Courtesy National Museum of Australia

Accession Number: 1985.0074.0030

Museum: National Museum of Australia

Date Acquired: 1927-34

Collector: Ursula McConnel

Date Collected: 1927-34

Where from: Yarrabah, Cairns

Description: L640 x W230 x D90mm

Oval wooden ceremonial shield decorated with red, yellow, black and white pigment. The handle is carved from the solid form protruding from the posterior surface. There is a central boss on the anterior surface.

Details, including when collected:

Date collected 1927-34; “small ceremonial shield (bi.gorn gidyar) showing a design of leaves of tree (dyaradyira) from which boomerang is made” (McConnel 1935:60). Shield was acquired in 1927-1934 but Registered in 1985.

Also called leaf of axe handle tree design and described by Ursula McConnel in ‘Inspiration and Design in Aboriginal Art’ in Oceania 1935, p.26;  and Yidinji man, Michael Boiyool Anning (1955-) first made a contemporary version of this design in 1998, and is held in the private collection of Trish Barnard (Barnard 2012).