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Aboriginal Shield
Australia
Wunda shield
Western Australia
Carved wood and pigments
19th century
Height: 26 ¾ in. – 68 cm
Provenance
Ex collection Clive Loveless, UK
Ex private collection, Uk
Sold
The front side is decorated with red linear motifs (incised and painted) while the backside with the handle is decorated with deeply-carved horizontal and oblique lines (superb patina around the handle)
The linear motifs on the front side of the shield are known as « pandal ». These shields are called « wunda », a name deriving from the Paljgu word « wunrnda », the name of the wood in which the shields were originally carved.
This type of shield was used for warfare as parrying shields against spears or boomerangs blows.
These shields were also actively traded throughout Western and Central Australia. Lastly, they also played in role in intiations and rituals. The colored motifs on the surface of the shield were totemic symbols related to the « 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.''
The linear motifs on the front side of the shield are known as « pandal ». These shields are called « wunda », a name deriving from the Paljgu word « wunrnda », the name of the wood in which the shields were originally carved.
This type of shield was used for warfare as parrying shields against spears or boomerangs blows.
These shields were also actively traded throughout Western and Central Australia. Lastly, they also played in role in intiations and rituals. The colored motifs on the surface of the shield were totemic symbols related to the « 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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