basket
- Museum number
- Oc1913,-.145
- Description
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Basket (tunga) made of folded eucalyptus bark, vegetable cane fibre, abrus seeds, resin and decorated with natural red, white and yellow pigments.
- Production date
- 1913 (before)
- Dimensions
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Height: 43 centimetres
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Width: 51 centimetres
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Depth: 67 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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Tiwi Islanders carry out elaborate Pukumani ceremonies after a person’s death. These funerary ceremonies include elaborate body decoration, complex burial rites and numerous performances. They can take place over a lengthy period of time in order to fully mark the passing of that relative as well as express grief.
Burial poles or tutini are painted with natural earth pigmentsand erected at specific grave sites: they represent the body of the deceased relative or possibly ancestors.
Large bark baskets or tunga are also made specifically for these ceremonies. Various designs or jilmara, are painted on the body as well as on the baskets and burial poles. These designs can relate to a person’s identity, clan, country or dreaming. Gifts of food are brought to the funeral in tunga, and at the conclusion of the ceremony, they are upended on top of painted tutini. The painted tunga and tutini stand as a memorial to the deceased and their relatives and are left to be worn away by the elements.
Artists continue to make tunga, often for commercial sale and use innovative interpretations of traditional beliefs.
For contemporary versions see 2012,2032.1 & 2011,2014.1
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The bark is likely Darwin stringybark [Eucalyptus tetrodonta]
- Location
- On display (G24/dc2)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1972-1982 23 Jun-28 Feb, London, BM, Museum of Mankind, The Aborigines of Australia
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
2015-2016 27 Nov-28 Mar, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, Encounters
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1913,-.145
- Additional IDs
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CDMS number: Oc1913C3.145 (old CDMS no.)