# data[].physicalDescription
A pigmented bark container made from a rectangular strip of bark folded over and oversewn along the sides with plant fibre. There are remnants of pigmented adhesive on some of the oversewn edges. At the top edge of one side of the container splits in the bark have been stitched together. The container is covered with a lattice design with yellow stripes on one diagonal and white stripes on the other.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A preform container formed from a length of medium coloured bark, truncated at both ends, with a concavo-convex cross section and two lengths of wood on inside, one of which lies loose and the other in place to prevent the bark from closing.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art (ATSIAA) collection no. 1

# data[].physicalDescription
A bark container. The container is rectangular with one rounded end and an opening at the opposite end. The container was constructed using a single piece of bark folded in half with the sides secured together by stitches made from strands of grass. One side of the opening has been decorated with a overlapping grass weave threaded through the bark. The exterior surface has been pigmented with red, white and black markings.

# data[].significanceStatement
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art collection comprises 2050 artworks and other objects.  The artworks - which numerically dominate the collection - were produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The accumulation of these artworks into a single collection has resulted from the choices and selections made during a 38 year period by a variety of staff working for the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the national, regional and local levels.

The collection spans the years following the 1967 referendum, when dramatic changes in the governance of Aboriginal people took place, up to 2005 when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved. It provides a snapshot of the diversity and changes in Indigenous art and its representation which occurred during the period of its formation. The small number of 'non-art' objects in the collection is also significant in providing insights into the working of the various Commonwealth bodies involved in Indigenous affairs. As well as the significance of many of the individual pieces, the collection is also significant as a whole, as a complex artefact stemming from Australia's history of governance of Australian Indigenous peoples.

# data[].isAggregatedBy[].title
Show all objects included in the ATSIAA  collection

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A pigmented cylindrical bark container with bottom and side lashed with split cane, and resined. Loops of fibre string are threaded through holes in top as handle.

# data[].spatial[].title
Kunmunya Mission (aka Port George IV mission), West Kimberley, Western Australia, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single pieces of bark shaped into container by drawing ends together with fibre binding.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A pigmented bark container made from a rectangular strip of bark folded over and oversewn along the sides with plant fibre. Part of the opening edge of the container has also been oversewn with plant fibre. There are the remains of pigmented adhesive on some of the oversewn edges. At the top of one side of the container, stitches have been used to outline a small rectangle in the bark. In the rectangle space two holes have been made and plant fibre has been threaded through and secured with knots, to form a handle. The container has a faded symmetrical design with a central vertical line in red edged with a yellow stripe then a white stripe. One either side of this line is an X in white with yellow edging, with the spaces around it filled with cross hatching in red and white.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark container, bound at the sides with fibre.

# data[].spatial[].title
Bathurst Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].relation[].title
Glass plate negative of containers collected by Herbert Basedow at Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, in 1911, photographed by Herbert Basedow between 1911 and 1914

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A pigmented bark container made from a rectangular strip of bark folded over and oversewn along the sides with plant fibre. Part of the opening edge of the container has also been oversewn with plant fibre and all of the oversewn edges have been covered with pigmented adhesive some of which is missing. The container is red pigmented with a diagonal lattice design with lines in red outlined in white and crossing lines in black outlined in yellow. The diamond spaces between the lines are filled with dot or circle patterns in yellow or white.  On one side there is a red horizontal band through the pattern and on the other is a brown horizontal band with yellow X pattern on it.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Container made from folded bark, sewn and sealed with adhesive at the sides. The top is reinforced with split cane, and the handle is also split cane.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].temporal[].description
by the Australlian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark container with cane handle, pigmented decoration

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark container, bound both sides with fibre, with one lip bound with plaited fibre. Container features vertical bands of pigment in red, green, white and yellow with loose cross-hatching.

