Virgin Blue Holdings Limited SWOT Analysis

Virgin Blue Holdings Limited SWOT Analysis About the company Virgin Blue Holdings Limited, an Australia-based company, is involved in the airline industry. The companys segments include long and short hauls. The company owns a fleet comprising of 68 Boeing 737-700 800 series along with Embraer E-170 and E-190 aircrafts. Virgin Blue Airlines functions approx 2100 flights per week to 24 national cities and centers and 8 international places including ports in Figi, New Zealand, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Cook Island and Samoa. Virgin Blue had been established in the year 2000 as wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Group. In 2002 Virgin, along with Partrick invested in the airline field. In the year 2008, Virgin Blue Holdings Limited came into existence and floated on the exchange for selling the holdings of Virgin Group. Virgin Blue Holdings main operation is in the airline business in Australia, while it operates in air transportation and schedule sector also. SWOT Analysis Of Virgin Blue Holding Limited (S)trengths: Motivated management: The management of the Virgin Blue Holding Limited is highly motivated and continuously involved in value improvement process. A motivated team ensures giving its best to earn super profits. Innovation: The corporate level strategy of this company is innovation. This helps the company in preparing the niche segment for itself. Also helps the company in having a upper hand over competitor. Young staff: Strength of Virgin Holding Limited lies in their staff which is comprised of young people. This will increase their work efficiency and productivity, and thus lead to superior profit making. (W)eaknesses: Capital Intensive Business Lines: Virgin Blue Holdings business is highly a capital intensive business thus requiring managing of heavy investment and maintenance cost. The point to reach breakeven too is thus, longer than otherwise. Low return on investment: The airline industry is highly volatile and cyclical in nature and usually have low return on investment. (O)pportunities: Niche market: Instead of targeting the masses to fly economy and certain business class crowd, the company targets the student and this segment has high growth opportunities. Less competitive market: Another opportunity for the company is that this market is less competitive market and has high growth scope, and thus it would enable them to get the movers advantage and becoming market leader thereby earning super profit. Richard Branson: Richard Branson passion for aircraft also helps in expansion of business. (T)hreats: Existing player: Existing competitor can act as a threat for Virgin Blue and impact their market share. Also there is a threat from the entry of new player. Air flight safety: Another concern for airline industry is safety. This is the most common sector for terrorist attack and any such event can damage their business and brand to a greater extent. Key audit risks: Mainly the audit risks are of three types: Inherent Risks Control Risks Detection Risks The following are the key Audit risks- Revenue Recognition: (Detection Risk) Identifying important ratios such as Accounts receivables/Sales or Inventory/Cost of Goods Sold is important are these are predictive of negative events. Account affected: Profitability Ratios. Expense Recognition: (Detection Risk) Deferred long-term expense and exaggerated depreciation often distorts balance sheet. Checking of these ratios such as Selling GA Expenses to Operating Expenses YoY basis and also comparing them with industry standards. Account affected: Profitability Ratios. Asset-Liability Valuation: (Detection Risk) Liquidity, Asset Turnover, Net Income/Equity, Leverage, Goodwill, etc may be comparable with peer group and previous years. Account affected: Asset Turnover Ratios and Liquidity Ratios. Directors holding position of Officers: (Control Risk) As directors have fiduciary responsibilities towards the shareholders, they should not have positions that are subjected to conflict of interest. Account affected: Dividend payments and other policies related to shareholders. The CEO and Chairman are separate: (Control Risk) The roles of the CEO and Chairman are performed by separate people as the chairman would then be able to represent the shareholders interest better. Account affected: Dividend payments and other policies related to shareholders. Stepping down of Virgins long term CEO Brett Godfrey: Earlier in 2010 virgin long term CEO Brett Godfrey stepped down and was replaced by John Brochette. Due to change in CEO, the auditors need to properly emphasize or assess the following points: Change in corporate governance: Stepping down of the existing CEO can lead to corporate governance issues in organization. If the new CEO is not as effective, then it leads to bureaucracy and account manipulation issues in an organization. The auditor needs to evaluate this area carefully. Accountability of board of director: The auditor should make sure that same practices of accountability and displace is maintained in organization. There should not be any misappropriation or misuse of funds available. Analysis of share holding pattern change: The auditor needs to analyze if there is any change in the shareholding pattern due to stepping down of the CEO. This will help in evaluating the existing funding structure of the company and help in evaluating welfare of shareholder by maximization shareholders wealth. The auditor should properly investigate where the funds are being divested. Current Financial Information of Virgin Blue Holding Limited: Net profit after income tax for 6 month period, ended 31/12/2009 was $62.5 million and that reflects $163.9 million more compared to the corresponding 6 month term ended 31/12/2008. The net profit of the period is made up of: In these 6 months to 31/12/2009, the underlying OPs profit before tax went up by 34% and got profit of $80.1million. Basic EPS for the 6 months period ended 31/12/2009 had a profit of 3.3cents/share. Business segments Virgin Group has 2 segments, described below that are Groups business segment. The business segment offers different services and products, and managed separately as they need different types of aircraft. For each business segment, the internal management reports are reviewed on monthly by the board. The summary describes operations in each segment: Short haul Operations using short haul fleet by Boeing 737 aircraft Embraer 190 and 170 aircraft. This includes Australian, New Zealand, Trans-Tasman and Pacific Island flying. Long haul Operations that use Boeing 777 fleet. This predominantly comprises of Trans-Pacific flying. Partnerships of Virgin Blue Holdings Limited: Etihad signed a partnership with Virgin Blue Holdings Limited: All Virgin Holding services will now be available also to the Etihad customers, by opening up of 44 destinations in Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Los Angles.