Preview

The Creation of Shelter in Pre-Colonial Far North Australia and New Zealand

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2512 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Creation of Shelter in Pre-Colonial Far North Australia and New Zealand
The Creation Of Shelter In Pre-Colonial Far North Australia And New Zealand
Shelter has always been a necessity for mankind. We, as humans, have a relationship with the land that we must respect to live happily amongst it. Spaning back as far as the pre-Colonial Australia, indigenous Australians understood this connection excellently. Their shelters seemed to ‘bend with the land’ as they understood crucial elements within the architecture to compensate for distinctive climate and cultural factors to fit their nomadic lifestyle. Their living style was very minimalistic yet practical. The indigenous Australians only built what they needed to survive. For evidence of this, we will be looking at the text; ‘Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley: the Aboriginal architecture of Australia’ by Paul Memmott as he discussed the social dynamics and structural design of the indigenous communities. Conversely, indigenous New Zealanders had a more conventional comprehension of space and planning of their more permanent townships. The shelters of the New Zealand tribes created community importance with their detailed Maori. As a key example of these traditional settlements, ‘Historic buildings of New Zealand’ from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust shows us many detailed plans of this living style and complete descriptions of the Maoris’. The indigenous New Zealanders built shelters to provide basics of societal living and town leadership as well as for the necessity of housing. However, both communities had an outstanding respect and comprehension for the environment they surrounding themselves with. This essay will explore both the similarities and juxtapositions between the shelters of the indigenous Australians and New Zealanders, how this enriches their connection with the environment and their community lifestyle.
Indigenous lifestyle and architecture of any kind has always been recognised as vastly different from Western moulds. The Aboriginal tribes of far north show complete



Bibliography: ACME. 2008. Australian Indigenous cultural heritage. 7 January. Accessed 5 1, 2014. http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-cultural-heritage. Brown, Deidre. 2009. Maori architecture : from fale to wharenui and beyond. Rosedale, N.Z: Penguin. Fox, James J. 1993. “Inside Austronesian Houses: Perspectives on Domestic Designs for Living.” The Journal of Asian Studies 203-205. Gardiner, David, and Kathryn Wells. 2008. 7 January. Accessed May 2, 2014. http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-architecture. Gough, Annette, Kathleen Pleasants, and Black Juli. 2006. Outdoor and environmental studies : VCE units 1 to 4 . South Melbourne: Nelson Thomsom Learning. Memmott, Paul. 2007. Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley : the Aboriginal architecture of Australia. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press. New Zealand Historic Places Trust. 1979. Historic buildings of New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Cassell New Zealand. Pohatu, Warren. 2011. THE MARAE: OVERVIEW. 5 December. Accessed April 29, 2014. http://warrenpohatu.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/this-is-brief-overview-of-physical-and.html. Rapoport, Amos. 1976. The Mutual Interaction of People and Their Built Environment: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. The Hague: Mouton. Royal, Te Ahukaramu Charles. 2013. 'Māori - Pre-European society ' Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 11 September. Accessed May 10, 2014. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori/page-2.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    AP World Chapter 13 Notes

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Contrast from that of Australia were the permanent village settlements with large and sturdy houses, considerable economic specialization, ranked societies that sometimes included slavery, chiefdoms dominated by powerful clan leaders or “big men” and extensive storage of food.…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    AIA History of Bangledesh

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. ‘19th century Australian landscape painting does not represent the physical environment; rather it reflects European painting conventions and Imperial agendas'. Critically discuss.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ultimately, TROGE aims to challenge “...the implicit teleology and destructive constructions of progress in Western epistemologies” and remind viewers that the European perspective is not the only truth (Lingard, 2014). By layering Western concepts (geometric shapes and architectural depictions) upon the Australian landscape, Bennett reflects how European ideas have been forced upon Indigenous heritage. Furthermore, he relates to the Western perspective as an illusion, just like how Western art often sees the illusion of three-dimensional space made by the perspective lines (ngv, n/a). This illusion is heightened by the landscape and sky being painted in a style reflective of European Romantic art, where dramatically realistic portrayals of beauty and emotion are presented (ngv, n/a). Bennett disrupts this illusion metaphorically and physically by adding disparate diagrams, symbols and images (e.g. black footprints representing indigenous presence on the land), showing that many different mediums and forms, or perspectives, coexist. The impact European culture has had on indigenous people is showcased by each figure depicted: for example, in Requiem, the solemn face belongs to Trugannini (c.1812 - 1876), a Tasmanian Palawa woman, who is thought to be ‘the last…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Noel Pearson Summary

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Noel Pearson’s ‘An Australian History for us all’ discusses his approach to trying to solve some of the most systemic problems facing Australian Aboriginals today. Through the uses of various language techniques and context, Pearson’s speech details the struggles of the relationship between the first European settlers and Aboriginal Australians.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    HUMA DB