# data[].spatial[].title
Melville Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].spatial[].title
Bathurst Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Ochres on bark. White tipped headed fish with white fins, near 2 horn-like objects & U-shaped object. Abstract design, crosshatching in brown, yellow & white with some black. Location: Milingimbi, NT. Artist: Mindjel. Group: Djambarbingu

# data[].spatial[].title
Milingimbi, Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].spatial[].title
Milingimbi, Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art (ATSIAA) collection no. 1

# data[].physicalDescription
A basket made from bark. The basket has a base and a handle. The base is constructed with rectangular piece of bark that has been rounded with the ends pleated and bound together. The handle is formed with bark and attached to the pleated ends and bound with bark strips.

# data[].significanceStatement
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art collection comprises 2050 artworks and other objects.  The artworks - which numerically dominate the collection - were produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The accumulation of these artworks into a single collection has resulted from the choices and selections made during a 38 year period by a variety of staff working for the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the national, regional and local levels.

The collection spans the years following the 1967 referendum, when dramatic changes in the governance of Aboriginal people took place, up to 2005 when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved. It provides a snapshot of the diversity and changes in Indigenous art and its representation which occurred during the period of its formation. The small number of 'non-art' objects in the collection is also significant in providing insights into the working of the various Commonwealth bodies involved in Indigenous affairs. As well as the significance of many of the individual pieces, the collection is also significant as a whole, as a complex artefact stemming from Australia's history of governance of Australian Indigenous peoples.

# data[].isAggregatedBy[].title
Show all objects included in the ATSIAA  collection

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single piece of bark shaped into a container by drawing ends together with fibre binding.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Container. Narrow bark folded in half and laced together at longitudinal edges with split cane. Pigmented with enclosed squared panels of cross hatching, parallel lines and dots.

# data[].spatial[].title
Bathurst Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Professor Henry and Luise Krips collection

# data[].physicalDescription
A strip of bark bent in half longitudinally with the ends tied together with commercial string.

# data[].significanceStatement
The Professor Henry and Luise Krips collection comprises 260 Aboriginal artefacts including weapons, ornaments and stone implements.

The Professor Henry and Luise Krips collection comprises a wide range of artefacts from all mainland states and the Northern Territory. Henry Krips was a symphony orchestra director and his work often took him and his wife Luise to Europe and Great Britain where they would purchase artefacts for their collection and bring them back to Australia.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].spatial[].title
Milikapiti (Snake Bay), Melville Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (AASEAL) collection

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark painting of fish depicted in X-ray style.

# data[].spatial[].title
Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].spatial[].title
Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].spatial[].title
Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Canoe made from a single sheet of bark lashed together at each end with split cane.   Poles are lashed to either side at the top edge and there is split cane running between the poles in the centre.

# data[].spatial[].title
Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].spatial[].title
Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].temporal[].description
Period Warner was doing fieldwork in northeast Arnhem Land

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A pigmented bark container made from a rectangular strip of bark folded over and oversewn along the sides with plant fibre. Part of the opening edge of the container has also been oversewn with plant fibre. At centre of the top edge there are two short rows of stitches. Beneath this are two holes with a two ply fibre string threaded through, and knotted at the back, to form a handle. The container has a diagonal lattice design in yellow and white pigment. A rectangular wooden label has the text "A-DC 27" on one side and "Bath & Melv" on the other.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Ochres on bark. Female mimi spirit figure smoking a pipe, with raised arms. Head, hands, pipe and feet in white and other areas are dotted. Brown background.

# data[].spatial[].title
Minjilang, Croker Island, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A single piece of bark shaped into a deep container. The bark is drawn together with fibre binding into eight pleats.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].spatial[].title
Yirrkala, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A deep container formed from a sheet of bark with narrow ends gathered together in pleats. The pleats are held together with a length of threaded and knotted fibre.

# data[].spatial[].title
Cape Leveque, Western Australia, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single piece of bark shaped into an oblong container by drawing together the ends with fibre binding.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Colour close-up photograph of bark texture- orange and red.

# data[].significanceStatement
The collection comprises a broad range of objects including batiks, pokerwork carvings, paintings and pastel drawings on paper and other art and craft items, bibles and school readers in Pitjantjatjara, drawings by school children, photograph albums, videos and a small number of stone implements.

