The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections Edited by Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited 187 Grattan Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia [email protected] http://www.mup.com.au First published 2008 Text © Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby 2008 Design and typography © Melbourne University Publishing Ltd 2008 This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher. Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher. Designed by Phil Campbell Typeset by J&M Typesetting Printed in Australia by the Design and Print Centre, The University of Melbourne Warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should exercise caution when viewing this publication as it may contain images of deceased persons. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry The makers and making of indigenous australian museum collections:/ editors Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen, Louise Hamby. 9780522855685 (pbk.) 9780522855692 (pdf.) Includes index. Bibliography. Ethnological museums and collections--Australia Aboriginal Australians—Material culture. Aboriginal Australians—Museums. Torres Strait Islanders—Museums. Torres Strait Islanders—Material culture. Museums—Social aspects—Australia. 305.8991507494 Contents Preface v List of Plates vi List of Tables x List of Figures xi Maps xii Introduction Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby Part I: Collecting in Its Institutional Context 1. Collections as Artefacts: The Making and Thinking of Anthropological Museum Collections Leonn Satterthwait 2. Reflections in a Cracked Mirror: What Collections Representing ‘Them’ Can Say about ‘Us’ and the Role of Museum Collections Richard Robins 3. An Ark of Aboriginal Relics: The Collecting Practices of Dr LP Winterbotham Daniel Leo Part II: Collecting under the Influence of Evolutionism 4. Gentlemen Collectors: The Port Phillip District, 1835–1855 Elizabeth Willis 5. ‘Annexing All I Can Lay Hands On’: Baldwin Spencer as Ethnographic Collector John Mulvaney 6. The Man Who Collected Everything: WE Roth Kate Kahn 7. The Australian Aboriginal Collection and the Berlin Ethnological Museum Janice Lally 8. Talking into the Wind: Collectors on the Cooper Creek, 1890–1910 Chris Nobbs 9. The Dynamics of the Collector–Curator Relationship: Interpreting Henry Hillier’s Central Australian Collections Ian Coates iii 10. ‘Your Obedient Servant’: The John Tunney Collection at the Western Australian Museum Ross Chadwick 11. Professionals and Amateurs: Different Histories of Collecting in the National Ethnographic Collection David Kaus Part III: Before It Is Too Late 12. The ‘Idea behind the Artefact’: Norman Tindale’s Early Years as a Salvage Ethnographer Philip Jones 13. The Reluctant Collector: Lloyd Warner Louise Hamby 14. Tons and Tons of Valuable Material: The Donald Thomson Collection Lindy Allen 15. Only Sticks and Bark: Ursula McConnel—Her Collecting and Collection Anne Perusco 16. The Art of Collecting: Charles Pearcy Mountford Sally May 17. Ethnographic and Archaeological Collections by FD McCarthy in the Australian Museum Val Attenbrow Part IV: Transformed Collecting 18. ‘I Did Not Set Out to Make a Collection’: The Ronald and Catherine Berndt Collection at the Berndt Museum of Anthropology John Stanton 19. ‘The Woman with Men’s Business’: Helen Wurm Margie West 20. Aesthete and Scholar: Two Complementary Influences on the Kluge–Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia Margo Smith Contributors Index iv The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections Preface This volume arises from a symposium held at Museum Victoria in February 2006 titled The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections. The symposium marked the final phase of an ARC Linkage Grant (LP0347221) between the Australian National University and Museum Victoria from 2003–06 titled Anthropological and Aboriginal Perspectives on the Donald Thomson Collection: Material Culture, Collecting and Identity, held by Nicolas Peterson, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby. A principal aim of the project was to analyse the formation, structure and composition of the Arnhem Land component of the Donald Thomson Collection. Given