My Jucupa

Recently I watched a documentary named 'Art & Soul' by Hetti Perkins, which follows her to Aboringal communties deep into the center of Australia. She is infact a quortor from Sydney who because of her own Indigenous heritage has followed this cultural area and many of its successful artists. Hetti introduces the viewer Indigenous communities such as the Kintar community. The people within this group embrace their artistic abilities by creating large amounts of artworks and then selling them to ensure an income for their clan. A woman the stood out distinctively was Naata Nunjurayi, who like many other Indigenous women; only began to paint in the mid 1990's as at first it was a male dominant area. While she paints her large and very detailed pieces she sings the story that she is painting. This appeared very spiritual and made me consider how European cultures present their stories. We differ in many ways; painting technique, materials and subject matter. We lack the spiritual connection in our works. Their paintings are meant for generations to understand their heritage and the stories of the dreaming unlike our own. Although many early religious paintings did have some similarities in that they were telling stories of our own spiritual beleifs. Continuing on, Hetti took the viewer to view rock paintings and explained that many Indigenous artists continue to use ocre and charcoal on bark to create their pieces. This shows how they are still connected with the land, following on from the ancestors although our influence has changed their methods slightly. After viewing documentary I was told about a piece of information I had never heard of before. Each Indigenous person has a 'Jucupa'. It is a central notion to their culture and very important to their connection to the land. They recieve their  Jucupa at birth and could be anything including creates or a plant. That person is then born to preserve and maintain that particular thing. It made me think, what if we were all to have Jucupa's and then perhaps we would care for our earth a bit more? Personally I believe it would ground us. White society is a very fast paced society. We are constantly looking for ways to move forward. If we were to have a Jucupa then we might be a little more grounded and appreciative of the world around us. We wouldn't want to take so much from it.