Summary

Note: This object includes derogatory depictions of a First Nations person. Such depictions are not condoned by Museums Victoria which considers them to be racist. Historical distance and context do not excuse or erase this fact.

Souvenir cotton tea towel, printed with a map of Australia with random rivers and First Peoples sites identified, manufactured in China. As well as images of James Cook and a First Peoples man, there are images of First Peoples 'hunting', a stylised kangaroo, a Tasmanian tiger, and the Royal Exhibition Building.

Physical Description

Long rectangular white cotton, printed in full colour. A rectangular ground of cream, overprinted with an image of Australia. Above the land are two portrait busts in brown: an Aboriginal elder and James Cook. Over the north-west corner of Australia are two black figures, carrying hunting equipment; over the south-west corner a stylised Aboriginal design kangaroo; over the north three boomerangs, and over the east an Aboriginal holding a boomerang and didgeredoo. Below the map of Australia is an image of the Royal Exhibition Building. In the lower left hand corner there is an image of a compass, and in the lower right hand corner below Tasmania and Tasmanian Tiger. Places and landscape features are identified in text.

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