The collection is significant for the depth and range of material associated with a single Aboriginal settlement at Ernabella, now known as Pukatja, its art centre and with Deaconness Winifred Hilliard who was the Arts Advisor to Ernabella between 1954 and 1986. The collection largely dates to this period. Along with other material previously donated by Hilliard, this collection documents the history of Ernabella and the women's art movement there between, but not limited to, 1954 and 1986.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single piece of bark shaped into container by drawing together with fibre binding

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A single piece of bark shaped into a container. Each end is drawn together with a fibre binding. 'N.TERR' Is written twice on the container in black ink.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark painting depicting vertical patters with concentric circles inside.  The image resembles three pukamani poles.

# data[].spatial[].title
Milingimbi, Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single piece of bark, shaped into a container by being drawn together with fibre binding.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art (ATSIAA) collection no. 1

# data[].physicalDescription
An oblong container made from a single piece of bark. The bark has been rounded to form a base and two sides with the ends pleated and gathered together. The pleats have been bound with a length of fibre string. The exterior surface is pigmented in red. Inside the container is a nest of dried grasses.

# data[].significanceStatement
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art collection comprises 2050 artworks and other objects.  The artworks - which numerically dominate the collection - were produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The accumulation of these artworks into a single collection has resulted from the choices and selections made during a 38 year period by a variety of staff working for the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the national, regional and local levels.

The collection spans the years following the 1967 referendum, when dramatic changes in the governance of Aboriginal people took place, up to 2005 when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved. It provides a snapshot of the diversity and changes in Indigenous art and its representation which occurred during the period of its formation. The small number of 'non-art' objects in the collection is also significant in providing insights into the working of the various Commonwealth bodies involved in Indigenous affairs. As well as the significance of many of the individual pieces, the collection is also significant as a whole, as a complex artefact stemming from Australia's history of governance of Australian Indigenous peoples.

# data[].spatial[].title
Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia

# data[].isAggregatedBy[].title
Show all objects included in the ATSIAA  collection

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art (ATSIAA) collection no. 1

# data[].physicalDescription
A painting on bark featuring people hunting sharks and turtles. There are two black boats, one each at the top and bottom, outlined in white with three figures in each, paddling. In the middle are seven black sharks with white outlines. Underneath the boat are two black turtles and five black sharks all outlined in white. The background consists of brown, yellow and white cross hatchings. Wooden sticks are attached to the top and bottom of the bark with string.

# data[].significanceStatement
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art collection comprises 2050 artworks and other objects.  The artworks - which numerically dominate the collection - were produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The accumulation of these artworks into a single collection has resulted from the choices and selections made during a 38 year period by a variety of staff working for the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the national, regional and local levels.

The collection spans the years following the 1967 referendum, when dramatic changes in the governance of Aboriginal people took place, up to 2005 when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved. It provides a snapshot of the diversity and changes in Indigenous art and its representation which occurred during the period of its formation. The small number of 'non-art' objects in the collection is also significant in providing insights into the working of the various Commonwealth bodies involved in Indigenous affairs. As well as the significance of many of the individual pieces, the collection is also significant as a whole, as a complex artefact stemming from Australia's history of governance of Australian Indigenous peoples.

# data[].spatial[].title
Nhulunbuy, Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[].isAggregatedBy[].title
Show all objects included in the ATSIAA  collection

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single piece of bark, shaped into a container by being drawn together with fibre binding.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Single piece of bark, shaped into a container, by drawing the ends together with fibre binding.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art (ATSIAA) collection no. 1

# data[].physicalDescription
A bark container. The container is rectangular with one rounded end and a rounded opening at the opposite end. The container was constructed using a single piece of bark folded in half with the sides secured together by stitches made from strands of grass. One side of the opening has been decorated with a overlapping grass weave threaded through the bark. On the same side has been threaded through the bark a strand of plaited grass forming a small handle. The exterior surface has been pigmented with red, white, yellow dots and cross hatchings on a black background. On the interior handwritten with ink is "SO(A)63".

