Photographed by Trish Barnard.
Accession Number: QE26426.1-2
Museum: Queensland Museum
Date Acquired: 1989
Collector: Gladys Jean Henry (1921-2010)
Date Collected: 1950s
Where from: Murray Upper
Description: L45 x W35mm. Land snails. Called bala gajirri by the Girramay and Jirrbal people. Land snails (Xanthomelon sp) are found throughout Australia and collected mainly during the dry season and cooked over a fire. The shells were a valuable tool and used as a scraper, knife or slicer held between the thumb and finger. Jirrbal and Girramay people used bala gajirri, snail shells to scrape and slice zamia nuts and black bean seeds before placing them into running water to leech the toxins out. 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