Title
Cat and crow legend
collected 1960
Artist
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Details
- Place where the work was made
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Milingimbi
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Central Arnhem Land
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Northern Territory
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Australia
- Date
- collected 1960
- Media category
- Bark painting
- Materials used
- natural pigments on bark
- Dimensions
- 105.4 x 47.0 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Dr Stuart Scougall 1960
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- IA42.1960
- Copyright
- © Dawidi Estate. Licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd
- Artist information
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Dawidi Birritjama
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
The crows took some hair which is part of the tassel of the spear thrower (shown vertically left of centre) and whirled it. This was their nest. It grew and grew until it reached the sky and turned into a stone. Today one half of it stands in Liayagalawumirr clan country and the other half is the Milky Way. The Cat was out fishing. He caught a great many fish and after he had eaten them he put the bones in a paper bark receptacle (shown upper right) and came back to camp. When he got there he saw the Crow up in the sky. You can see them in the Milky Way today. The paper bark basket is a garma (totem) for the Liagalawumirr people (source: William Lloyd Warner, 'A black civilization: a social study of an Australian tribe', Harper, 1958, pg. 535).
Besides cats, crows, fish, bones, basket and spear thrower, a drone pipe or bones post and three figures, two of them being speared, are shown.
© Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2005
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Places
Where the work was made
Milingimbi
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Purchases and Acquisitions for 1960, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Mar 1961–23 Apr 1961
Gamarada, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 Nov 1996–16 Feb 1997
Art from Milingimbi: taking memories back, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 Nov 2016–29 Jan 2017
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Edmund Capon AM, OBE, Steven Miller, Tony Tuckson, James Scougall, Mollie Gowing, Harry Messel, Craig Brush, Ronald Fine, Alison Fine, Gordon Davies, Rosalind Davies, Christopher Hodges, Helen Eager, Rosemary Gow, Sandra Phillips, Daphne Wallace and Ken Watson, Gamarada, Sydney, 1996, 41 (colour illus.).
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Cara Pinchbeck, Lindy Allen and Louise Hamby, Art from Milingimbi, Sydney, 2016, 67 (colour illus.), 140.
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William Lloyd Warner, A black civilization: a social study of an Australian tribe, Australia, 1958. General reference to the cat and crow legend.
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