years so terribly fast
Mother, Oh! Mother where ever you may be
I still hold the love that you gave tome
No one knows the pain hidden inside
Nor witnessed the millions of tears that I cried
Indigenous Australian Art to the mid-1970s
At the time of European arrival, Australia was home to the visual traditions of over 250 different Indigenous peoples. Queensland’s varied geography fostered a great diversity of cultural material. The Gallery is committed to developing its holdings of early Indigenous Australian art and objects to better represent the many visual traditions of Indigenous Australia and to present the art histories of Queensland’s Indigenous communities in all their rich variety.
The earliest painting in the Indigenous Australian art collection is Corroboree by William Barak, the Wurundjeri artist and social activist from Victoria, which dates from the 1880s. The Gallery’s first acquisition of an Indigenous Australian artist’s work, in 1947, was the watercolour Western MacDonnells c.1945 by Western Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira. East Cape York artist Joe Rootsey is well-represented with his unique watercolours of north Queensland and south-east Queensland from the 1950s and 1960s, and a selection of 1960s bark paintings from Hopevale enriches holdings from this period.
A significant group of bark paintings, including works from the 1948 American Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, include a monumental collaborative work, Yalangbara c.1960, by eight senior ceremonial leaders and artists from north-east Arnhem Land; and a group from Wadeye (Port Keats) in remote Northern Territory, produced in the 1950s and 1960s. These include Nym Banduk’s significant Ngakumarl painting (Murrinhpatha totemic landscape) c.1959–60.
Aboriginal culture dates back as far as between 60,000 to 80,000 years. This is when Aborigine’s first settled in Australia. The first evidence of Aboriginal ethos or philosophy is evident in the still visible rock art which dates back more than 20,000 years.
Ochres were used to paint on rocks. Archaeologists have been able to date remains and findings as far back as 40,000 to 60,000 years from discoveries of primal campsites.
There is no written language for Australian Aboriginal People so in order to convey their important cultural stories through the generations it is portrayed by symbols/icons through their artwork.
It is imperative to pass on information to preserve their culture. Indigenous art is centered on story telling. It is used as a chronical to convey knowledge of the land, events and beliefs of the Aboriginal people.
The use of symbols is an alternate way to writing down stories of cultural significance, teaching survival and use of the land. The interpretations of the iconography differ depending on the audience.
When being told to children it would take on a simpler form highlighting the educational and behavioural aspect. There can be a combination of information and moral teachings behind the story. The children are taught right from wrong and the consequences of good and bad behaviour.
The stories, however would be interpreted at a very different and higher level form when teaching to initiated elders.
Although Australian Aboriginals have been using ochres as body paint, on bark and rocks for tens of thousands of years it was not until the 1930’s that the first paintings were done.
These were not done in ochre or in dot art but in water colour at the Hermannsburg mission near Alice Springs.
They illustrated desert landscapes. The first exhibition was in 1937 by the most famous of the first aboriginal watercolour painters, Albert Namatjira. His exhibition was held in Adelaide.
Up until the early 1970s artists mainly used watercolours. Ochre and bark paintings were starting to become available to non-indigenous admirers and at Ernabella mission in 1948 an art and craft centre was founded.
Traditionally paintings by Aboriginals were drawn on rock walls, ceremonial articles, as body paint and most significantly drawn in dirt or sand together with songs or stories. Artwork we see today on canvas and board commenced merely 50 years ago.
In 1971, a school teacher named Geoffrey Bardon was working with Aboriginal children in Papunya, near Alice Springs. He noticed whilst the Aboriginal men were telling stories they would draw symbols in the sand.
He encouraged them to paint the stories onto canvas and board. This began the famous Aboriginal art movement. It was a major jump for indigenous people to start painting their stories onto western facades which was a very foreign concept to them.
Since then Australian Aboriginal Art has been identified as the most exciting contemporary art form of the 20th Century. Aboriginal Artists need permission to paint particular stories.
They inherit the rights to these stories which are passed down through generations within certain skin groups. An Aboriginal artist cannot paint a story that does not belong to them through family.
Creation Law is the heart of Aboriginal culture and consequently for Aboriginal art. It sets down the Dreaming which provides the identity for Aboriginal people and their association or link to the land.
Dreamtime or Jukurrpa and Tingari (the term varies according to their particular local language) is the translation of the Creation of time for the Aboriginal People. Most Aboriginal Artists paint facets of their Dreaming which forms a share of their inheritance and identity.
Range of styles
Rock painting
Rock engravings
Papunya art – Papunya art consists of various paint colours like yellow (representing the sun), brown (the soil), red (desert sand) and white (the clouds and the sky). These are traditional Aboriginal colours. Papunya paintings can be painted on anything though traditionally they were painted on rocks, in caves, etc. The paintings were mostly images of animals or lakes, and the Dreamtime. Stories and legends were depicted on caves and rocks to represent the artists’ religion and beliefs.
Stone arrangementsWood carvings (Punu) – Wood carving has always been an essential part of aboriginal culture, requiring wood, sharp stone to carve, wire and fire. The wire and fire were used to create patterns on the object by heating the wire with the fire and placing it on the wood carving.Textiles
The Araluen Cultural Precinct provides visitors with the opportunity to engage with world-class visual and performing art, discover the local identities that helped shape and develop Alice Springs, immerse themselves in the culture and heritage of Central Australia and learn about Indigenous dreaming and their connection to the land.
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