Photo by Trish Barnard

Accession Number: A42210

Museum: South Australian Museum

Date Acquired:

Collector: Ursula McConnel (1888-1957)

Date Collected: 1927-1934

Where from: Yarrabah

Description:

Carved wood with natural pigments, decorated with the Scorpion design, ‘dumbun’.

There is a photo of Fred Mandinggarabai (Ursula McConnel 1935:68) holding this scorpion ‘dumbun’ design shield now in South Australian Museum collection no A42210, which is almost exactly the same as 27379 collected by Tindale; Illustrated in McConnel, Ursula, ‘Inspiration and Design in Aboriginal Art’ in Oceania, 1935, p.59; 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).

See: http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/gallery/aacg/speakingland/story01/01_module.htm

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

Email: john.carty@samuseum.sa.gov.au