Collection online
basket
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Object type
Museum number
Oc1939,08.37
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Description
Basket made of vegetable fibre. Closely twined with complex painted decoration in white, red and dark green ochre, covering two thirds of basket leaving one section plain.
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Ethnic name
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Date
- 1900-1912 (circa)
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Findspot
- Found/Acquired: Port Essington
- (Oceania,Australia,Northern Territory (Australia),Port Essington)
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Materials
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Technique
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Dimensions
- Height: 47.3 centimetres
- Width: 21 centimetres
- Diameter: 8.6 centimetres (base)
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Curator's comments
Register 1939
Collected by H P Rogers, ornithologist, before 1914, in Australia.Port Essington.Image of basket published in Cranstone, B.A.L. (1973), 'The Australian Aborigines', p.20 fig. 9Baskets were, and still are, made in this region by both men and women. They are often painted, and ancestral knowledge is passed on through the designs and through the significance of the colours used.
The design references the annual visits of Makassan fishermen to the northern coast of Australia. The white rectangular forms, with horizontal red stripes, are the sails of Makassan praus. The white diagonal crosses against a red background refer to women’s breast girdles, which represent the blooming clouds of the wet season, when the Makassan ships would arrive.
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Bibliography
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Location
Not on display
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Exhibition history
Exhibited:
2011 26 May-11 Sep, London, BM, G91, Baskets and Belonging: Indigenous Australian Histories
2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation -
Acquisition name
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Acquisition date
1939
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Acquisition notes
Register reads, for collection Oc1939,08: Collected by H P Rogers, ornithologist, before 1914, in Australia. However inspection of the original correspondence from Mathews reveals that this should be J P Rogers, who was Mathews' ornithological collector in Northern Australia. Thought to be collected in 1911-1912.
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Department
Africa, Oceania & the Americas
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Registration number
Oc1939,08.37
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Object reference number: EOC19012
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