Summary
This skirt was worn during the final stages of Ngulmark, a high order men's ceremony that women join in with at specific points. The ceremony was most likely the one in 1936 at the mission at Milingimbi from which Donald Thomson collected a number of these skirts.
The distinctive triangular skirt was painted for and worn by women in the final stages of Ngulmark. It is made from the split and dried leaves of the pandanus palm using the twining techique. Ceremonial skirts were generally painted like this with broad horizontal stripes. Those carried and used by women in more everyday circumstanes were less ornately decorated. The term for horizontal stripes recorded by Donald Thomson is manydirakdak.
Physical Description
A triangular skirt made of pandanus using the twining technique and painted with natural pigments. It has broad horizontal bands of yellow and red ochre and white and black pigment. The bands are delineated with a single row stitched with human hair string.
Local Name
jin-gubardabiya
More Information
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Collection Names
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Collecting Areas
Donald Thomson, Australian Indigenous - Northern Australia and Queensland and Torres Strait Islands
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Acquisition Information
Long-term Loan from University of Melbourne (The), 28 Mar 1973
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Acknowledgement
The Donald Thomson Collection. On loan to Museum Victoria from The University of Melbourne.
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Maker
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Date Produced
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Collector
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Date Collected
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Locality
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Cultural Groups
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Object/Medium
Garment
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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Object Measurements
1160 mm (Length), 960 mm (Width), 40 mm (Height)
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Exhibition Collection Management
30 mm (Length), 1200 mm (Width), 680 mm (Height)
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Dimensions
700 mm (Length), 1100 mm (Width)
Measurement From Conservation. Measuring Method: maximum measurements
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Keywords