Art, craft, music and dress
Art in indigenous societies is rarely decoration alone. You will learn what designs can mean, meet well-known traditions from each continent, and understand the debate over who may use them.
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In many indigenous societies there is no separate word for art. A woven cloth, a carved post, a song or a painted body is made for a purpose: to mark who someone is, to honour an ancestor, to tell a history or to carry out a rite. The beauty is real, and it serves the meaning. Designs often belong to a family or clan, and using them is a right, not a free choice.
Painting
Several Indian tribal painting styles are now known across the world. Warli painting, from the Warli people of Maharashtra, uses white rice paste on mud walls to show scenes of farming, dancing and marriage with figures built from circles and triangles. Gond painting, from central India, fills animals and trees with fine patterns of dots and lines. Both moved from house walls to paper and canvas in the late twentieth century.
Carving and metalwork
The totem poles of the north-west coast of North America, carved by peoples such as the Haida, Tlingit and Kwakwaka'wakw, display the crests and histories of families. They are not idols and are not worshipped. Māori carving, called whakairo, covers meeting houses with figures of ancestors. In central and eastern India, dhokra craftspeople cast brass figures by the lost-wax method, an ancient technique in which a wax model is melted out of a clay mould.
Textiles and beadwork
- Andean weavers produce cloth whose patterns can identify a weaver's home community.
- Naga shawls in north-east India traditionally signalled the wearer's tribe, clan and achievements.
- Toda women of the Nilgiri hills embroider red and black patterns on white cloth.
- Guna women in Panama sew molas, panels of layered and cut cloth worn on blouses.
- Maasai and Samburu beadwork uses colour and pattern to show age and marital status.
- Diné, or Navajo, weavers are known for wool rugs and blankets with strong geometric designs.
Marks on the body
Tattoo, scarification and body paint record identity directly on the skin. The Māori facial tattoo, tā moko, is unique to each wearer and tells of descent and standing. Himba women in Namibia cover their skin and hair with otjize, a paste of butterfat and red ochre. Many traditions of tattooing that missions and governments once discouraged, including those of Naga, Inuit and Polynesian peoples, are being taken up again.
Music and dance
Music is often the main carrier of history and prayer. The didgeridoo, a long wooden drone pipe, comes from northern Australia, where the Yolngu call it yidaki. Sámi singers perform the joik, a vocal form that evokes a person, animal or place. Inuit women perform throat singing as a friendly contest between two singers. Tuvan singers in southern Siberia produce two notes at once.
Dance carries equal weight. The Māori haka is a group performance of chant and movement used to welcome, to challenge and to mourn. It is known worldwide through New Zealand's rugby teams. In central India, communities dance the Karma in a ring around a sacred branch. At powwows in North America, dancers from many nations gather to compete, in regalia that each has made or inherited.
Dress is not costume
Ceremonial dress is properly called dress or regalia. Costume implies pretending to be someone else. Many items have to be earned. The eagle-feather headdress of the Plains nations of North America is traditionally given to respected leaders, feather by feather. Wearing a copy as a party outfit is offensive to many Native people for that reason.
Who owns a design?
Indigenous designs are widely copied by fashion houses, souvenir makers and factories, usually without permission or payment. Copyright law protects named individuals for a limited time, and fits poorly with designs owned by a clan for ever. Some laws try to help. In the United States, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 makes it illegal to sell goods falsely presented as Native-made.
- Buying from the maker or a community cooperative
- Learning what a design means
- Asking before using sacred or clan designs
- Mass-produced copies sold as 'tribal'
- Wearing sacred regalia as fancy dress
- Using a people's name as a brand without consent
The best guide is simple. Buy from the makers, pay a fair price, and ask what a piece means and whether there is anything you should not do with it. Art is a major source of income for many communities, and buying well keeps skills alive.