ÂÂ   The code share agreement will come to effect right from October. As result of this deal, Virgin Australia is to become as first Australian carrier operator to operate at the Middle East since 1991. Together with V Australia and Eithad Virgin Blue will be able to fly twenty seven flights in between Abu Dhabi Australia which will include the services between Abu Dhabi-Sydney, Melbourne Brisbane. Etihad management said that Australia is a very important market place for us we are happy that after this collaboration we will be able to serve our purpose better. We currently fly about 450,000 people a year to Australasia, we think this deal will add about 100,000 to that figure. With this collaboration we will be in a position to serve the USA Europe trips better from Australia, that will give us a distinct advantage over the other competitors, improves the sustainability comfort of travel. The agreement would joing the Blue Group and Etihad frequent flier programs, thus allowing the customers to earn burn miles in all of these airlines that are involved in deal. Partnership of Virgin Blue V Australia with Virgin America for Frequent Fly: Virgin Blue with its long-haul airline, V Australia has partnered with Virgin America to give benefits to loyalty customers to get some points when they take flight on sister airlines. This simply means that people travelling through any of these 3 flights will earn some credit that will be deducted under frequent travelling program. This partnership has applied from April, 2010. This exchange agreement will enable Virgin Blue or V Australias Velocity customer to earn Velocity points vice-versa through any of the 3 flights. Virgin Blue is presenting this as benefits to its guests a act of Customer relationship management. Virgin Blue team says that their motto is that people from whole USA other parts of the world plan their tours with our developing airline family. Virgin blue is famous for its customer service, product innovation, great design high level of facilities. Virgin Blue has got Best National Airline for 3rd consecutive year at the Australian National Travel Industry Awards.

Dow Chemical Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Dow Chemical Topic: â€Å"Dow Chemicals† I decided to construct my essay on Dow Chemicals (DC) Company after reading an article in Business Week. Dow Chemical appears to be developing an aggressive market strategy that aligns with our class topics, and that I have found very interesting. Dow Chemical (DC) company, over the last seven years has built their strategy around and focused on their â€Å"niche†, which is core chemicals & plastics-manufacturing operations, while simultaneously reducing infrastructure debt, expanding its market share, and apparently building new strategic alliances. According to Dow Chemical CEO William Stavropoulos, The mission and goals of Dow Chemical company is to be a world leader in chemical and plastics manufacturing by developing new customer demand product lines and expanding long-term profitability through global market expansion in such global markets as Europe and Asia. If Dow Chemicals currently owned assets did not align with and support this mission strategy, they were divested. Dow Chemicals has evidenced this by selling off more than $10 billion in business assets, while at the same time adding $10 billion in new business that support their new strategy, and the strategic addition of the Union Carbide Company. To develop Dow Chemicals new strategy, which is to say to develop a competitive advantage within their selected market, Dow Chemical appears to have thoroughly examined their role in the macroenvironment, which also encompasses the political/legal, technological, demographic, social, and macroenvironments elements. In analyzing their macroenvironment they would have considered such items as the current economy interest rates, currency exchange rates, and inflation rates, which could impact the customer demand for their products, as well as acting on other environmental factors such as: a) Technology: Through their advanced research and development of unique and new innovative products, they easily heighten the of barriers to entry for competitors. b) Social: Performing research on current and future trends for healthier and safer products. c) Demographic: Considered the age and education levels of surrounding manufacturing plants. Skilled workers directly impact production capacity. d) Political & legal: What rules and regulations are in place, what is the state of the governm... ... a) Potential competitors: This area represents a threat to profitability, which can be combated by raising the barriers to entry/exit costs, brand loyalty, absolute cost advantages, economies of scale, and possibly through the development of superior reputation influence and enjoy protection from local governments. b) Rivalry: Monitor the competitive structure of the consolidated industry, which could affect market share, and even start price wars, which could be costly. Monitor demand trends, which could call for market expansion or retraction, and finally monitor exit barriers, which be a deterrent for potential entrants. c) Power of Buyers: Monitor supplier industries, when there are many suppliers, buyers can dominate a bargaining position, and thereby generate cost savings. Consolidate purchases with Union Carbide to maximize a combined buying power position. d) Power of Suppliers: Monitor supplier markets for new supplier entrants or potential suitable substitutes. e) Substitute products: Monitor the market for suitable substitutes for your manufactured product, which could negatively impact your market share.

