Monday 5 April 2010

Some Nineteenth Century Aboriginal Drawings

Above: Mickey of Ulladulla, Ceremony; Scenes of daily life; native flora and fauna
Above: Mickey of Ulladulla, Boats, fish; Native flora and fauna; below: detail
Above: Tommy McRae Dancers with weapons; Hunting and fishing; European house and couple

Above: Tommy McRae Aborigine chasing Chinese man
Above: Charlie Flannigan, Steamer
Above: Erlikilyika, Drawing of native tree
I am fascinated by any artform that is the result of the interaction between two cultures, whether it be drawing or music or even cuisine. Maybe that's because I am the product of a couple of cultures myself. Either way, I love these nineteenth century Australian aboriginal drawings for their wit, detail, and use of either European or local traditions of depiction where it suits the subject best.
Images from Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century by Andrew Sayers, Oxford, 1994
The dates are not given in the book; I assume that this is because exact dates for these drawings is unknown, or was at the time of publication in 1994. ( Or maybe I just haven't looked at it thoroughly enough.)

4 comments:

Elaine Prunty said...

these are really lovely and quite a difference to what we are usually shown as 'aboriginal' art . reminds me of egyptian carvings....
sorry i've not been around much, flat out doing course in collage that i'm really loving plus doing a bit of celebrating too....
loved your appel man and scarf too...
How is etsy going for you ? ....i toyed with the idea of opening a shop but found it just seemed like a lot of work and a lot of networking ????

Christine McCombe said...

Hi Sandra,
I love these images too - seeing things from the 'other' side. On an unrelated subject, have you seen this blog - http://creativemother.de/ - there are some lovely lacy knit scarves that made me think of you.

cx

Sandra Eterovic said...

Lovely to hear from you both!!!

Dear Elaine,
Thank you thank you as always. I have not been around much either, and I look forward to seeing the fruits of your course on your blog!
Etsy is serving well to build my confidence, but I think my efforts will ultimately be on retailers here. I have been lucky in that some etsy staff have 'favourited' my items. I think good photos + tags are important. Why not give it a try, just give it the amount of work that you can be bothered with. It will just take time for enough people to realise your shop is there, then your lovely things will sell themselves.

Hi Chris!!
I'm glad you enjoyed the artwork. I love those scarves -- thank you! In fact all of the knitted things there are lovely -- thank you for the link. I hope that you and your family are very well!

sophie munns said...

Just came across this amazing post...such a delight to find this and your blog!
Will be back!
Sophie