“Suffering is the badge of all our tribe”: histories and futures for the Oxford marara (tree carving) from New South Wales

Journal article

At the University of Oxford’s museum of anthropology, the Pitt Rivers Museum, on open display within the section devoted to Aboriginal art, sits a New South Wales tree carving made by the Wiradjuri or Gamilaroi people, most likely a grave marker. It has no recorded provenance beyond the fact that it was found, in 1948, to have never been accessioned, and so a number was given to it. Erroneously assuming that it was one of many items left in the museum by its former curator Henry Balfour on his death in 1939, no detailed research has ever been carried out on this remarkable piece of Aboriginal cultural heritage. This article seeks to establish all the evidence that is available for the object’s provenance and makes a case for a particular context in particular – as the ‘tomb tablet’ that was sent by the New South Wales organising committee for the Paris universal exhibition of 1867 – and thus one of the earliest and most historically significant Aboriginal artefacts from New South Wales in any European museum. Having followed the historical trail as far as can be done right now, the article concludes with some reflections on museum ethics and equitable futures and sketches a potential future for the guulany within the context of a return to Country

Authors: Morton, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: ANU Press
• Journal: Aboriginal History
• Volume: 48
• Pages: 3-28
• Publication date: 2024-08-01
• Acceptance date: 2024-06-25
• DOI: 10.22459/ah.48.2024.01
• EISSN: 1837-9389
• ISSN: 0314-8769
• Language: English