outbreak :: essays research papers

Filoviruses Viruses are microscopic intracellular parasites that can only reproduce within a host cell. Viruses lack the enzymes for the process of metabolism and contain no ribosomes or other parts to make their own proteins. The types of cells a virus can infect are limited to its host range. Filoviruses (Figure 1) belong to a virus family called Filoviridae and can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates. Filovirus virons appear in several shapes; these shapes are known as pleomorphism. They may either appear as long, often branched filaments, shorter filaments, or in a circle formation. The filaments can measure up to 14,000 nanometers in length, and have some have a diameter of up to 80 nanometers. Each is coated in a lipid membrane and contains a molecule of negative-sense RNA. Replication of filoviruses occurs through the production of buds on the surface of the host cell (See Figure 1). The two types of filoviruses that have been identified are the Marburg virus and Ebola virus. There are four different subtypes of the Ebola virus: Ivory Coast, Sudan, Zaire, and Reston. Ebola-Reston does not cause any severe disease conditions in humans it can however, be fatal within monkeys. Marburg The Marburg disease (Figure 2) was first seen in the August, 1967 in Marburg, Germany. Three workers that were employed by Behringwerke AG, a vaccine-producing branch from pharmaceutical company, Hoechst AG were suffering from muscle aches and mild fevers. The conditions the workers had were similar to characteristic of the flu, but it was strange to have the flu in the summer. They were then hospitalized. The following day they became nauseated. Their spleens became enlarged and their eyes became bloodshot. The demeanors grew morose but aggressive. In addition, the nurse and doctor who were taking care of the three patients became ill. By September 23, the number of patients suffering from this Marburg grew to 23. Two other outbreaks were occurring in Frankfurt and Yugoslavia. The people sick were also employees of pharmaceutical research or were in the field of patient care. Many people feared that this deadly virus was airborne. A great deal of mystery surrounded the illness since no one was aware of how it was transmitted, what an effective treatment might be, or how many more people could potentially get sick. Each patient exhibited the same symptoms and went through the same process before dying.

Pragmatism, Perfectionism, and Feminism :: Feminist Feminism Pragmatism Essays

Pragmatism, Perfectionism, and Feminism ABSTRACT: I consider the revision of pragmatism by three leading neopragmatists: Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, and Cornel West. I argue that their vision of pragmatism lacks a teleology, though a teleology is suggested by Bernstein's description of a pragmatic ethos. I appeal to Stanley Cavell's notion of 'moral perfectionism' to suggest a kind of teleology that is available to pragmatism. Finally, I find the weakness of pragmatism done without teleology well exemplified in the exchange between Rorty and Nancy Frazer at Rorty's 1990 Tanner Lecture. Rorty's paper, "Pragmatism and Feminism," was meant to offer feminists some pragmatic strategies for improving their position. Frazer's strong response finds Rorty's suggestions only marginally helpful. I interpret her criticism of Rorty's suggestions to be that they lack something like a teleology. To me, this suggests that pragmatism can learn from feminism. Pragmatism is revolutionary both in the sense of being a philosophy that is critical, destabilizing, and progressive, as well as in the sense of being a philosophy that, in the turning philosophical tides, has come back. Pragmatism was eclipsed in the first half of the twentieth century by analytic philosophy, in its various forms, but in the last decade or so pragmatism has returned in full force, and with an explicitly philosophical agenda. In this paper I will examine this new wave of philosophical pragmatism, sometimes referred to as neopragmatism, as it appears in the works of three of its leading proponents, Richard Rorty, Cornel West, and Richard Bernstein; and specifically, how it compares to, contrasts with, and contributes to feminism, as illustrated in the exchange between Rorty and Nancy Fraser that occurred as part of Rorty's 1990 Tanner Lecture. A difficulty that arises in talking about pragmatism, new or old, is that pragmatism comes in so many forms. For Rorty, the most influential of the neopragmatists, pragmatism is primarily anti-philosophical. He defines its role in terms of negations: it is anti-representational, anti-universalist, and anti-foundational. One of Rorty's descriptions of what pragmatists do is, "pragmatists keep trying to find ways of making antiphilosophical points in nonphilosophical language." (1) For Cornel West, pragmatism represents a kind of return to philosophy, a return, that is, from a false to a genuine philosophy. It is a return to a philosophy that, at last, addresses the loci of our real needs. In his impressive, The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism, West describes the return to pragmatism as follows:

The Pattern Of Development In The First Three Years Of Life

From birth to the age of 3 children progress greatly, considering they are born with only simple reflexes and are helpless and dependent on adults to feed and care for them. At birth babies are born with many actions that are done without thinking, these are called reflexes, and many of these reflexes are carried out in order to survive. To ensure a baby can feed they have a swallowing and sucking reflex. To help a baby find food they move their head to look for a nipple or teat if their cheek or mouth is touched this is called rooting.Babies have a grasping reflex by where they will automatically grab whatever is placed in their hand if it touches their palm. If there is a loud sound or bright light babies will perform their startle reflex, they will raise their arms and clench their fists. If a baby is held with their feet touching a hard surface they will perform the walking and standing reflex by making stepping movements. At 1 month babies change a great deal, they begin to sett le into a pattern and still sleep a lot of the time but they will gradually begin to stay awake for longer periods.They cry to communicate their needs and may vary their cry