Why was paint believed to give sculpture magical or life-giving power in some Oceanic cultures?

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dilly bag; Aboriginal Australian art, Northern Territory, Australia — Oceanic art and architecture An Aboriginal Australian decorating a tightly woven dilly bag with white, yellow, and ochre (red) paints, Northern Territory, Australia, 1948.

In many Oceanic cultures, paint was believed to possess magical, vivifying powers that could animate a sculpture, often doing so literally within a religiosymbolic context.1

Rather than being viewed as sacred in and of themselves, many Oceanic religious objects were considered human-made vessels into which supernatural beings could be induced for human purposes. Because these supernatural entities were regarded as powerful and unpredictable, the application of paint served as a vital step in the process of bringing these figures to life, effectively bridging the gap between a physical object and a conduit for spiritual presence.21