Photo by Dr Rosita Henry

Accession Number: Oc.1933.0403.8

Museum: British Museum

Date Acquired: 1933

Collector: Derwent Vallance (1875-1960)

Date Collected: c.1903

Where from: Mulgrave

Description: L950 x W335 x D80mm

Painted shield made of wood, with a handle cut from the solid. Donated by collector’s sister, Florence Walker – see the doc 907.

In 1890 Cairns photographer Alfred Atkinson photographed 24 Malanbarra Yidinji people whose country extended from tablelands around Mt Bellenden Ker area, and a man third from left is holding a shield with the same design which Atkinson documented as representing the ‘butterfly’ design (Barnard 2012).

See: ‘Derwent Vallance’ authored by Dr Rosita Henry

http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=1108

Contact: Dr Gaye Sculthorpe, Curator of Oceania

British Museum, Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, UK

Phone: +44 20 7323 8035

Email: gsculthorpe@britishmuseum.org