Photo by Trish Barnard
Accession Number: A27379
Museum: South Australian Museum
Date Acquired:
Collector: Norman B. Tindale
Date Collected: 1938
Where from: Mulgrave River
Description: L1020 x W325 x D100mm
Carved figwood with natural pigments. Tindale had noted that the design represents the Scorpion ’dumbun’.
This slightly curved scorpion ‘dumbun’ design shield now in South Australian Museum collection is almost exactly the same as A42210 Shield too, and see Michael Boiyool Anning (1955-) contemporary version of this Yidinji shield design which is held in the Queensland Art Gallery collection ‘Scorpion’ 2001.019a-b which is an important totem for the Yidinji Dulgubarra people (Barnard 2013).
Note: It was not clear where along the Mulgrave River that this item had been collected from.
See: ‘Norman Tindale’ authored by Russell McGregor
http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=854
Contact: Professor John Carty, Head of Anthropology, South Australian Museum, North Terrace Adelaide, SA 5000 AUSTRALIA
Phone: (08) 8207 7384
International: +61 8 8207 7384