the significance of museum collections to the image and understanding of Aboriginal life in the past, and the absence of any comparative analysis of how and why the many collections of their material culture we have today were formed, we felt that a symposium comparing the work and collections of Donald Thomson with the makers and making of other Indigenous Australian museum collections would be revealing. We were very pleased by the enormous enthusiasm for the idea among museum curators and researchers—with hindsight it seems the idea came at a strategic moment, tapping into a pent-up seam of scholarship. Neither the symposium nor this publication would have been possible without the enthusiastic support of many people at Museum Victoria, particularly the staff of the Indigenous Cultures Department. Dr Robin Hirst, Director, Collections, Research and Exhibitions, lent his full support to this ARC Linkage Grant, the first within the muse- um’s Indigenous Cultures Department. Lindy Allen, Senior Curator for Northern Australian Collections at the museum, provided the commitment and drive needed to get the original grant off the ground and to make the symposium a great success. We would also like to thank Mary Morris, Melanie Raberts, Rosemary Wrench and the many other people who helped behind the scenes, as well as the paper givers and other participants; and Melanie Raymond for her assist- ance with the publication. v List of Plates Plate 1.1: Language groups in the Normanton area Plate 2.1: Circular letter from Hamlyn-Harris appealing for collections Plate 3.1: The museum in Winterbotham’s suburban house Plate 3.2: The circular seeking Aboriginal artefacts Plate 3.3: Winterbotham recording Willie Mackenzie in early 1950 Plate 4.1: Bag collected by Charles Joseph La Trobe before 1842 Plate 4.2: Shield collected by Charles Joseph La Trobe before 1842 Plate 4.3: Shield collected by Charles Joseph La Trobe before 1842 Plate 4.4: ‘Native drawing on bark’, Dja Dja Wurrung, 1854 Plate 4.5: Schematic drawing of the bark drawing in Plate 4.7 Plate 4.6: ‘Native drawing on bark’, Dja Dja Wurrung, 1854 Plate 4.7: Schematic drawing of the bark drawing in Plate 4.10 Plate 5.1: WB Spencer, 1901 Plate 5.2: Early bark painting from Oenpelli, 1912 Plate 5.3: Tunga collected on Melville Island, 1912 Plate 6.1: Walter Edmund Roth in outback northern Queensland Plate 6.2: Roth’s illustration of the cat’s cradle game Plate 6.3: Partially completed, crescent-shaped basket Plate 6.4: Filed-down piece of iron made into a scraper Plate 6.5: Large edge-ground stone axe with cane handle Plate 6.6: Doll with bark-fibre skirt collected from Mapoon, 1903 Plate 7.1: Human figure probably collected from Ramahyuck Mission Plate 8.1: Mounted Constable Samuel Gason Plate 8.2: Samuel Gason’s map of tribal boundaries Plate 8.3: Otto Siebert at Bethesda Mission Plate 8.4: Siebert preaching the Gospel to Aboriginal people Plate 8.5: Siebert often visited this camp at Pampurina Plate 8.6: Siebert’s collection at Bethesda Mission, c. 1902 Plate 8.7: Pirra or carrying dish, Museum der Weltkulturen Plate 8.8a: Boomerang-shaped wooden board used to explain ‘legends’ Plate 8.8b: A mariwiri featuring ‘swan tracks with grass on the toes’ Plate 8.9: The Mudlunga dancers performing vi The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections Plate 8.10: ‘The Mudlunga dancers … came warlike into the camp.’ Plate 8.11: The wolkadara or forked stick used in the Mudlunga ceremony Plate 9.1: Henry ‘Harry’ Hillier Plate 10.1: Tags used by JT Tunney during his later trips Plate 10.2: Breakdown 240 kilometres from Wyndham, 1902 Plate 10.3: An example of the portrait images taken by Tunney, 1899 Plate 10.4: A ‘King River’ man, Wyndham, c. 1898 Plate 11.1: Sir Colin MacKenzie, 1930s Plate 11.2: The Australian Institute of Anatomy, 1930s Plate 11.3: Herbert Basedow, about 1925 Plate 11.4: Edmund Milne next to the stump marking a grave Plate 11.5: Edmund Milne at festivities marking the grave site Plate 11.6: Basedow interviewing Danbidlell, a Yandruwandha man, 1919 Plate 11.7: Hut decked with porcupine grass, Arltunga district, 1920 Plate 11.8: Another view of the shelter scene Plate 12.1: Tindale’s anthropological baptism after falling over- board, 1921 Plate 12.2: Ingura