dependant on a particular need. At this age babies are also learning about their parents or carers and may stop when they hear their voice, they coo when they are content. They can focus at a distance of around 20 -30 cm but try to focus on the face of who is holding them. While asleep they smile fleetingly, this is usually done when they are content. At 3 months they have grown a lot in both height and weight. Some babies may now know the difference between day and night and are able to sleep through the night.They are now able to lift and turn their head and begin to notice mobiles and other objects that are around them. They are now more alert and sleep less during the day. They now know their parents voice and smile quite a lot, especially when they see a smiling face. At 6 months babies have learnt many new skills. They are very alert and will move their head to see what is happening around them. When playing with their parent or carer they will smile and squeal to express their enjoyment. They can now focus on objects and toys and explore them by using their mouth and fingers.Babies start to show that they understand a little of what is been said to them and lift arms to show that they want to be picked up. They are beginning to try and feed themselves by grabbing the spoon and should be enjoying their food. Teeth are now beginning to come through which can be painful at times. By this age babies are getting stronger and should be able to sit with support and should be able to roll over form their back to their fronts. They should now be settled into a routine and will nap and play throughout the day.At 9 months babies should now be crawling or finding other ways of getting around, they will sit and spend a lot of time playing and exploring their surroundings, babies can now pick up and handle things and begin to feed using their fingers. Their language should now be developing; their babbling is now more tuneful and long strings of sounds are put together. They can now understand some simple words such as drink or bath and may get excited when they hear them. At around 8 months they may cry when they are left with a stranger and will try their hardest to be with their parents.Around this age babies will now understand that objects and people around them do not disappear but continue to exist when they can no longer see them. This development is important and explains why at around his age babies protest and become distressed about their parents leaving the room, as they now know they are still around and are desperate to be with them, unlike before when they thought they disappeared once out of sight. At 1 year babies have developed a great deal and are now mobile, if they are not already walking they may be on the verge of learning to walk.They can stand hold ing onto furniture and may walk holding onto things around them. They can now crawl very fast and their eyesight has developed to that of an adult. Objects can now be held, touched and moved, they enjoy putting things in and out of containers as well as dropping things to see what happens to them, they will enjoy doing things like this over and over again. By now babies should be able to sit unsupported and should be able to feed themselves with their fingers and should now know what foods they like and dislike so will only eat what they like.Babies now understand more of what is being said to them and long strings of babbling is still how babies of this age communicate but now they are beginning to try and say their first words. At 18 months they can now walk and are usually referred to as a toddler, they enjoy playing with adults but are still fascinated by other children, they take an interest in what older siblings are doing too. At this age they begin to want some independence, they start to develop a mind of their own , they cry and have temper tantrums if they cannot have their own way or what they want.They may now be able to use a few words but can understand most of what adults say to them, but this does not mean that they understand the meaning of sharing and how to wait for things. Toddlers can change their mood very quickly and fidgety, which can be tiring for parents, they get upset if they are left in unfamiliar surroundings or with people they don’t know. At 2 years toddlers are now showing their individuality, they know what they want and what they want to do.They can now walk confidently as well as run and climb, they are able to pick things up. They like to be independent and get annoyed or frustrated if they cannot or are not allowed to do things for themselves, these outbursts are known as the terrible twos. They can now say around 200 words and are beginning to enjoy pretend play such as giving a teddy a pretend drink, they will pl ay with building blocks and simple jigsaw puzzles. At 2Â ½ years children are still happy to be independent and still find it hard to wait for things.Their communication skills are improving greatly and they can now put two words together, such as daddy gone, they may even manage short sentences. Their physical development is progressing and they are now determined to get things they want which could mean they put themselves in dangerous situations, such as climbing on chairs or standing on tables. They now begin to play more with other children rather than just alongside them. Pretend play and small world toys are now popular, as well as riding tricycles and climbing frames.Adult attention is still important and still enjoys cuddles and helping an adult, such as throwing paper in the rubbish bin. Been away from parents is still upsetting, unless they know who they are going to be with. At this age potty training may begin and may only take a few days to be out of nappies during th e day, for some children. At 3 years children are making a big jump in development which is linked to their language skills, instead of them showing that they are upset they are able to tell us and temper tantrums begin to happen less often.They begin to understand more of what is happening around them and understand the needs of others. They are now able to play with other children and are able to share toys with ease, other children begin to be important to them and will look forward to going to nursery. Children of this age are now generally happy to be away from parents as they now understand that they will return and are able to talk to staff who are looking after them.

