Ancestral Power and the Aesthetic

When Donald Thomson was a kid, he’d forage for birds’ eggs and dreamed of joining polar expeditions. At university he studied photography, anthropology and pursued his interest in nature, culture and the world. Throughout his career, Thomson covered thousands of miles on horseback on his own expeditions and studied zoological specimans. He was also an early supporter of Aboriginal rights by recommending policy changes and establishing a healthy relationship between the Australian Commonwealth and the Yolngu people. He also recorded a huge amount of information about Aboriginal culture, art, ceremonial performances, burial practices and hunting-and-gathering economy.

Currently at the Melbourne Museum from the Donald Thomson collection, visitors have the chance to see rare, never-seen-before bark paintings. “These extraordinary paintings and other painted objects illustrate differences in painting styles between Dhuwa and Yirritja clans and between those of central and eastern Arnhem Land,” says Lindy Allen, Senior Curator of Anthropology at Museum Victoria, the curator for the exhibition. This is the first time that the extraordinary painted works collected by Donald Thomson in the 1930s and early 1940s have been exhibited.