Photo by Trish Barnard
Accession Number: QE1582
Museum: Queensland Museum
Date Acquired:
Collector: Clement Lindley Wragge (1852-1922)
Date Collected: c.1900
Where from: North Queensland
Description: Spear shield. Ochred in yellow, red, black and white. Holes through shield either side of the boss;from decay and a section is missing on lesser convex end. Munsell colours:FRONT:10YR6/8 – Brownish yellow, 5YR2.5/1 – Black, 10YR7/2 – Light grey. BACK: Unpainted. These heavily decorated shields were given to young Aboriginal men after their initiation ceremony. The design identified him and to which group or clan he belonged. The shield was cut from the buttress flange of a large rainforest tree, such as the Blue Quandong (Elaeocarpus grandis) or Variegated Fig (Ficus variegate). Being a light wood the shields could also be used as a float to cross rivers. The designs were painted on the shield using a paint brush made from the frayed end of a piece of Lawyer Cane (Calamus moti) (Barnard 2005).
As a Queensland Government Meteorologist from 1887 to 1903 Clement Lindley Wragge had many opportunities to collect Aboriginal artefacts (Barnard 2014).
See: ‘Clement Wragge’ authored by Russell McGregor