Allegory of the Cave and Narrator Essay

As the philospoher Seneca once said, â€Å"It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable. † Raymond Carver’s Cathedral is a story about a man who started out as a closed-minded man but, throughout the story his character changes as he begins to bond with his wife’s friend, Robert, a man who is blind. Plato’s Allegory of the cave is a story about a prisoner who is freed from being locked in chains living all of his life underground and finding out a different perspective about a lie he’s been living his whole life, being told as a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon. In the stories, â€Å" Cathedral† by Raymond Carver, and â€Å" Allegory of the Cave† by Plato, both authors argue that a person’s reality is not always what is seems to be. In â€Å" Cathedral,† Raymond Carver uses irony between the narrator and Robert when they talk about the cathedral. The narrator tries to explain how a cathedral looks like with words when he says â€Å" To begin with, they’re very tall. I was looking around the room for clues. They reach way up. Up and up. Toward the sky. They’re so big, some of them, they have to have these supports. To help hold them up, so to speak† to Robert who is blind and can’t really apprehend what is being said. (Carver, page 24, lines 448-451). Until Robert asks to be drawn a cathedral when he says â€Å" Hey, listen to me. Will you do me a favor? I got an idea. Why don’t you find us a pen and some heavy paper. Go on, bub, get the stuff† the narrator realizes that Robert sees by touching around the paper. (Carver, page 25, lines 492-495). What the narrator doesn’t understand is that the blind man can’t see what he sees even though he thinks that by describing with words about how a cathedral looks, helps. The irony Carver is trying to show is that the narrator is the one who is blind, not Robert, because he perceives his reality to be similar to Roberts but instead really isn’t. In â€Å" Allegory of the cave† Plato uses metaphor about the message that is being compared to an imaginary prisoner’s life. Socrates explains to Glaucon â€Å" Behold! Human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and neck chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turing round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets† to imagine a person who is living a certain kind of way for a long period of time. (Plato, page 8, lines 5-14). Then they are told that what they are living is a lie when Socrates says â€Å" And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and wlak and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distrees him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? † (Plato, pages 8-9. Lines 42-51). Socrates then says â€Å" And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him† to explain that the prisoner will want to believe what he is already accustomed not to what has just been told to him. (Plato, page, lines 57-61). The metaphor that the story compares to is a prisoners life and perspective of reality, once you are told that the way you have been living for your whole life is wrong, you are most likely to be scared of the truth that has just been told to you since the reality that you have been living isn’t what it seems to be. In both stories, â€Å" Cathedral† by Raymond Carver and â€Å" Allegory of the cave† by Plato, both authors use imagery to descibe how the characters in the story are lead to a new reality that has been bestow upon them. In â€Å" Cathedral† the narrator learns the way Robert sees things when he says â€Å" He ran his fingers over the paper. He went up and down the sides of the paper. The edges, even the edges. He fingered the corners. All right, he said. All right, let’s do her. He found my hand with the pen. He closed his hand over my hand. Go ahead, bub, draw, he said. Draw. You’ll see. I’ll follow along with you. It’ll be okay. Just begin now like I’m telling you. You’ll see. Draw, the blind man said. † (Carver, page 26, lines 508-514). Carver reveals that by being very desciptive using imagery, the reader can understand how the narrator is getting really tense in a good way when he is shown that his perspective of reality of blind people just being blind and nothing else is about to change. In â€Å" Allegory of the cave† the prisoner is being taken to see a new perspective of the way he used to think when Socrates says â€Å" And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he’s forced into the presence of the sun himslef, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities. † (Plato, page 9, lines 63-68). Plato shows that by using imagery in his story, people can notice that the prisoner is in a lot of pain when he is being shown that his perspective of reality of the shadows being his reality is about to change for the rest of his life. In both stories â€Å" Cathedral† and â€Å" Allegory of the cave† both charcters of the story are being shown a different way of thinking. This new way of thinking evolved them into a better self being. Both charcters, the narrator and the prisoner were challeneged into a new way of thinking, both stuck to it till the end, and both became more of a fulfilled person.