# data[].significanceStatement
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art collection comprises 2050 artworks and other objects.  The artworks - which numerically dominate the collection - were produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The accumulation of these artworks into a single collection has resulted from the choices and selections made during a 38 year period by a variety of staff working for the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the national, regional and local levels.

The collection spans the years following the 1967 referendum, when dramatic changes in the governance of Aboriginal people took place, up to 2005 when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved. It provides a snapshot of the diversity and changes in Indigenous art and its representation which occurred during the period of its formation. The small number of 'non-art' objects in the collection is also significant in providing insights into the working of the various Commonwealth bodies involved in Indigenous affairs. As well as the significance of many of the individual pieces, the collection is also significant as a whole, as a complex artefact stemming from Australia's history of governance of Australian Indigenous peoples.

# data[].isAggregatedBy[].title
Show all objects included in the ATSIAA  collection

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A bark canoe made from one piece of bark folded lengthways into a V shape and sewn together at each end with plant fibre into two points, like a fish tail. The ends have been sewn with a combination of oversew and basket stitches. The sides are supported by two poles with pointed ends, fastened with bands of oversewn plant fibre. There are four cross bars of plant fibre looped around the poles at each end and bound with plant fibre across the middle. Text in black at the top edge of one end reads 'BATHURST ISAND', and on the side of the other end 'A-C 3'.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].description
This is part of a collection of First Nations' objects and related material which Wayne and Vicky Masters acquired while working at the Mowanjum mission near Derby, during the period 1966 to 1971.

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark container which is oversewn at its narrow edges to form a cylinder. The cylinder is joined to a circular base with lacing and features a two-ply fibre string handle. It is pigmented with black red and white on a red ground and covered with film of (adhesive?).

# data[].significanceStatement
The Gwen and Wayne Masters collection no.1 consist of fifty objects from Mowanjum mission in north-west Australia. The items in this collection include two religious books in Worora language, painting and artists equipment, boab nut carvings, wooden clapsticks, animal parts (turtle), spindles, elliptical concave wooden containers, shields, elliptical wooden shield with raised handle, wooden boomerangs for hunting and fighting, four pieces of solid form red ochre, wooden spearthrower, spears  for hunting, fishing and fighting, stone tools, fighting sticks, cylindrical wooden clubs, hollow cylindrical dronepipe, bullroarer, fire drill set and cylindrical bark container with string handle.

Mowanjum, a Worowa word meaning ‘settled at last’, is an Aboriginal community located near Derby in north-west Australia.  Members of the Worowa, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbul clan groups form the majority of Mowanjum’s residents, who were brought together by missionaries in the early twentieth century at the Kunmunya Presbyterian Mission and were forcibly moved across three different locations before arriving at the present site.  Since the departure of the missionaries in the 1970s, Mowanjum has operated as an Indigenous corporation with an elected governing committee. Gwen and Wayne Masters assembled the collection while working on the Mowanjum mission from 1966 to 1971. They donated the collection to the National Museum in 1982. The collection reflects the diverse range of Indigenous objects manufactured for sale by mission residents of Mowanjum during the latter twentieth century, as well as the collecting interests of Mowanjum mission workers of the time.  The objects were highly prized by the Masters and provide material evidence of cultural practices such as traditional hunting, decorative arts, music and storytelling.

# data[].spatial[].title
Mowanjum, West Kimberley, Western Australia, Australia

# data[].spatial[].title
Mowanjum, West Kimberley, Western Australia, Australia

# data[].temporal[].description
Period that the Masters' were working at Mowanjum mission

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
A pigmented bark container made from a rectangular strip of bark folded over and oversewn along the sides with plant fibre. Part of the opening edge of the container has also been oversewn with plant fibre. There are some remnants of pigmented adhesive on the stitches. The container has a grid pattern on both sides consisting of horizontal white stripes with yellow edges alternating with rows of red, yellow and cross hatched vertical rectangles. Down the centre of the container is a row of yellow circles alternating with cross hatched rectangles, flanked by white stripes with rounded ends.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art (ATSIAA) collection no. 1

# data[].physicalDescription
A bark container. The container is cylindrical with a flat base and an opening at the opposite end. The container was constructed using a single piece of bark rolled around on top of itself and secured stitches made from strands of bark. The base was cut from a separate piece of wood and stitch to the sides with strands of bark. The container is pigmented brown with white speckles. A handle has been attached to opposing side of the container near the opening. The handle was constructed by coiling strands of twisted of string together, threading them through the bark and coiling the strands back through the coils in the handle.

