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‘Strange paintings’ and ‘mystery races’: Kimberley rockart, diffusionism and colonialist constructions of Australia's Aboriginal past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ian J. McNiven  and
Lynette Russell
Ian J. McNiven
Affiliation:
McNiven, Classics and Archaeology Dept, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Lynette Russell
Affiliation:
Museum Studies Unit, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3221, Australia.
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Abstract

Amongst the most striking and the most handsome of ancient Australian relics are the Bradshaw paintings of the Kimberley, in the remote northwest of the continent, uncertainly dated but seemingly most ancient. According to one published view, the Bradshaws are not so much ‘early Aboriginal’ as ‘pre-Aboriginal’. Issue is taken with that notion, in light of European attitudes to Aboriginal accomplishment over the last two centuries.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 274 , December 1997 , pp. 801 - 809
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997

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