Australian Aboriginal Dot Art Essay

Aboriginal art has been overshadowed by the idea that it is primarily presented in dots. It has got to the point where people believe that certain Aboriginal people own the dot and artists both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal are hesitant to use consecutive dots within artwork. Explain how the above has evolved and where dot art has come from Dot paintings today are recognised globally as unique and integral to Australian Aboriginal art. On the surface the dot is simply a style of Aboriginal painting, like the use of cross-hatching or stencil art. Exploring deeper into the history of the Aboriginal dot painting a world of camouflage, secrecy and ritual is discovered. The term ‘dot painting’ stems from what the Western eye sees when faced with contemporary Aboriginal acrylic paintings. This painting style arose from the Papunya art movement in the 1970s. Papunya Tula artists used a process which originally mirrored traditional spiritual ceremonies. In such rituals the soil would be cleared and smoothed over as a canvas (much like the dark, earthy boards used by the Papunya Tala) for the inscription of sacred designs, replicating movements of ancestral beings upon earth. These Dreaming designs were outlined with dancing circles and often surrounded with a mass of dots. Afterward the imprinted earth would be smoothed over, painted bodies rubbed away, masking the sacred-secrets which had taken place. This ritual was shifted from ground to canvas by the Papunya Tula who eventually added an array of naturally produced colours to the restricted palette of red, yellow, black and white produced from ochre, charcoal and pipe clay. Such pieces reveal a map of circles, spirals, lines, dashes and dots, the traditional visual language of the Western Desert Aboriginal People. However these marks were permanent and due to arising interest made public, creating internal political uproar. Consequently representations of sacred objects were forbidden or concealed through the dotting technique. Now that the collecting of pieces of Aboriginal art has become so popular world-wide, a common, mistaken belief is that the Dot Painting Style of Central Australia is a recent development. This belief arises because it was in the 1960s that a Central Australian school teacher encouraged the old men of the tribe to record their art on European sheets of board, using acrylic paints. This use of acrylic paints on flat board dates from that time. However, the art style itself, with geometric designs, is seen in the petroglyphs (rock engravings) dating back thousands of years. Ancient petroglyphs showing concentric circles (non-naturalistic art style), inland South Australia The use of dots was once Australia-wide, particularly seen on body decoration when people are painted for ceremonies, and paintings in the remote Kimberley region where dots are clearly seen on the body decoration of some of the earliest human figures, likely to be older than 20,000 years. See accompanying photo. ) Dot decoration on the body of an ancient human figure, Kimberley Aboriginal Art: Traditional to Contemporary The resurgence of Australian Indigenous art has become one of the ‘most brilliant and exciting new eras of modern art. ‘ It has grown with such amazing diversity and enthusiasm that art critic, Robert Hughes, has described it as ‘the last great art movement. ‘ For indigenous Australians art has been a part of their culture and tradition for thousands of years and is recognised as one of the oldest living art traditions. Though, over the past 30 years it has progressed from being confined primarily to the tourist industry, to become a richly, evolving international art movement. Since the Renaissance of Aboriginal art during the early 1970’s, Aboriginal artists have been encouraged to find new, innovative ways of incorporating cultural traditions into their imagery. This encouragement first began through an art teacher, Geoffrey Bardon, who became the catalyst for contemporary Aboriginal art. Fascinated by the traditional sand designs created by Indigenous children in Papunya, Bardon encouraged the Aboriginal community to re-create their Dreamtime stories through paintings. He introduced them to acrylic paint and from there Aboriginal art gained a more permanent form and the style, popularly known as ‘dot art’, emerged as the most recognisable form of Aboriginal art. It was a new form of art which also allowed Aborigines to, for the first time, express to the rest of Australia and the world, the ancient traditions of their culture. Many Aboriginal artists have chosen to continue practicing traditional art as a means of conserving the conventional method of creating, inherited from their tribal ancestors. Their content, which is explicitly aboriginal, is usually derived from their history and culture, as a continuation of the spiritual link they possess with their country. Research When The emergence of ‘dot’ paintings by Indigenous men from the western deserts of Central Australia in the early 1970s has been called the greatest art movement of the twentieth century. Prior to this, most cultural material by Indigenous Australians was collected by anthropologists. Consequently, collections were found in university departments or natural history museums worldwide, not art galleries. Where That all changed at a place called Papunya. Papunya was a ‘sit-down’ place established in the early 1960s, 240 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory (NT). The settlement brought together people from several western desert language groups: the Pintupi, Warlpiri, Arrernte (Aranda), Luritja, and the Anmatyerr, who were unaccustomed to living in close proximity to each other. Dot Painting or Aboriginal Dot Art originated in the desert using natural substances on the ground in the sand. Those pictures in the sand are not unlike the paintings we see today produced using acrylic paints. The acrylic paintings are usually done using acrylic paint and it is applied to canvas or art board with various diameter sticks dipped into paint and then applied