Before the Dots, before Papunya: Australian Aboriginal Crayon Drawings from Birrundudu, NT 1945

Abstract

In 1944-45, Ronald M. Berndt collected a large number of crayon drawings on brown paper from Aboriginal men living at Birrundudu, North-Central Northern Territory. The artists were of semi-nomadic groups whose original homelands extended from north-west to south-east of Birrundudu. These people maintained cultural ties to localities later known as the government centres of Papunya and Yuendumu on the one hand, and Balgo Hills on the other, although at that time the more recent art developments of Central Australia, especially Papunya, had not even been foreshadowed. This paper analyses the nature of Aboriginal depictions of people, country and place prior to the commercialisation of their art in the early 1970s, thirty years later. It examines the context in which this art was produced, and the narration of symbol and meaning. It draws heavily on the Museum’s unique collection of these works, hitherto largely unpublished, and contrasts the highly figurative imagery of the drawings with later stylised manifestations from culturally related Aboriginal art-producing communities. The paper focuses on the origins of the images and the intentions of the artists even at that time to engage with a wider and public audience.