Photo by Trish Barnard

Accession Number: E013432

Museum: Australian Museum

Date Acquired: 24/03/1905

Collector: Walter Edmund Roth

Date Collected: c.1890

Where from: Bloomfield River

Description: L1090 x W399mm

Collected from the Bloomfield River in 1898. Red, yellow, wite and black natural pigments with some red ochre on back of shield. The Kuku Yalanji people called these rectangular shaped shields ‘kun-juri. Made from the buttress flange of a rainforest fig tree.

This rainforest shield is from Bloomfield, Cape York, Queensland. It was purchased in 1905 from Dr Walter Edmund Roth. The front of the shield has been decordated with coloured pigments, and there are also marks caused by weapons – See more at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/rainforest-shield-e013432#sthash.EoQhUMfC.dpuf

Walter Roth sold his collection of nearly 2000 North Queensland artefacts to the Australian Museum in 1905 for £450 (Barnard 2014).

See: ‘Walter Edmund Roth’ authored by Maureen Fuary

http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=71

Contact: Rebecca Fisher, Collections Officer, Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010 AUSTRALIA

Phone: (02) 9320 6089

International: +612 9320 6089

Email: Rebecca.fisher@austmus.gov.au