Paget collection

Painting on bark

This painting on bark is called A Blue Fly and a hand-written note on the back reads "This is Don's totem. He calls it my father". There is a red border with white outline. The background colour is light brown.


Painting on bark

Bark painting
view: top

A bark painting of a kangaroo with what appears to be grass flower heads. A note on the back reads "A brown kangaroo in the long grass at the end of the wet season. This is Dick's totem." The background is brown, probably the colour of the bark, with white stripes.


Painting on bark

Painting on bark
view: front

A picture of a tree and two snakes, in mustard, brown, black and white pigments, painted on bark.


Painting on bark

Painting on bark
view: top

A bark painting with spindle shapes on a background of random chevron patterns in black, white, yellow and red paint. There are thin red borders top and bottom where split-dowel stretchers are tied with fibre.


Painting on bark

Ancestor/spirit head
view: quarter 7

A bark painting with chevron fringes at the top and the bottom that are cross-hatched red, white and yellow on black. The central design is phytomorphic with upper leaf-like parts and lower root-like parts.


Painting on bark

Painting on bark
view: top

The bodies of two crocodiles are decorated with a chevron pattern, one with a cross-hatched mustard background and black and white stripes, the other with a red-brown background. The backbones are painted in white with red dots; the limbs and heads are in fawn with black dots.


Painting on bark

Painting on bark
view: top

The picture shows two large crocodiles framing a smaller one. All are decorated with a chevron pattern of white stripes alternating with cross-hatched areas which are red on fawn. The backbones, limbs and heads are fawn with black dots.


Churinga

This example is a typical ovoid stone, engraved on both sides with concentric circles. One side has a central cross motif of seven parallel wavy lines; on the other side, the motif consists of two 'S' shapes, each of four parallel lines.


Churinga

This churinga is unusual in being trapezoidal in shape, whereas they are usually rectangular or elliptical. This example is decorated on each side with three sets of shallow-carved concentric circles, showing the red stone beneath the polished, black-painted surface.


Unidentified object

Unidentified object (spear-shaped)
view: top

This spear-shaped object has a short tapered shaft. The tip of the 'blade' and the end of the shaft are painted white. The blade is pierced with three longitudinal slits down each side.


Ancestor/spirit head

Ancestor/spirit head
view: quarter 7

This object, carved like a mask, has a ridged back (like a cricket bat) and a headdress depicting a hornbill painted yellow and white with red eyes. The face has shell eyes surrounded with yellow paint and elsewhere is decorated with solid and dotted white lines on a stained background.


Painted panel (panggal)

Painted panel (panggal)
view: front

Panel made from the spathe of the sago palm. It has painted on it a bilaterally symmetrical phytomorphic pattern in yellow, black, red and white


Painted panel (panggal)

A panel painted on sago spathe with a pattern made up of three pairs of 'foetal' shapes coloured with yellow, black, red and white pigments. There are two holes drilled in the top for hanging. Such panels to the interior of cult house roofs.


Canoe prow

This canoe prow is copiously carved in the form of a crocodile with the body in three looping sections. A for-and-aft 'handle' with detailed carving lies along the top of the body. The 'head' is in two sections, the foremost like a crocodile's jaws clamped around a cylindrical object.


Painted panel

Painted panel (panggal)
view: front

A pierced panel, with narrow border of black over-painted with yellow, white and red stripes. The four corners are carved as hornbills with yellow bodies and white bills, tails and legs. The eyes are painted as white, red and black concentric circles.


Dagger

Dagger
view: top

Bone dagger made from the leg bone of a cassowary bird. There are two v-shaped slots cut into the head producing three parts through which a hole is drilled, allowing the dagger to be worn as decoration.


Yam stick

This stout staff is carved with a

Lime stick (narina)

A bone lime stick with a carved top. The carving was probably symmetrical but the left side is broken.


Plate

The plate is plain on the inside and carved on the convex outer surface. there is an edge design of concentric elongated ovals and at the top and bottom edges the design is raised and pierced for hanging or fixing.


Plate

Plate
view: underside

This dish at first sight seems plain and uninteresting, with an undecorated bowl. Underneath however there is a circular, maze-like central motif, flanked on the right and left by winged insects, their heads projecting beyond the diameter of the rim.