one dot at a time. The Australian Aborigine of the western desert constructed their stories using ochre, sand, blood, coal from their fires and plant material placed together on the ground clump by clump for various ceremonial occasions. If you look at the desert landscape from the height of any small bluff or hill what you see looking down are clumps of growth scattered about a red landscape. The spinifix grass, desert hardwood bush and occasional rocks or rock outcrops make up the myriad of dots that seem to cover the landscape. Because everything in the desert has meaning to the Australian Aborigine these seemingly unimportant arrays of pattern in the desert have special meaning to the Dot painters of the western desert. If you were to ever fly over the desert low enough to see what was on the ground you would see what he dot painting has replicated for you to see. These dots are a myriad of clumps of natural splendour which might go unnoticed had you not seen a dot painting and looked to see what it was about. The arrangement of the plants, rocks and water are all part of the spirit of creation and it is because of this placement that Aboriginal people have traversed the deserts safely without printed maps for th ousands of years. The placement and arrangement of all of these natural things are in songs and these songs are often sung while the painting is being created. Nearly every painting has a song and the songs often disclose important ceremonial facts about a particular region or area. These important ceremonial places are often in the paintings but because they are sacred to Aboriginal people they are camouflaged in some way, visible to the initiated person but invisible to others who do not know what to look for. Many paintings contain these special hidden meanings and the new owners of these paintings will never know what the whole story of their purchased painting is about. Only over time may some insight be gained from looking at the painting. This is a point of pride among the Australian Aboriginal artists because they see the purchase of their art or for them the sale of their art, as a validation of their race and culture by others. This is because a value has been placed on the art. Since the Australian Aboriginal culture is depicted in all traditional paintings they are passing down their knowledge in the only way they are able, to those who have yet to understand it. The Aboriginal people do not have a written language so these painting of their stories and ceremonies are all they have to save this culture for future generations. The colour and the placement of the dots are important to depicting the visible message and camouflaging the hidden message in Aboriginal dot art. Even the over painting of an area of the work has special significance and may convey different messages. Some people gifted with a since of tactile feeling are able to feel a special vibrancy emanating from their painting. Who Many of the significant early artists at Papunya were senior men who had vivid memories of their first contact with white people. Typically, they came out of the desert as adults during the 1950s drought and their connection to ritual law was strong. The first artists’ collective, Papunya Tula Artists, was set up in 1972 by men from this settlement. Papunya Tula Artists was the inspiration and model for many other Indigenous artists’ collectives. In 2009 there are 42 desert Indigenous art communities represented by Desert. The artwork was seen as a way to keep the culture alive, and carry Indigenous stories to the world. The movement was seen as being about recollection and cultural memories linked to Dreaming’s’ or story types. Why the modern aboriginal â€Å"dot art† movement started? Geoffrey Bardon AM (1940–2003) Geoffrey Bardon began working as an art teacher at Papunya Special School in 1971. Concerned that the school’s curriculum, appearance and ethos seemed out of step with Aboriginal culture, Bardon attempted unsuccessfully to involve his class in painting a series of murals on the school walls. Thereupon Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri and others created the Honey Ant Mural, which inspired many senior men to ask Bardon for painting materials and eventually begin painting in the Men’s Painting Room. The Men’s Painting Room, Papunya – Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula can be seen in the middle ground painting a Kalinypa Water Dreaming. His two boomerangs are placed in front of the board as percussion instruments, ready to be used to accompany the verses of the Water Dreaming, sung at intervals during the painting process, June-August 1971 Photo: Michael Jensen Convinced of the groundbreaking importance of what he was witnessing, Bardon made comprehensive photographic, moving film and written records of the artists and the paintings that they produced while he was at Papunya. From his primary research, Bardon wrote three books and made three films that initiated public interest in Western Desert art. In 1988 Bardon was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for his unique contribution to the Western Desert art movement. The Honey Ant Mural, July 1971 Geoffrey Bardon and his Arerrnte assistant, Obed Raggett, had noticed people drawing designs in the sand at Papunya. Following this precedent, they drew circles and spirals on the blackboard in an unsuccessful attempt to encourage their class of adolescent boys to paint a series of murals on a whitewashed, cement-rendered wall of the Papunya Special School. In late July 1971, after painting a series of smaller practice murals, seven painters collaborated in the painting of a monumental mural representing the Honey Ant Dreaming specific to the site of Papunya. Working under the direction of custodians Mick Wallangkarri Tjakamarra and Tom Onion Tjapangati, the artists included Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula and Don Ellis Tjapanangka. The Honey Ant Mural, a bold expression of Aboriginal culture in a government settlement, occasioned great rejoicing at Papunya and inspired immense pride in the community. Geoffrey