Visions from the Past: The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal Art

364 Pages·2002·4.34 MB·English

by  M.J. Morwood

Visions from the Past

Visions from the Past
  
  
M. J. Morwood
Illustrations by D. R. Hobbs
This work contains images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people. We regret any sadness this may cause relatives and community members.
Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of non-original
material reproduced in this text. In cases where these efforts were unsuccessful,
the copyright holders are asked to contact the publisher directly.
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth
Government through the Australia Council, its arts
funding and advisory body.
First published in 2002
Copyright © M. J. Morwood 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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The Australian Copyright Act 1968(the Act) allows a maximum of one
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photocopied byany educational institution for its educational purposes
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under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
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National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Morwood, M. J.
Visions from the past: the archaeology of Australian
Aboriginal art.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86448 717 8.
1. Rock paintings—Australia. 2. Aborigines, Australian—
Art. 3. Art, Prehistoric—Australia. 4. Australia—
Antiquities. I. Hobbs, D. R. II. Title.
709.01130994
Text design by Simon Paterson
Set in 11/14 pt Adobe Garamond by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed by
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction ix
1 Aboriginal archaeology in context 1
2 Australian Aboriginal rock art 37
3 Australian rock art research 64
4 How we study Australian Aboriginal rock art 89
5 A question of time: dating Australian rock art 118
6 Subject analyses 148
7 Structural analyses 177
8 Central Queensland highlands 205
9 North Queensland highlands 231
10 Southeast Cape York Peninsula 255
11 A future for the past: conservation of rock art 276
Concluding remarks 306
Glossary 309
Notes 320
Bibliography 324
Index 340
v

Acknowledgements
Iwould like to thank John Iremonger and Colette Vella of Allen &
Unwin and Liz Feizkhah for their consistent advice, encouragement
and patience. I would also like to thank the following.
For financial assistance: Australian Research Council, University of
New England, Australian Nuclear and Scientific Technology Organ-
isation, Julie Everett and UNE Faculty of Arts.
For practical assistance: Terry Bailey, Paul Cooper, Charlie Dortch,
Bryndon Harvey of the National Museum of Australia, Nicky Horsfall,
Penny Jordan, Pat and Peter Lacy, Bob Layton, Scott L’Oste-Brown,
Angie McGowan, Ken Mulvaney, Maree Parsons, Sarah Pizzey from
Kakadu National Park, Peter Randolph of the WA Department of
Indigenous Affairs,, Leonn Sattertwait of the Queensland University
Anthropology Museum, Madge Schwede of the WA Department of
Indigenous Affairs, Claire Smith, Moya Smith of the Western Australian
Museum, Athlea Sullivan of the Kimberley Land Council, Will Stubbs
of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre, Project Officer Jack Williams
with Mumbultjari Community, Walter Zukowski of the Central
Australian Land Council, the School of Human and Environmental
Studies (UNE), and students of my rock art units from 1982 to 2000.
For permissions and assistance during fieldwork: Many traditional
owners and organisations including the Bidjara Elders Corporation
(Rockhampton) and the late Fred Lawton (central Queensland high-
lands); King-kiara Aboriginal Corporation (north Queensland highlands);
Ang-gnarra Aboriginal Corporation, Tommy George, Laura George
and George Musgrave (Cape York Peninsula); William Bunjuk, Alphonse
vii
   
