oceania | Australia
Aboriginal Shield
Australia
Wunda shield
Western Australia
19th century
Carved wood and pigments
Height: 74 cm – 29 ¼ in.
Provenance
Collection Andrey Tischenko, Finland
Aboriginal shield 74 cm / Galerie Flak
Price on request
Such shields from Australia are known as wunda, a name derived from the Paljgu word wunrnda, referring to the type of wood originally used to carve them.
They served as parrying shields in warfare, used to deflect spears and boomerangs. Wunda shields were also actively traded across Western and Central Australia.
In addition, they played a role in initiation ceremonies and ritual contexts. The painted motifs on their surface are totemic symbols, often linked to ancestral songlines.
In his 1987 book « The Songlines », British novelist and travel writer, Bruce Chatwin describes the songlines as:
« ...the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as 'Dreaming-tracks' or 'Songlines'; to the Aboriginals as the 'Footprints of the Ancestors' or the 'Way of the Law’. Aboriginal Creation myths tell of the legendary totemic being who wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path - birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes - and so singing the world into existence. »
They served as parrying shields in warfare, used to deflect spears and boomerangs. Wunda shields were also actively traded across Western and Central Australia.
In addition, they played a role in initiation ceremonies and ritual contexts. The painted motifs on their surface are totemic symbols, often linked to ancestral songlines.
In his 1987 book « The Songlines », British novelist and travel writer, Bruce Chatwin describes the songlines as:
« ...the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as 'Dreaming-tracks' or 'Songlines'; to the Aboriginals as the 'Footprints of the Ancestors' or the 'Way of the Law’. Aboriginal Creation myths tell of the legendary totemic being who wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path - birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes - and so singing the world into existence. »
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