Book Description

Colouring Country is an all-ages art therapy colouring book with a difference. It features full-colour reproductions of 42 superb Indigenous artworks, each accompanied by a brief description of its context and meaning within Australian Aboriginal culture, together with a colouring-in template for each work. In Indigenous artmaking, the symbols, and the stories behind them, are the maps, the clues, to observing the Law, and living life in harmony with the elements and the cosmos. The rhythm of concentric dotted circles, linear motifs of game and flora, and lithe human forms, illustrate life in balance with the majesty of nature. It is the joyful visual language of the world's oldest continuing culture. The images in Colouring Country are from the Balarinji Art & Design Archive, held by the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. The Archive is an iconic collection of art, design and objects created between 1983-2003 by Sydney-based design studio, Balarinji. Best known for covering Qantas aircraft with Aboriginal designs, Balarinji was established in 1983 by Ros Moriarty and John Moriarty.