Summary

This shield was included in the 'Great Australian Art Exhibition' that travelled to the Queensland Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia. It is said to have been the inspiration for Michael Annings recreation of the form in the Convention Centre in Cairns.

Walter Edmond Roth, the Chief Protector for Aborigines in Queensland in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, noted that these shields were part of an indigenous trade network, in particular the 'southern foreign trade' from the Mulgrave River. Rainforest shields were highly sought after by collectors, who were particularly keen to get old shields that had been successfully used many times. Botanists, ornithologists, ethnographers and photographers all ventured onto this northern frontier in the nineteenth century and acquired examples of these and the other distinctive objects made by rainforest peoples. From the 1870s the remote valleys behind Tully, Cairns and Mossman became a prime focus of mining and other ventures, and shields were collected in large numbers through to the following decade. However by the turn of the twentieth century, the trade with Europeans and the Indigenous trade network, which Roth noted was unlike that of 'the old days', had almost come to an end.

The distinctive kidney-shape reflects the shape of the buttress roots of native fig trees used by Aboriginal people of the rainforest region of northeast Queensland. The colours and complex abstract patterns are totemic designs associated with marine life, animals, birds, insects, leaf patterns or astronomical observations. Usually two men painted these shields working from either end and, depending on the detail required, pigments were applied with a stick frayed at the ends to form a brush or those made from hair or with the fingers. Pigments were ground into a powder with a pestle-type stone and mixed with a binding fluid. Each of the four language groups of the rainforest region had their own specific design elements - those around Tully generally used stripes and in the Cardwell region diamond patterns dominated.

Physical Description

An assymetrical shield made of a single piece of softwood painted with natural pigments. The outer surface is painted abstract geometric patterning outlined in black and infilled with white and red. The handle is carved into the reverse side and at the same point on the outer surface is a raised rectangular section.

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