men making bark drawings and painting spearthrowers Plate 12.3: Church Missionary Society baptism in the Roper River, 1921 Plate 12.4: Wet season camp at Emerald River, Groote Eylandt, 1922 Plate 12.5: Tilkoana, a Flinders Island woman, making a string bag, 1927 Plate 12.6: Rock-shelter, Bathurst Head, occupied by Tindale and Hale in 1927 Plate 12.7: Aijene in mourning wearing fishing nets, 1927 Plate 13.1: Studio portrait of Lloyd Warner taken in the 1950s Plate 13.2: Harry Makarrwala from Milingimbi wearing checked cloth Plate 13.3: Lloyd Warner at Milingimbi Plate 13.4: Makarrata at Milingimbi List of Plates vii Plate 13.5: Makarrata at Milingimbi Plate 13.6: Bark painting from Milingimbi, given to Radcliffe-Brown Plate 13.7: Painted bark coffin Plate 13.8: Coloured lantern slide held at the Field Museum Plate 13.9: Rraywala recording songs for Warner on a wax cylinder Plate 13.10: Incised resin with Gupapuyngu honeybee design Plate 13.11: Nupurra Garrawurra and Lloyd Warner at Milingimbi Plate 14.1: Willie Webb and Lena in single outrigger, 1928 Plate 14.2: Gladys Thomson at Cape Keerweer, 1933 Plate 14.3: Specimen tag and object tag from Cape York Peninsula Plate 14.4: Neck ornament containing infant’s cord Plate 14.5: A possum-fur apron, mada-mada, from Roper River Plate 14.6: Macassan prau painting by Wonggu Plate 14.7: Thomson in base camp at Gaarttji Plate 14.8: A sophisticated fish ‘fence’, 1937 Plate 15.1: Ursula McConnel, anthropologist, c. 1936 Plate 15.2: Billy Mammus and Charley Doctor, c. 1927 Plate 15.3: Aboriginal women prepared for ceremony, c. 1928 Plate 16.1: Members of the Warburton Range Expedition, 1935 Plate 16.2: American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 1948 Plate 16.3: Biro advertisement featuring the AASEAL Plate 16.4: Mountford and Professor John Bishop Plate 17.1: Fred McCarthy and others Plate 17.2: Tools and implements used by Fish Creek Group, Oenpelli Plate 17.3: Fishing with dip-nets at Fish Creek, near Oenpelli Plate 17.4: Arnhem Land, snail-shell yam slicers, Umbakumba Plate 17.5: Arnhem Land children’s shell dolls Plate 17.6: Bark paintings from Milingimbi, Groote Eylandt and Yirrkala Plate 17.7: Objects incorporating or made from introduced materials Plate 17.8: Arnhem Land archaeological material Plate 18.1: Ronald and Catherine Berndt at the Anthropology Research Museum Plate 18.2: Ronald Berndt mounting an exhibition of Aboriginal art, 1957 viii The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections Plate 18.3: Ronald Berndt examining a crayon drawing from Yirrkala, 1947 Plate 18.4: Ronald Berndt sitting in Buramarra’s camp, Elcho Island, 1964 Plate 18.5: Catherine and Ronald walking in Sydney, c. 1940 Plate 19.1: Helen Wurm working with a Tiwi woman, Melville Island Plate 19.2: Helen Wurm setting up to record a story about ancestral activity Plate 20.1: Ed Ruhe holding Yirawala bark upon receipt of Spence Collection, 1966 Plate 20.2: Ed Ruhe at Masterpieces of Australian Bark Painting, New York Plate 20.3: Wolpa Wanambi completing bark painting at Yirrkala, 1996 Plate 20.4: Pansy Nakamarra Stewart painting a large canvas Plate 20.5: John Kluge and University of Virginia president John Casteen List of Plates ix List of Tables Table 3.1: Sample of correspondents Table 6.1: Artefacts collected by WE Roth from Cape York Peninsula Table 6.2: People who donated artefacts to WE Roth Table 10.1: Objects collected by Tunney in WA and NT Table 11.1: Amateur collectors and their occupations Table 11.2: Comparison of Basedow and Milne Collections with others Table 11.3: Comparison of Milne’s Collection from western NSW with Dunbar Table 15.1: Types of spears collected by Ursula McConnel from western Cape York Peninsula Table 16.1: Objects collected by the AASEAL Table 16.2: Places from which objects were collected Table 18.1 Dates, places and broad categories collected by R & C Berndt Table 18.2 Dates and type categories of Australian Aboriginal items collected Table 18.3 Dates and type categories of Papua New Guinean items collected Table 18.4 Dates and type categories of Asian items collected Table 20.1: Contents of the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of University of Virginia x The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections