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kids smashing stones

Hunt around in your backyard for coloured rocks, not the type you buy from a garden centre these ones need to be naturally occurring Australian rocks. If your garden is a formal manicured one you may need to go rock hunting in your local park. Put a couple of similar coloured rocks into a mortar and pestle. I explained to the kids that the aboriginal people would have used a grinding stone but since we didn’t have one on us the mortar and pestle would have to suffice.

pouring water

Once your rocks are all smashed up nicely, you need a fairly even powder or you will have lumpy paint, a little water is added to form a paste.

mixing paint

A little more grinding and stirring is needed to break up any remaining lumps. Then you can add more water to thin the mixture to a paint like consistency.

painting lizard

Alanah’s Lizard

We chose to copy images of cave paintings and rock carvings found in our local area. This helped the kids really get a feel for the traditional aboriginal style of representing the natural world around them.

painting snake

Elijah’s Snake

We also used Gum leaves and grasses to make a very light brown and a green coloured paint. There is a yellow rock and dried white clay that can make very effective colours but we didn’t have any lying around.

Lillys echinna

Lillian’s Echidna

Oh and the cutest thing, Lilly calls these little guys A Kanidnas, she just can’t get her tongue around the correct pronunciation.

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3 Responses to How to make Indigenous Australian Paint

  1. Madeline says:

    My sister and I used to do something similar with Mississippi clay. Except we would paint our bodies. 😉

  2. Jill Grant says:

    Love this. i wish i was at your school!!!
    you should do a Lilly dictionary one day……

  3. Sue says:

    My grandkids wanted to learn indigenous paint making and I am going to endeavor to show them this way as we have plenty of rock around for them to experiment with. Thanks for the info, all Aussie kids should learn from our indigenous family

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