Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia

This paper explores the complex story of a particular style of rock art in western Arnhem Land known as ‘Painted Hands’. Using new evidence from recent fieldwork, we present a definition for their style, distribution and place in the stylistic chronologies of this region. We argue these motifs played an important cultural role in Aboriginal society during the period of European settlement in the region. We explore the complex messages embedded in the design features of the Painted Hands, arguing that they are more than simply hand stencils or markers of individuality. We suggest that these figures represent stylized and intensely encoded motifs with the power to communicate a high level of personal, clan and ceremonial identity at a time when all aspects of Aboriginal cultural identity were under threat.Sally K. May, Luke Taylor, Catherine Frieman, Paul S.C. Taçon, Daryl Wesley, Tristen Jones, Joakim Goldhahn, Charlie Munguld

An Analysis of Motif Clusters at the Nanguluwurr Rock Art Site, Kakadu National Park, N. T. Australia

During recent detailed recording of Nanguluwurr, a rock art site that is part of the Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) complex of cultural sites in Kakadu National Park, Australia, the data showed discrete clusters of specific motif types distributed throughout the length of the gallery. This paper focuses on the spatial distribution of the main motif clusters depicting spirit figures, material culture, fish, and painted hand and forearm motifs in order to understand the significance of these clusters within the site and the significance of Nanguluwurr as part of a wider complex of cultural sites. We consider the concept of these motif groupings as “meaning clusters,” as well as their chronological sequence, and discuss the possibility that they are the result of bursts of painting activity that occurred during the long history of the site manifest through depictions of ancient Dynamic Figures to the recent painting of X-ray fish.John A. Hayward, Sally K. May, Joakim Goldhahn, Andrea Jalandoni, and Paul S. C. Taço

The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence

The contact period rock art of northern Australia provides unprecedented insights into Aboriginal cross-cultural experiences during the last few hundred years. Northwest Arnhem Land, Australia, has an extensive rock art assemblage and a complicated history of interactions between Aboriginal communities and island South East Asians (Macassans), colonists, explorers, missionaries, buffalo shooters, and more. This contact period rock art offers a unique opportunity to explore a variety of questions relating to cross-cultural interactions and artistic responses to new people, objects and ideas. In this paper we argue that a dichotomy exists in the number of European and south-east Asian themed rock art motifs. We suggest that there is an underlying theme in the proliferation of European related imagery relating to threats to Indigenous sovereignty. Our findings suggest that rock art illustrates the Aboriginal community’s responses to both groups and their experience of the existential threat posed by European intruders. The apparent lack of rock art relating to south-east Asian interactions, although perplexing, may in fact provide circumstantial evidence for a very different type of interaction between some northern Australian and south-east Asian communities.Sally K. May, Daryl Wesley, Joakim Goldhahn, R. Lamilami and Paul S.C. Taco

Rock Art and (Re)Production of Narratives: A Cassowary Bone Dagger Stencil Perspective from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2022.Cassowaries (Casuarius) are one of the largest indigenous animal species of New Guinea. Researchers have long been trying to understand their local socio-cultural significance. Here we present new results from interviews recorded in 2018 on ethnography associated with bone daggers, a material culture ornament and tool carved from the cassowary’s tibiotarsus. We present a ‘storied notion’—a contemporary narrative from oral history of why cassowary is not simply a bird, and briefly describe cassowary bone ornamentation in Auwim, East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. By exploring the material history of Casuarius through a ‘storied notion’ approach, we reveal that cassowary bone daggers in rock art are narrative ideas of the species from its landscape to ornamentation and through to people’s cosmological beliefs surrounding Casuarius. We argue that the cassowary bone dagger stencil can be seen as part of the life history of this animal.Roxanne Tsang, Sebastien Katuk, Sally K. May, Paul S.C. Taçon, François-Xavier Ricaut, Matthew G. Leavesle

"Our dad's painting is hiding, in secret place": reverberations of a rock painting episode in Kakadu National Park, Australia

This paper presents and discusses a 1972 rock painting episode at Koongarra in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, Australia. This painting, which depicts a macropod, was created by Billy Miargu when he camped at a sandstone outlier with his wife and young daughter. It was documented by two rock art scholars, George Chaloupka and Robert Edwards, but interpreted as untraditional 'casual art'. Using a community-based approach, we re-evaluate this painting episode by (i) exploring the depicted subject matter from an emic perspective, demonstrating how it refers to the origin myth of an important ceremony, and, (ii) through interviews with the descendants of the artist, we discuss and investigate how the 1972 painting episode is commemorated and understood today. Our findings are grounded in contemporary discussion within anthropology and archaeology that explores multivocal Indigenous voices in the interpretation of material culture in general, and rock art in particular.Joakim Goldhahn, Linda Biyalwanga, Sally K. May, Julie Blawgur, Paul S.C. Taçon, Joanne Sullivan, Iain G. Johnston and Jeffrey Le

Extraordinary Back-to-Back Human and Animal Figures in the Art of Western Arnhem Land, Australia: One of the World's Largest Assemblages

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2022Depictions of mythical beings appear in many different forms of art world-wide, including rock art of various ages. In this paper we explore a particular type of imagery, back-to-back figures, consisting of two human-like figures or animals of the same species next to each other and facing in opposite directions. Some human-like doubles were joined at the back rather than side-by-side, but also face opposite directions. In this paper, we report on new research on rock art, bark paintings and recent paintings on paper and chart a 9000-year history of making aesthetically, symbolically and spiritually powerful back-to-back figures in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.Paul S.C. Taçon, Sally K. May, Joakim Goldhahn, Luke Taylor, Liam M. Brady, Alex Ressel, Andrea Jalandoni, Daryl Wesley, Gabriel Maralngurr