# data[].significanceStatement
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Art collection comprises 2050 artworks and other objects.  The artworks - which numerically dominate the collection - were produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The accumulation of these artworks into a single collection has resulted from the choices and selections made during a 38 year period by a variety of staff working for the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), the Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the national, regional and local levels.

The collection spans the years following the 1967 referendum, when dramatic changes in the governance of Aboriginal people took place, up to 2005 when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved. It provides a snapshot of the diversity and changes in Indigenous art and its representation which occurred during the period of its formation. The small number of 'non-art' objects in the collection is also significant in providing insights into the working of the various Commonwealth bodies involved in Indigenous affairs. As well as the significance of many of the individual pieces, the collection is also significant as a whole, as a complex artefact stemming from Australia's history of governance of Australian Indigenous peoples.

# data[].spatial[].title
Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia

# data[].isAggregatedBy[].title
Show all objects included in the ATSIAA  collection

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].description
This numurrgu (baby cradle) was made and painted by Lily Mindindil Karadada, a member of one of Australia’s most celebrated artistic families. The cradle was made from locally sourced ochres, white gum binding, and string made from the roots of the stringybark tree. 

The cradle features a number of Wandjinas. The Kira Kiro Art Centre in Kalumburu describes Wandjinas as “ancestral spirits who created country, people and animals in the northwest Kimberly before turning themselves into rock paintings. They are sometimes called ’lightning man’ or ‘rain maker’ and every year they replenish water holes, creeks and rivers through making the wet season. The Wandjina can be vengeful if people break the law, by making savage storms and cyclones.”

# data[].physicalDescription
A bark container made from a length of bark gathered together in pleats at narrow ends, bound and secured with 2-ply fibre string. The exterior surface is pigmented with five wandjina figures, a snake, a shield and a stickman holding a boomerang in each hand. The decorations are red on a white background.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Painting on bark. Design separated horizontally into two sections: top has animal figure; bottom has canoe-shaped figure. Surrounded by dot and line designs in sections.

# data[].spatial[].title
Milikapiti (Snake Bay), Melville Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].description
Artist: Blanch Puruntatameri (Tima Pima).

# data[].physicalDescription
A bark container. A long length of narrow bark joined longitudinally and oversewn with split cane to form a deep container. One lip edge is decorated with running stitch. The flat surfaces are pigmented with bands of chevrons, dots, parallel lines and crosshatching. The inside of the container is pigmented in red.

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Ochres on bark, metal hangers. Along bottom of bark is a band outlined in yellow & decorated with white dashes. Along top of band are 4 and 1/2 similarly decorated trees or plants. Black background. .

# data[].significanceStatement
This collection of ninety-four objects comprises three boomerangs, a club, two spearthrowers, two fire sticks, a hollow wooden smoking pipe, two ceremonial poles, six spears, seven spearheads, three model wood dugout canoes, one model wood canoe, a didjeridu and forty-one bark paintings. All but two of the paintings are from Groote Eylandt, N T.  The remaining paintings and objects are from Yirrkala, N T.  A self-confessed "ardent" collector of Aboriginal art and associate of anthropologist, lawyer, collector and curator, Dr Leonhard Adam, Ernst Redlich acquired this collection by "mail order", circa 1956, from Reverend Allan G Rankine, then  Superintendent of the Methodist Overseas Mission, Yirrkala N T. In a letter to Rankine, Redlich had stressed his desire to collect "very old" art works; in his reply, Rankine explained that the bark paintings themselves were not old, but were produced "mainly… by old men" who painted the stories of their "ancient legends".  The collection was donated to the National Museum by his wife, Josephine Redlich, and son, Peter Redlich, in 1986. 
 
The largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Groote Eylandt lies approximately fifty kilometers off the Northern Territory mainland, opposite Blue Mud Bay and is the homeland of the Anindilyakwa people. Groote Eylandt art, like other Aboriginal art, reflected and illustrated everyday life as well as being a repository of sacred and symbolic meaning. The paintings in this collection depict recurring Groote Eylandt subjects, which include ancestral beings and creation spirits, totemic winds, humans, land and marine animals, birds and landscapes.  Like most bark painting, Groote Eylandt bark art is highly illustrative and concerned with narrative.  However, unlike mainland Arnhem Land art, Groote Eylandt art is distinctive because of its relatively minimalist style portraying red, yellow or red ochred figurative or abstract representations against a black manganese-based, occasionally red or yellow, ochred background. To prepare the bark for painting, strips were cut from a stringy-bark tree and the flaky parts stripped. After curing by smoking over a fire, the bark was alternately buried in sand and exposed to sunlight before being cut into the required shape and size.  The surface was rubbed with the juice of a local plant, which acted as an adhesive. After a light coating of ochre, coloured ochres were applied with fine brushes made from human hair or fibrous bark.  This collection also includes several paintings by Yolngu artist Mungurrawuy Yunipingu. In contrast to Groote Eylandt art, Yolngu art is composed of formalized and prescribed geometric designs which incorporate multiple layers of meaning. Complex figurative and symbolic design effects are achieved through use of cross-hatching or rrark, and many patterns derive from ancestral stories and ceremonies.

# data[].spatial[].title
Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].description
Collected in 1965 during Western Desert film trip at Warbuton Mission, Baldjar, Tika Tika areas.

# data[].physicalDescription
A concave bark container with one side rim very slightly curved and the other side rim curving outward briefly then inward towards the opposite end. One end is straight but sloping outward and the opposite end rounded but with a small indentation. The inner surface is the natural surface of bark. The outer surface is a natural light colour with some of this layer removed across the length. There are noticeable cracks at both ends heading inward and one crack from the side. There is some cracking between the layers of bark. The container is labelled 'WD 65 - A3' in black pen on the outer rim.

# data[].significanceStatement
The collection comprises 18 Aboriginal artefacts, including spearthrowers, wooden dishes and stone tools, mainly acquired by filmmaker Ian Dunlop in the 1960s from the Western Desert in Western Australia, northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. The collection also includes Dunlop's briefcase and a Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs plastic bag.

The Aboriginal artefacts are significant for their high level of documentation. They largely comprise items made by people living in the 'desert' for their own use or that Dunlop filmed in the 1960s being made or used. The names of the people who made or used them are also often known. As a filmmaker who produced a number of important films on Aboriginal cultures from the 1960s to the 1990s, Dunlop is an important figure in the history of Australian ethnographic film production. He was involved with the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, an early Australian civil rights organisation.

Donated by Ian Dunlop

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Painting on bark. Design with two concentric circles at top and bottom, each circle enclosed in a large diamond. Surrounded by cross-hatch and dot designs.

# data[].spatial[].title
Milikapiti (Snake Bay), Melville Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].collection.title
Maningrida Arts and Crafts 07/09/1973 collection

# data[].physicalDescription
Melaleuca bark rectangle formed into a basket, with a handle of bark and fibre binding.

# data[].spatial[].title
Maningrida, West Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Bark container bound with fibre, with a fibre handle.

# data[].spatial[].title
Milikapiti (Snake Bay), Melville Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC

# data[].physicalDescription
Melaleuca bark container formed into a rectangular basket and with a handle bound in the centre with bark strips.

# data[].temporal[].description
Date received at Australian Institute of Anatomy

# data[]._meta.copyright
Copyright National Museum of Australia / CC BY-NC