Unknown
(Australia)
- Title
- The dugong
- Place of origin
-
Groote Eylandt →
Northern Territory →
Australia
- Year
- 1948
- Media category
- Bark painting
- Materials used
- natural pigments on bark
- Dimensions
-
35.6 x 63.5cm
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of the Commonwealth Government 1956
- Accession number
- 9263
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Adjira-madja is an increase centre for dugongs….The dugong, a sea mammal, has come to the surface to breathe. When the Aboriginal people see the creature submerge, they paddle to that place and sing the magical chant which exhorts it to return to the surface at the same spot. If the dugong obeys the chant, it is killed.
[The dugong] is the painting of the dugong, the flesh of which is a favourite food of the Aboriginal people. The conventionalised designs on the body represent the skin markings of the animal.
[Charles P. Mountford, 'Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land vol.1: Art, myth and symbolism', pg. 67]
- Bibliography (5)
-
Look Aug 2009, Aug 2009, 40 (colour illus.). Membership events section.
Jonathan Jones (Australia, b.1978) (Author), Mountford Gifts: Works from the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land 1948, Sydney, 2009, 3, 4.
Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Steven Miller (Australia) (Author), Tony Tuckson (Egypt; England; Australia, b.1921, d.1973) (Author), James Scougall (Australia) (Author), Mollie Gowing (Australia, d.2009) (Author), Harry Messel (Author), Craig Brush (Author), Ronald Fine (Australia) (Author), Alison Fine (Australia) (Author), Gordon Davies (Australia) (Author), Rosalind Davies (Author), Christopher Hodges (Australia, b.1954) (Author), Helen Eager (Australia, b.1952) (Author), Rosemary Gow (Australia) (Author), Sandra Phillips (Author), Daphne Wallace (Australia, b.1964) (Author), Ken Watson (Australia) (Author), Gamarada, Sydney, 1996, 13 (colour illus.).
National Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Purchases and Acquisitions for 1956 National Art Gallery of N.S.W., Sydney, 1956, 21. cat.no. 21; titled 'The Dugong'
Charles P Mountford (Australia) (Editor), Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land 1: Art, myth and symbolism, Melbourne, 1956, 67 (illus.). plate no. 20D
- Exhibition history (2)
-
Gamarada, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Nov 1996–16 Feb 1997.
Mountford Gifts: Works from the American Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land 1948, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21 Mar 2009–03 Jun 2009.