Fredericks, the late Vincent Frederickson, Louis Karadada, Jack
Karadada, Rose Karadada, Billy King, Father Anscar McFee, Sylvester
Mangolamara, Clement Maraltdj, the late David Mowaljarlai, Mary
Pandilo, the late Manuella Puran, the late Hector Tungaal, the late
Austin Unghango, the late Dicky Udmarra Unghango, the late
Laurie Utemara, the late Daisy Utemara, Ester Waina, Laurie Waina,
Neil Waina, the Kalumburu Community Council and the
Wunambal-Gambirr Corporation (Kimberley).
For permissions to use figures: Jacqueline Angot-Westin, Fachroel
Aziz, Robert Bednarik, Noelene Cole, George Chaloupka, Jean-
Jacque Cleyet-Merle of the Musée National de Préhistoire des Eyzies,
Bruno David, Iain Davidson, Robert Edwards, Bill Harney of the
Wardaman Aboriginal Corporation, Historical Society of Cairns,
Peter Keegan, Anne and John Koeyers, Darrell Lewis, Josephine
McDonald, the family of Mataman Marika, Scotty Martin, Sven
Ouzman, Gordon Pontroy of the Mumbultjari Community, Andrée
Rosenfeld, June Ross, Mike Smith, Kate Sutcliffe, Nebo Tjukadai
of the Haasts Bluff Community (Ikuntji), Percy Trezise, Patricia
Vinnicombe, Grahame Walsh, Kurt Wehrberger of the Ulmer
Museum, Richard Wright, Ang-gnarra Aboriginal Corporation,
Ballanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Bidjara Elders Corporation
(Rockhampton), Hungarian National Museum, John Oxley Library,
NationalMuseumofAustralia,theDodnunCommunity,MuséeNational
de Préhistoire des Eyzies, the Mumbultjari Community, Ngarinyin
Aboriginal Corporation, Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council Abor-
iginal Corporation, Ulmer Museum, University of Queensland Anth-
ropology Museum, Western Australian Department of Indigenous
Affairs and Western Australian Museum.
For additional line drawings: Kathy Morwood and Michael Roach.
For comments on drafts: Robert Bednarik, Peter Brown, Paul Clark,
Dorothea Cogill, Iain Davidson, Josephine Flood, Luke Godwin,
Penny Jordon Darrel Lewis, Ian McNiven, Josephine McDonald,
Kathy Morwood, John Mulvaney, Bert Roberts, Andrée Rosenfeld,
June Ross, Claire Smith, Annie Thomas and Dave Whitley. Kathy
Morwood also prepared the glossary and the index.
Finally, Chapter 3 on the history of rock art research incorporates
a paper previously published with Claire Smith in Australian
Archaeology.
Mike Morwood
October 2001
viii
Introduction
The urge to decorate is one of the defining characteristics of modern
human beings (Homo sapiens sapiens). There are odd pieces of ‘art’
known from earlier contexts, including the polished section of
mammoth tooth stained with red ochre from Tata in Hungary and
estimated to be between 78.000 and 116.000 years old, but art does
not appear as part of a coherent, visual system until around 40.000
years ago. Its arrival is associated with human evolutionary and
technological changes in Europe, Africa and Asia, and the initial
colonization of America and Australia. Since this time, human beings
have consistently decorated themselves, their implements and, where
available, rock surfaces.
Theimplicationsofthisartisticwatershedforadvancesintheability,
or need, for new types of social communication are still being argued
about, but the fact that art, or symbolic expression, was practised in
allhumansocietiesoversuchalongperiodmeansthatartisticmaterial
forms a reasonable proportion of the archaeological record: Upper
Palaeolithic cave art, Mayan murals and New York subway graffiti are
very different in character, but can all provide information on value
systems,socialinstitutionsandideologies,iftherightquestionsareasked.
There are many books, theses and articles dealing with art generally
and with specific art assemblages. These range from well-illustrated
coffee-table books with mediocre text to excellent regional syntheses
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such as Patricia Vinnicombe’s People of the Eland, Wellman’s A Survey
of North American Indian Rock Art, and André Leroi-Gourhan’s
Treasures of Prehistoric Art. However, none of these provide an
overview of the potential, problems and methods of approach used
in the study of past art. Students seeking a good starting point are
thus forced to read a large number of works to get a feel for the
topic. This is a pity, since there is clearly wide interest in prehistoric
art, reflected not only in the number of colleges and universities that
offer courses in the subject, but also in the relatively recent formation
of organizations such as the American Rock Art Research Association,
the Australian Rock Art Research Association and various
government-funded Rock Art Research units.
An overview of developments in the archaeology of art and the
relationship between art and other types of archaeological evidence
would also be useful to professional, ‘non-art’ archaeologists. Over
the past ten years or so, they have become increasingly aware of the
light that art can throw on changes in human behaviour, technology,
economy and ideology which might not be reflected in other types
of archaeological evidence. There are various reasons for this shift,
including greater interest in social explanations for aspects of the
archaeological record, and the efforts of such researchers as Meg
Conkey and Clive Gamble, who have made good use of data on art
styles to interpret aspects of European prehistory.
This book is concerned with the archaeology of Australian
Aboriginal rock art, partly because of my personal interests and
experience, and partly to restrict the scope of the topic to manageable
(and readable) proportions. Nonetheless, it has to be seen in the
context of historical, methodological and theoretical developments
in other disciplines and other parts of the world, which have both
influenced and been influenced by it. By archaeology I mean the
study of the human past using surviving physical evidence. Art is
more difficult to define but has the following characteristics:
• It is produced by deliberate, modification of objects or surfaces
by changing their form, removing sections and/or applying other
materials, such as pigments. More specifically, rock art involves
modification of natural rock outcrops. Marks produced inciden-
tally during other activities, such as sharpening of implements on
sandstone, do not constitute art.
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