RESEARCHER STUDYING BARK ART DISCOVERS ARTIST IS HIS GREAT GRANDFATHER

1912 Baldwin Spencer photograph ‘Gembio Family, Man with Six Wives’(photograph courtesy of the MelbourneMuseum). Credit: Supplied.

A Traditional Owner has discovered that the mystery artist behind bark paintings he was studying was his great-grandfather.

A research team led by Griffith University were undertaking research in Wetsern Arnhem land, focusing on rock and bark paintings, trying to put names behind the artists.

Frank Nalowerd at Djumuban (photograph by George Chaloupka, November 1974. Credit: Supplied.

The research team included Professor Paul Tacon from Griffith University and Danek Senior Traditional Owner and archaeological researcher Kenneth Mangiru who have been working together since the early 1990s.

The bark art from Arnhem land in the Northern Territory was collected over 100 years ago by anthropologist W. Baldwin Spencer and buffalo-shooter Paddy Cahill.

Spencer and Cahill wrote about and collected the art from Gunbalanya, West Arnhem land from 1912 to 1920.

“I noticed that in some of the letters between Cahill and Spencer there was reference to someone called ‘Old Harry’,” Professor Paul Tacon said.

Photograph of man believed to be Harry and his family by Elsie Masson (photograph courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum) Credit: Supplied.

‘Old Harry’ was a bark artist and looking at similarities between paintings, the team discovered several other artworks that belonged to the same artist.

“We discovered that his Aboriginal name was Majumbu, and that he also made rock paintings in some of the shelters he camped in,” he said.

This led to the ‘over the moon’ exciting discovery that connected the researcher and artist.

“When we made the connection that ‘Old Harry’ and Majumbu were the same person, suddenly we released it was Kenneth’s great grandfather that made these paintings,” Professor Tacon said.