Dot Painting
The night sky, a canvas of light and shadow, has long inspired cultures around the globe, offering a source of meaning, identity, fact and fantasy. It is the realm of ancient gods and creation stories, inspiring storytelling and art. In heraldry, the luminous objects of the heavens are distilled into distinct, recognisable symbols. Celestial charges are isolated and rendered with sharp clarity, designed for immediate recognition. Stars and crescents can be interpreted in many ways, the original reasons behind the symbolism even lost over time, but their shapes are universally recognisable.
Heraldry’s nearest parallel is the Japanese mon (紋), which also uses symbolic designs to represent lineage and identity. While heraldry uses shields, crests, and mottos to convey meaning, mon rely on simple, singular forms. Stars have played a significant role with a simple circle design. The gesseimon (月星紋), or moon-and-star mon, is a notable emblem, particularly within the context of the Chiba clan and their legacy in Japanese martial traditions. This mon features the celestial symbols of the moon (tsuki) and the star (hoshi), representing both illumination and guidance. Its origin traces back over a thousand years to a legendary battle where the Chiba clan, seemingly destined to lose, was saved by a meteor falling from the sky and striking their enemies. The moon-and-star motif ties into the broader concept of Hokushin (北辰), which refers to the North Star, or Polaris. In Japanese martial arts, the North Star symbolises a constant, guiding force - a fixed point in the sky that never moves, much like the principles of discipline, focus and unwavering loyalty central to Samurai swordsmanship.
During his twelve month stay in Virginia, in 1659, John Gibbon (1629-1713) drew parallels between heraldry’s martial origins and the indigenous forms of cultural expression that he witnessed. A war dance by Native Americans, moving in measured steps, brandishing tomahawks and shields of bark, their naked bodies painted with vibrant colours and symbols, confirmed for Gibbon his idea of heraldry as a human universal. "At which I exceedingly wondered; and concluded that heraldry was ingrafted naturally into the sense of human race. If so, it deserves a greater esteem than now-a-days is put upon it."
While Gibbon saw heraldry reflected in martial display, others have drawn on it to express civic and sovereign authority. The Coat of Arms of Nunavut, granted in 1999 to mark the establishment of Canada’s Inuit-majority territory, includes traditional Inuit symbols such as the qulliq and Niqirtsuituq (North Star). A circular shield, distinct from European conventions, symbolises the arc of the midnight sun, evoking the geography and seasonal rhythms of the Arctic.
The Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement) adopted elements of European heraldry to assert sovereignty. A key celestial symbol in Māori culture is Matariki (the Pleiades), marking the Māori New Year and symbolizing renewal, guidance, and ancestral connections. In Te Paki o Matariki, the Kīngitanga coat of arms, Matariki is represented by seven stars.
A comparison with Australian Indigenous culture provides insights into how art serves a broader function, with dot paintings weaving collective narratives of ancestry, land, and cosmology. Despite distinctions between heraldry, mon, Native American, Māori and Australian Indigenous cultures, all of these traditions use art to express identity and preserve cultural connections.
Indigenous Australians embrace the full complexity of the sky in their art. As the world’s first astronomers, their celestial art weaves light and shadow into relational patterns that preserve cultural knowledge, guide practical activities, and express a cosmology deeply connected to Country. Stories arise not only from stars but also from the darkness between them, such as the “Emu in the Sky,” shaped by the dark nebulae within the Milky Way. Indigenous celestial art reflects a collective relationship with the cosmos, grounded in the interconnectedness of stars, shadows and the land.
The sun is the source of life and death, a bringer of life and heat. She is a woman, the moon a man. In Yolngu traditions of Arnhem Land in the far north of Australia, the Sun woman is Walu. She lights a small fire each morning, which we see as the dawn. She decorates herself with red ochre, some of which spills onto the clouds, creating the red sunrise. Yolngu people hold the Banumbirr ceremony when Venus first rises after transitioning from the Evening Star to the Morning Star. The stars are the homes of ancestors, animals, plants, and spirits. They serve as calendars, a law book to remember important life and social lessons, and inform all aspects of daily life and culture. The First Australians observed their brightness, colour, and position and noticed even the most subtle changes in these properties. The use of stars and “star maps” for navigation across the continent of Australia are evidenced in parts of the modern road network, where highways follow long traversed routes. There is also strong evidence that the longevity of some knowledge passed down through oral traditions can exceed ten millennia, bearing witness to remarkable events such as volcanic eruptions, meteorite impacts, and sea level changes. This enduring connection between the sky and the land highlights the profound depth of Indigenous knowledge systems, where astronomy is intricately woven into culture, identity, and survival. The stars not only guide physical journeys across vast landscapes and the locations of waterholes but also illuminate spiritual pathways, ensuring that the wisdom of ancestors continues to inform and sustain the lives of future generations.
Ongoing research into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Astronomy reveals remarkable connections and contrasts with Western interpretations of the night sky. For example, in Western traditions influenced by Greek mythology, the Orion constellation represents a hunter pursuing the Seven Sisters (the Pleiades). Similarly, many Indigenous Australian traditions see Orion and the Pleiades as connected, though often in the context of unique stories, such as a man pursuing a group of women, usually referred to as the Seven Sisters. The Pleiades play an important role in the folklore of many cultures, ancient and modern around the world.
Personal heraldry has no direct equivalent within Indigenous cultures in Australia. Indigenous systems focus on broader connections to ancestry, land and community. In many cultures, totems represent an individual’s or group’s spiritual and cultural essence, linking them to a specific animal, plant, or natural feature. These totems are often passed down through generations within a clan or kinship group, which embodies a collective responsibility to care for Country and uphold cultural laws and traditions. Diverse art forms such as body painting, carvings, and rock engravings convey spiritual beliefs, and cultural knowledge, ensuring the continuity of these traditions across generations. While distinct from European heraldry, such practices serve a similar purpose, rooted in intergenerational relationships but with a deep connection to the natural world.
Unlike diapering in European heraldry, where decorative patterns fill space and create texture, the dots and the spaces between them in dot paintings convey meaning that connects the viewer to the landscape and its rhythms. The art contains levels of meaning from its physical representation to the sacred designs these dots conceal from the uninitiated. Traditional and contemporary art forms serve not only as artistic expressions but as vital means of communication and a medium for transferring knowledge, safeguarding cultural heritage, shared beliefs, and the continuity of cultural practices. Though interpretations differ, both heraldry and Indigenous art reflect a universal human impulse to understand our place in the world, affirm connections and express spiritual and cultural significance. The stars and the heavens are more than distant points of light; like hands painted in the shadowed depths of a cave, they are markers of our identity, purpose, truth and belonging. We all live beneath the stars and gaze upon them in equal wonder.
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