A northern New South Wales shield

This shield style is most closely associated to the Gulmari type of shields which are connected to central-southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. Gulmari, which means ‘shield’ in the Gunwinmal language, are generally smaller, heavier shields that feature painting in natural pigments and pipeclay, and often they are deeply incised, featuring blocky, relief-carved geometric designs. They are unlike the densely engraved broad and parrying shields from the southeast of Australia that celebrate myriad lines and patterns, and differ too from the large, curving, colourful shields found further north in the Rainforest region of Queensland.

This work was made by a northern New South Wales maker, as the painted design on the front of the shield is comparable to linework the Bundjalung and Biripi paint on the body for ceremony. Through community consultation, it was determined this work is likely by a Bundjalung artist, as the practice of dipping three fingers into a wet natural pigment paste (ochre) to then draw them across the chest aligns with the distinct groupings of three disecting horizontal lines on the shield. There is limited example of this practice historically, documented in photography or recorded through writings in the archive, apart from the photography of Thomas Dick, an amateur photographer who recorded members of the Biripi community in the early decades of the twentieth century wearing such body paint.

Limited examples of northern New South Wales shields with this particular linework can be found in other public collecting institutions, however a similar example to this Gulmari can be found in the collection of Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern art, acquired in 2021 (see Gulmari shield late 1800s, Acc#2021.499).