Bardon in front of the Honey Ant Mural, Papunya, August 1971 Photo: Robert Bardon  © artists and their estates 2011, licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Limited and Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd Pintupi people from the Western Desert Pintupi is the name of a Western Desert language spoken by Aboriginal people who belong to a large stretch of country in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia and the western edge of the Northern Territory. When the Pintupi arrived in the government settlements east of their traditional lands between the 1930s and the 1950s, they adopted the term ‘Pintupi’ to distinguish themselves from the surrounding Aboriginal inhabitants as the ‘people from the west’. They were among the last Aboriginal people in Australia to abandon their nomadic lifestyle, the last family arriving into the newly established community of Kiwirrkura in 1984. In Papunya, the Pintupi, bound to each other by their dominant loyalties of relatedness and kinship, were ostracised due to their lack of conversance with kartiya (non-Aboriginal) customs and their perceived lack of sophistication. Diversity within â€Å"dot art† – showing two different artists works. Uta Uta Tjangala – Traditional Artist Uta Uta Tjangala, who is an exemplar of the historical cultural tradition, Uta Uta’s painting career and reputation is closely aligned to the artistic renaissance that began at Papunya in 1971. He was a founding member of the men’s painting group, inspired other Pintupi tribesmen, and becoming one of the most senior and influential painters amongst the group. Born in Western Australia in Drovers Hills, he made the epic journey to Haasts Bluff with his family during the severe drought of the mid to late 1950’s in the company of Charlie Tarawa. Two years later, after returning to his homelands, he made the journey once more with Timmy Payungka, Pinta Pinta and their families. Uta Uta Tjangala (early years) Employed as a gardener at the Papunya school Uta Uta, then in his 40’s, became one of the original group drawing and painting on composition board with encouragement from art teacher Geoff Bardon. When supplying paints to Uta Uta and his gathering group of enthusiastic friends, Bardon suggested the men use their existing cultural symbols to depict their Dreamings and links to the land. The Pintupi men, having been pushed from their traditional homelands by government policy and European development, painted under a bough shelter behind the camp ‘pouring into their work their acute longing for the places depicted †¦ and chanting the song cycles that told the stories of the designs as they worked’ . These early works aroused strong protest within Aboriginal communities when first exhibited in Alice Springs in 1974 because of the disclosure of secret and sacred knowledge. A period of experimentation followed, resulting in the development of a symbolic language of classic ideograms and the characteristic dot covered areas that veil sacred elements from the uninitiated. The large, tribally mixed population of Papunya intensified the interaction, but under the influence of artists like Uta Uta, the painting group was able to break through the political and cultural constraints toward a safer stylistic conformity, and prepare the way for personal and distinctive styles to emerge. Uta Uta in particular, with his exciting and charismatic personality as well as his bold and dynamic style, played a vital role in these developments. Bardon recalled many years later, ‘everything that came from him was genuine’ . Uta Uta’s 1971 and 1972 paintings generally featured major story elements with only the barest dotted in-fill within the iconography and small sections of the background. The aesthetic balance and harmony of these works is derived through colour and weight rather than by a geometric division of the painted surface. The rather crude dotting and line work of these early paintings on board embues them with an energy and power that is less apparent in his later more technically proficient works. His paintings are far stronger and more powerful when the clean unadorned background remains, unlike paintings by his contemporary Kaapa, whose early works became more aesthetically appealing as he began to in-fill the background. In developing a style that censored the more secret and sacred content in his painting, Uta Uta added more dot-work as the years went by. He painted more Tingari sites completely surrounded by neat dots that became less and less detailed. Despite his advancing age during the late 1970’s he continued to paint as he spent increasing time at outstations west of Papunya and, at the beginning of the 1980’s, he completed what was to become one of the most important and revered works of the entire Western Desert art movement. Yumari 1981, possibly his largest and most significant painting, reveals the mythical Tingari ancestors traveling across vast stretches of country as they create sites and institute rituals. Yumari is a rocky outcrop in his home country and the key ceremonial site of the area. Story elements and natural features blend seamlessly into a beautifully balanced geometry of concentric circles and connecting lines that enclose a central, abstracted figure. This body continues rather than interrupts the intense, minutely dotted background configurations, yet still holds the central focus. The work is characterised by the sinuous movement of converging regular and irregular shapes, accentuated by outlining white dots. The predominant use of an earthy red alongside vivid yellow ochre, further emphasizes the assertive quality in this cohesive and powerful statement of Aboriginal tradition. The work was exhibited at the XVIII Bienal de Sao Paulo in 1983 and is now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia. While painting Yumari, important discussions were taking place at Papunya concerning the move back to the Pintupi homelands at Kintore. Land rights legislation during the 1970’s returned ownership of the land to its traditional owners and Uta Uta was a strong advocate for resettlement.