The Dreamtime Book

by Charles P. Mountford (Text), Ainslie Roberts (Paintings)

Eighty-two author-selected Aboriginal myths of the Dreamtime, with accompanying paintings; from the Mountford/Roberts books The Dreamtime (1965), The Dawn of Time (1969) and The First Sunrise (1971). Includes three new myth/painting entries and new black and white drawings.

Three page Introduction by Mountford, THE DREAMTIME.

Large format book (14x11 5/8 in, 35.6x29.5 cm), heavy stock paper, full-color reproductions of Roberts paintings.

Genres: Art

175 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Charles Pearcy "Monty" Mountford OBE was an Australian anthropologist and photographer. He is known for his pioneering work on Indigenous Australians and his depictions and descriptions of their art. He also led the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land.

Mountford's written works, along with those by contemporaries, foreshadowed subsequent scholarly investigations like T.G.H. Strehlow's Journey to Horseshoe Bend (1969) and iconic late-20th-century works such as Stephen Muecke, Krim Benterrak, and Paddy Roe's Reading the Country: Introduction to Nomadology (1984).

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

”No Australian artist has painted like this; he has followed no school – he has copied no previous artist."
Charles Mountford




Koolulla and the Two Sisters Ainslee Roberts
400mm x 670mm
from www.ainslierobertsprints.com/, a website run by Ainslee Roberts’ son Rhys



AINSLEE ROBERTS




Ainslee Roberts (1911 – 1993) was an Australian painter, photographer, and commercial artist, best known for his for interpretations of Aboriginal legends in his Dreamtime books, written in collaboration with Charles Mountford. This section of the Wiki article on Roberts recounts the relation between the two men; in the following section the emergence of Roberts as an artist is addressed. Roberts is also quoted describing his role as "a communicator… a white man painting in a white man's way and trying, visually, to show the white people of Australia that this fascinating land they live in has a rich and ancient cultural heritage that they should be aware of and respect".

One of Ainslie's lithographs of Gwoya Jungarai was the inspiration for the design of the reverse side of the Australian 2 dollar coin.





CHARLES P. MOUNTFORD




Charles P. Mountford (1890 – 1976) was an Australian anthropologist and photographer, known for his pioneering work on indigenous Australians and his depictions and descriptions of their art. As a younger man Mountford developed an interest in Aboriginal art and became something of a self-taught anthropologist who led several expeditions into different parts of the bush to study aboriginal peoples and rock drawings. He did receive University degrees from St John's College, Cambridge and the University of Adelaide when he was much older. There’s a detailed article on Mountford in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.


THE DREAMTIME BOOK

The book was the final collaboration between Ainslee Roberts and Charles P. Mountford.

The 1973 edition I have is a collection of material from the Mountford/Roberts books The Dreamtime (1965), The Dawn of Time (1969) and The First Sunrise (1971). There’s a three page Introduction by Mountford, THE DREAMTIME.

The book consists of 82 entries, each on facing pages. On the left hand page is Mountford’s description of an Aboriginal myth, integrated with an associated drawing by Roberts.

[All remaining illustrations are hosted on Flickr – click once; click again; move mouse over expanded picture]



the pages of the book are 14x11 5/8 in.


On the facing page is the full color reproduction of the painting by Roberts which he created to illustrate the myth. The size and provenance of the painting is indicated.



HERITAGE OF THE BLACK SWANS
27x36 in.




Roberts’ paintings are fun to copy.



amateur’s effort, 16x20 in.



I’ll quote the text for this.

In the days of the Dreamtime all swans were white. During that time, two swans rested on a lagoon, unaware that it belonged to the eagle-hawks. The eagle-hawks resented this intrusion, and savagely attacked the swans. Then they picked them up in their sharp, strong claws, and flew with them far to the south. Even while the swans were being carried away to this strange new land other eagle-hawks tore at their wounded bodies, plucking out still more feathers. Finally, the swans were dropped on the rocks of a stony desert.

There, naked and almost dead, the swans heard the call of the black mountain-crows. They looked up and saw hundreds of them; either on the wing or struggling for places on the few branches of the desert trees. “The eagles are our enemies too”, the crows called out, in their strange, croaking voices. “But we won’t let you die. We will send down on the breeze some of our feathers to keep you warm, and when you feel strong enough they will help you to fly again.” The torn-out white feathers of the wounded swans, taking root between the rocks on which they fell, grew into the dainty flannel flowers of the eastern Australian coast, and the blood of the birds was transformed into the blossoms of the scarlet heath. And ever since that day all Australian swans, except for a few white feathers on their wings, have feathers as black as the crows which clad their nakedness and helped them to fly again.

WITANA AND THE OCHRES
36x36 in.

The giant Witana cuts his arms to decorate youths in an initiation rite. Blood from one created the red ochre pigment used by the Aboriginals, the other arm’s flow produced a black pigment.




TIRLTA AND THE FLOWERS OF BLOOD
27x36 in.

A violent myth about how the Flowers of Blood (Sturt’s Desert Peas) came to be.




THE WATERS OF NIRGO
36x27 in.

Complicated myth, involving a spring of water at a place called Nirgo; medicine-men; dingo-hunters; a broken pledge by a selfish hunter; and a dingo pack’s revenge on the hunter, who paid with his life, and left red boulders scattered about from his blood.



Summary

Roberts exhibited his first 21 works at the Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide on 1 October 1963. Mountford opened the exhibition with the remark quoted above - No Australian artist has painted like this; he has followed no school – he has copied no previous artist.

Mountford’s description of Robert’s art rings true to me. I’ve never seen art of a style like this before, though it may have preceded by many decades certain types of contemporary art. Some of the more creative comic book artists, perhaps? At any rate, Roberts’ depiction of the Aboriginal myths has nothing in common with traditional art produced by the native Australians. Nor does the limited sample of contemporary native Australian art, that I am aware of, bear any resemblance to Roberts’ art. ... sui generis

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells several brief, one-page myths; paintings by Ainslie Roberts, on the opposite page, illustrate each myth. Black-and-white drawings appear on most pages with text, too. A few of the myths suffer from being shortened, but all are well-told. My biggest criticism is that few tell which aboriginal group each myth comes from, nor are there any references to sources or further reading. However, the book is at least as much an art book. Robert's art is excellent, and the myths and art together combine perfectly.

[Paul Baldowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful imagery and interesting tales of myth.

Some of the tales are told and retold, notably that of the sun and moon, without much variation. Reading this has definitely raised my interest in digging deeper into these myths, of creation, fire and the many squabbles and loves of the animal-folk before humankind.

The full page art is gorgeous.

[Kellie Broun · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great relearning the myths i was bought up with. Unfortunately some mostly shortened, though the paintings were beautiful and depicted the traditional stories well