Kwakiutl masks

 In the Anthropology Museum in Vancouver there is a collection of masks used by Kwakiutl people for ceremonies. There is also an information that those masks have been purchased perfectly legally from a chief, who bought a boat for the tribe for the money earned. It seems that the legality is quite important for the curators. It is true that in previous decades masks have been confiscated and exhibited in a museum, but the original owners challenged the legality, won the case and the masks were returned to the tribe.

These are the masks that used to be seen only during ceremonies. Now they can be seen in a museum. Something must have changed.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Argilite sculptures of Haida Gwaii

In the 19^th century tourists came to Queen Charlotte Islands and encountered totem poles. They were amazed, perhaps some tourists wouldn't mind taking them as souvenirs, but they were rather too big. Haida Indians, who lived on Queen Charlotte Islands, came with a solution: miniature totem poles could be made. They could be even made from different material, for example argilite, black stone easy to cut that was plentiful on those islands. So miniature black totem poles were produced. Or miniature chests, which couldn't contain much but which tourists could take home. Or pipes full of mythical figures, like totem poles. Or even a figure of a soldier, after all an argilite sculpture does not have to be traditional.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Daly River painters

 I never read any book about Daly River artists. I just went there and saw this gallery full of pictures. There was even nobody to ask for any explanation. They were neither dot painting of Central Australia nor bark paintings characteristic of Arnhem Land. They nevertheless seem to have been paintings produced by a Blackfella for a Whitefella market. Anyway, most inhabitants (it is a settlement, despite the name) are Blackfellas. There is even a proper Australian outback pub (frequented by Blacfellas).

Yirrkala school

 Yirrkala was a Methodist mission in the east part of Arnhem Land and now is a bark painting centre. In fact the so called "bark petition" to Australian parliament originated here. Also here are the "Yirrkala church panels", famous for having been chucked out from the church, for which they were painted a few years earlier. They can be seen there now, but one has to travel all the way to Yirrkala to see them.

The paintings are full of little strokes, but unlike the Oenpelli school, the Yirrkala artists fill the background with strokes and leave the figures in one colour, usually black.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Oenpelli school

 Oenpelli in a centre of bark painting in the west of Arnhem Land. It used to be an Anglican mission and the missionaries bought pictures from native artists and sold them in the cities on the coast. There was a problem how to pay for the pictures, it was decided it depended on time spent painting each picture. I guess the amount of little strokes in each picture has something to do with this decision. The paintings seem similar to those from the eastern part of Arnhem Land, which also have plenty of little strokes, but there is one difference: in Oenpelli the figures are full of strokes, whereas the background is of one colour, whereas in the East the background is full of strokes, while the figures are left in one colour.

The natives of Arnhem Land are considered artists because in Europe cubism and similar currants became popular. Even Picasso, seeing one of the bark pictre from Oenpelli, said that he would like to paint like this. If Picasso himself sais that, they must be artists.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it:

Mountford expedition

 After the last war, in 1948, Australia decided to learn something about the country they fought such a fierce war about. An expedition was sent to Arnhem Land, thus far hardly known part of the country. It was led by Charles Mountford. During the expedition paintings on bark were collected. Those paintings show what Aborignal bark paintings were like before trade in them started.

Later missionaries were bying bark paintings and reselling then in the cities of the coast. They paid the artists according to the time spent on painting. So it paid (literally) to spend as much time as possible painting it. Which is why later paintings have a multitude of little strokes, but the ones gathered earlier seem to be much simpler.

If anyone wants to lean more on the subject, I published a book about it: