Aboriginal Art In Canada

Aboriginal art is based on story telling, and using symbols as an different method of writing down stories of important cultural stories, as well as giving knowledge on survival and land management.

The history of Aboriginal art in Canada begins sometime during the last Ice Age, between 80,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Aboriginal-inspired artworks contain a broader meaning of the ways of life, aesthetic values and reflections of the people themselves.

The top three images are true European art works that were influenced and inspired by the aboriginal culture.

Aboriginal art included clay beads that had a rich color and difference of size that provided a spiritual connection as well as a symbolic touch.

Story telling and symbols provided the

starting point for contemporary Aboriginal art.

While Aboriginal people used Spears and spear throwers, Europeans favored tomahawks and other multipurpose weapons instead. The longer end of a boomerang was used for leverage and the shorter end was used for weight and shaped to cart wheel the blade. The enlarged the parameter of the blade and increased the likelihood of a successful kill. Aboriginal People also used boomerangs. Boomerangs were used as throwing sticks that could be thrown with incredible accuracy at high speeds to knock out of kill the intended target.
Stone points are usually assumes to have been used as the ends of spears. They have a dimension of about 3.5 cm long. In some places, spear points ranged in size from 3 to more than 10 cm long
Similar to aboriginal points, the Europeans used sharp stone points with wooden handles for similar purposes. It is believed these two cultures were inspired by each others weapon choice, leading both to have similar weapon style.

The French built trading posts on the St. Lawrence River and traded with the Aboriginal people who came to their posts with furs.
The European explorers and fishers began trading with the Aboriginal people shortly after they found that Canada was a land with many fur-bearing animals
The European People and the English People traded with the Aboriginals of Newfoundland and on the Atlantic coast south of the French settlements.

The English formed the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 and built trading posts around Hudson’s Bay. The fur traders continue the exploration of Canada as they traveled to new areas to find more fur. The Aboriginal Peoples they met helped them live and survive in the new areas they settled in.

They traded fresh food for furs, especially beaver fur to make hats and other clothing.

Religious difference was a major factor of the Aboriginal settlement and the European arrival. In 1537, Pope Paul III taught that people were not common, but human beings with souls capable of salvation. Newcomers from England during the sixteenth century brought many messages of Christianity to the Aboriginal.

The influence of Christianity – through settlers, missionaries and government policy- significantly altered life for the Aboriginal people.

European missionaries traveled far lengths to brining the Gospel to those who has never heard it and to spread the word of Christianity to Native

people,