Photographed by Wayne Beck.
Accession Number: QE26152
Museum: Queensland Museum
Date Acquired: 1989
Collector: Gladys Jean Henry (1921-2010)
Date Collected: 1970s
Where from: Murray Upper
Description: L112 x W83 x D41mm. Ground edge axe. Fine grained granite, light brown colour. Pronounced very smooth hafting groove. Haft groove is 6cm long, approx. 1.5cm wide (at biggest pint) 0.8cm deep on either side. Well ground edge with some attrition, flakes or scars. Red ochre on underside of ground edge (lateral margin). Indentations on lateral margins for haft groove. Piece missing from one lateral margin at the proximal end. On distal side of haft grooves large negative scars present. Called Muyin by Jirrbal and Girramay people. Muyin, stone axes, were one of the most valuable tools used for building huts, gathering wood for the camp fire or making shields. This axe head has a groove to accommodate a handle made from a piece of split lawyer cane, that would have been wrapped over the axe head, and bound with a broad strip of fibre and secured with bilgar, black tar or resin. Some Elders have suggested that the groove may have been made with an Ooyurka (often called slate T stone). This object was part of Gladys Henry’s (1921-2010) collection.
QM acquired this object by transfer from JCU Collection. Originally donated to JCU by the Australia Council. In 1979 Gladys Henry sold the collection of 588 artefacts to the Aboriginal Arts Board of Australia Council for $5,800 who then deposited the collection with the Material Culture Unit at James Cook University. A decade later in 1989 the Australia Council then gifted the collection to James Cook University. This gesture was celebrated with an official handover on 10 April 1990 attended by dignitaries from both organisations, Gladys Henry and local traditional owner representatives, with performances by Waddama Dancers. The collection is still one of the most important collections to be assembled after Walter Roth travelled through the Cardwell and Tully region in the early 1900s, and contains excellent examples of material culture production that continued well into the 1970s. Some of Henry’s collection is also held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Her daughter Valerie Keenan is the Arts Manager at Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre in Cardwell.
See: ‘Gladys Henry’ authored by Trish Barnard
http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=797
Contact: Chantal Knowles, Head of Cultures and Histories, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, QLD 4001 AUSTRALIA
Phone: (07) 3842 9038