1903.39.3.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Woman's headband of hair string wound around a core and covered with red ochre; pendant bandicoot tail-tip.

Long description

From conservation card by Emma Hook 03/10/1996: Twisted strings of hair bound by a further string. Some then coated with mud/pigment. A tassel of white and back hair is tied onto the cord with no mud.

Geographical reference

Australia

Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > Australia

Cultural groups

Kaytetye

Person

Field collector Francis James Gillen

Field collector Walter Baldwin Spencer

Field collector Erlikilyika

PRM source Walter Baldwin Spencer

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1902

Date collected

1901 - 1902

Acquisition information

Donated: 1903

Materials and processes

Material Animal Hair, Material Ochre, Material String, Material Animal Tail, Material Animal Sinew, Process Painted, Process Bound, Process Twisted, Process Tied

Dimensions

Length: max 310 mm doubled

Object numbers

Accession number: 1903.39.3.1 Other numbers: Spencer number 3

Research and responses

This object was seen by Philip Jones from the South Australian Museum during a visit from 3 to 6 May 2011. The following comments were recorded: The possum fibre string is wrapped around a flexible core. Animal sinew (from kangaroo tail or emu leg) is used to attach tail pendant to necklace. The tail is from a rabbit bandicoote. Worn in daily life by women. [MJD 16/05/2011]

This headband was collected during an expedition of Central Australia led by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis Gillen between 1901 and 1902. However, it should be noted that accompanying them was an Aboriginal man called Erlikilyika. He was 'hired' (receiving no monetary payment) to run their campsites, but actually undertook some of the ethnographic work himself. He could speak Arrernte (his native language), Kaytej (another Aboriginal language), and English. In their personal field-diaries, Spencer and Gillen note that they took days off work, leaving Erlikilyika with "entire charge of the ethnological branch", where he spoke with and recorded the complex beliefs and customs of Aboriginal communities that were not his own (the Kaytetye group in particular). Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing if Erlikilyika collected any of these objects himself but we know that he played a vital role in documenting their meaning and significance, and should be credited as a possible field collector. This information was provided by Fionnuala Bradbury, a Master's student in Archaeology at Newcastle University, as part of her thesis entitled "Erlikilyika and Walter Baldwin Spencer: Indigenous Informants, Ethnographic Analogy, and Archaeological Interpretation". There is an abridged version of the thesis in RDF.

Associated publications

"These tail-tips are called Alpita and are a very favourite form of ornament amongst men and women alike, women usually wear them suspended over the ears". S&G 1899: 573 [AP 13/1/2000]

Search terms: Ornament, Head Ornament