One of the most important means for indigenous individuals to generate personal income to support their families, themselves and their communities is through traditional arts and crafts. Only a very special portion of our population makes an effort to acknowledge personal interest and ignorance of primitive culture and actively seeks to make a positive difference.

Obviously, government subsidies and welfare programs are helpful, but rarely valuable as promoters and preservers of indigenous culture. While many people believe that the right way to help oppressed native peoples is to teach them to help themselves, too many suggest that the peoples learn basic first world skills like computer data entry. But this philosophy encourages the adoption of Western thought, beliefs and practices at the cost of native cultural thoughts, beliefs and practices<.

You make the difference by demonstrating your support for world cultures which you hold as valuable in and of themselves. When you talk about cultural beliefs, you become a catalyst for positive change by inspiring other peoples' interest. When you buy native arts and crafts, you put valuable first world currency in the hands of people specifically to encourage the continuance of their native culture.

Sacred and ritualistic, traditional Aboriginal painting was once practiced only by men. Aborigine artists painted on bark (originally as decoration of bark walls), sand, trees, rocks, tools and their bodies. Women are known to have created baskets and body decorations, but have since diversified Aboriginal art working with both traditional styles and introducing new, more personal symbols and art.

The traditional 'brush' of the Aborigine is made from sticks chewed until ends were frayed. Paint is applied with hands or blown from the mouth or painted with charcoal, slate or ochre (hardened clay. Traditional colors are orange-red, yellow, brown, white, black and grey. Orange-red, yellow, and brown pigments are a mixture of iron, lime and clay, while gypsum was used for white and charcoal for black. Gum resin or orchid sap were mixed with the pigments to act as an adhesive.

Chinese folk art paintings are largely influenced by paper-cutting art. Flat, colorful and two-dimensional, Chinese folk paintings are strikingly similar to American folk painting. Subjects are most often of home, family and memorable scenes from daily life.

  Paper-cutting is similar to creating a stencil, but artists with refined methods and skills can achieve stunningly detailed work rivalling modern laser cutting. A similar art involves the slicing of bamboo in thin strips and shapes, dying them and adhering them to a surface to create a vibrant, complex three dimensional art. Our Chinese gallery includes folk and traditional style prints.