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the indigenous people of Australia practiced their own traditions, had their own social and economic system. Indigenous people are the holders of unique languages, knowledge systems and beliefs. One indigenous group of people is the Aborigines. Aborigines are Australia’s indigenous people that migrated from somewhere in Asia 30,000 years ago (Siasoco, 2007). The Aborigines’ strong spiritual beliefs tie them to the land (Siasoco, 2007).The aboriginal culture is full of storytelling and art. But like other indigenous people they also possess a difficult colonial history. Aborigines called the beginning of the world the “Dreaming” and/or “Dreamtime” (Siasoco, 2007). According to the aboriginal people in the Dreamtime, their ancestors rose from below the earth to form various parts of nature including animal species, bodies of water and the sky (Siasoco, 2007).…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Gary Crew’s Strange Objects and Peter Weir’s film ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, the effect of civilisation on the natural world is explored. Both texts display this by using the context of Australia, over time, to expose how nature will prevail over humanity. In the novel, the conflicting European culture and spiritual essence of the ancient land is portrayed in two life frames: 1623 and 1988. Dutch settlement, of Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos, on Aboriginal land exhibits the theme of the nature domination by portraying them as foreign influence to the Aboriginal people and their spiritual connections to the land. The action of Steven Messenger stealing an Aboriginal historical artefact, the ring, which, results in developing psychosis mirror the power of nature seen in the historical context of 1623. Based on the same context of Aboriginal Australian land, but in a different time period of 1975, ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, the disappearance of the girls who climb the rock are suggested to be closely linked to the spiritual powers of the land and nature. This is shown by Peter Weir using various film techniques to create a mystical and unknown aura relating to the indigenous land. These examples from the novel and film share the same idea of how nature seems to be challenged when humanity strikes.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All spiritual beliefs in Aboriginal culture relate back to the idea of creation and dreaming. The dreaming is the ongoing cultural and spiritual progression that informs identity and knowledge, which is expressed through traditional indigenous art. This reflects a spiritual connection to the land, which is represented by signs and symbols as well as other various techniques, which are unique to traditional indigenous art. Signs and symbols can represent a particular location, object or landmark, or a particular story or totem that would be specific to a particular tribe, corroboree or dreamtime story. In traditional indigenous artworks, there is no perspective or fixed vanishing points for landscape artworks because indigenous Australians do not see their environment as a landscape, but their particular world and universe. They create a concept of place by using signs and symbols to create a map-like artwork, which represents their particular ‘world’ and universe. Essentially, traditional indigenous Australian artists are painting their spirituality, by expressing their connection to the land through signs, symbols and their world.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the course of this paper, the researcher explains rock art over the idea of ontology and animism (Creese,2011,p.3-4) The core foundation of this investigation is the concept of Culture, which plays important role in understanding why particular people do certain action and activities. In this text the research investigated many different pieces of rock art and discovered that the placement of these drawings were associated with a memory (Creese, 2011). Whenever a location became a site for burial or giving the Algonquians they would create images on rock to remember the event that had taken place (Creese, 2011, p.13). In many cases archaeologist found rock art that describes the physical environments, implying that the Algonquian used drawing to describe a journey they have taken or to tell a story about what they experienced throughout their life (Creese, 2011,p.17-18). This article defiantly associates with the belief that there is a relationship spiritual and social aspect in the terms of rock art. These two articles both build on the idea that rock art is an essential part of culture between the aboriginal people. (word…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aboriginal Dispossession

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Aboriginal spirituality lies in the belief in a cultural landscape. Everything on the vast desert landscape has meaning and purpose. The land is both an external landscape and an internal relationship with the ancestral spirits. Landmarks are both metaphysical and physical. As an example Uluru can be seen as an epic poem, a source of sacred law, a physical landmark and a repository of knowledge.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Indigenous Australians lived ‘nomadic’ lifestyles. They lived in tribes that moved around, using only what they needed, recycling what they could, and moved on when they felt that the resources at the site had been exhausted. This gave the site time to recover and recuperate, and so, their resources never ran out.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Aboriginals have always had a strong link between them and the land with the belief of the Dreamtime and the art, symbols, rituals and totems that came with it. After the white settlement, the way in which aboriginals lived their everyday life took a dramatic turn. It had affected their culture for many generations with a disconnection with the land to them.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Secret River Analysis

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Grenville’s incessant personification of the Aborigines’ appearance to match the land works to marginalize the nature of European culture, as “Humanising the landscape could be a way of showing the link between indigenous people and their…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The settlement of New Zealand as an independent nation was driven by politics and culture with very Eurocentric values. Christianity, trade and policy established the British society in New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti O Waitangi) sought to give Maori people the same rights as the British settlers, and also protection against potential enemies. However the accommodation of the indigenous Maori people into the British society was controversial in many ways. This essay will discuss the society that European settlers wanted to create in Aotearoa and following this will draw on how Maori and the Treaty fell into the British society within New Zealand.…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hawkes, J. (2003, October 23). The Link Between Culture and Environment. Keynote speech at the Outback Summit of the 15th National Conference of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, Broken Hill.…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Heritage Tourism

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Heritage professionals have developed ways of formally assessing the significance of natural and cultural heritage places. The following documents. listed in the Resources section of the guide, may provide some assistance:…

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays