Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows that Aboriginal artistic traditions have an important place in the burial of the dead. In the clip, Grahame Walsh says that the central Queensland sandstone belt is well known for its mortuary culture. Walsh describes a burial process in the Carnarvon region in which skeletal remains were wrapped in a bark cylinder that was elaborately decorated and painted and then deposited, sometimes with burial goods. He shows a hole in the side of Carnarvon Gorge where remains were found. He compares this advanced and sophisticated burial method to ancient Egyptian burials. Evocative music accompanies the images.

Educational value points

• This clip shows Grahame Walsh emphasising the importance of Indigenous artistic traditions about the dead as well as the living. He explains how the bark coffins in the Carnarvon Gorge were made and decorated. The coffins shown in this clip are cylindrical and were painted with red and yellow ochre. Walsh talks about the sophisticated mortuary culture, stressing the artistic nature of the coffins, which he describes as 'works of art’.

• The burial of the coffin in the rock hole was the second stage in the burial process. The body of the deceased was first dried out by being placed on a wooden frame, sometimes over a fire and sometimes in the open air or a rock shelter. The process could take two years, during which time the body might be carried around by the group. The bones of the skeleton were then wrapped in sheets of bark. Sometimes, the dead person was buried with ornaments or artefacts such as nets, bags, weapons, shells, stone artefacts and seeds.

• Bark coffins such as those depicted in this clip were decorated both inside and outside. Grass padding was sometimes placed inside the cylinder and the coffins were tied with string made from animal fur, sinew or skin, plant fibre or human hair. In some cases they were painted with bands of red and yellow ochre, and they were sometimes decorated with possum rugs or grass necklaces, shell pendants, woven headbands and cockatoo feathers.

• In the clip, Walsh expresses enthusiasm and respect for the artistic coffins of the Indigenous people of the Carnarvon area. He describes the beauty of the artwork and the sophisticated techniques employed by the people at the time in crafting their bark cylinders, in preparing the bodies and decorating the coffins. He describes the mortuary culture as 'far more developed than we’ve got today’.

• The Carnarvon Gorge is in Garingbal country, but several different Indigenous language groups adjoin this location. Each language group among the Indigenous peoples of Australia has its own beliefs and cultural practices including burial ceremonies and customs.

• Grahame Walsh (1944-2007) had been passionate about rock art in Australia since he was shown examples of stencilled hands in the Queensland bush as a child. His work in the Kimberley in Western Australia has been controversial due to his theory that the 'Bradshaw’ figures in the Kimberley are so different from other art that they may have been painted before Aboriginal people occupied the region.