National Museum nets rare Aboriginal art
The National Museum in Canberra has purchased two rare pen and ink drawings thought to have been created more than a century ago by an Aboriginal artist.
Buckley’s Escape, drawn by Aboriginal artist Tommy McRae, depicts convict William Buckley escaping captivity to spend the next 32 years of his life with Aboriginal people.
The other drawing, Murray Tribal Warfare, shows Aboriginal people fighting in northern Victoria.
McRae lived in the Upper Murray, Victoria, where he made and sold books of drawings. He is one of only a few Aboriginal artists to depict life in 19th century Australia.
Both the drawings were held by the same New South Wales family since they were bought directly from McRae in the 1890s.
The National Museum purchased the drawings at auction for more than $100,000.
National Museum director Andrew Sayers says they have been trying to get hold of the drawings for years.
"It's great to have a drawing which records - through Aboriginal eyes - one of the key moments of contact between European colonisers and Aboriginal people," he said.
"William Buckley’s story is one of the great Australian stories from the period of early European colonisation and contact. What is significant about Tommy McRae's drawing is his treatment of William Buckley’s story from an Aboriginal perspective.
"The work contrasts with the way European artists tell Buckley’s story. For them the climatic point was the end of his three decades with Aboriginal people; for McRae it was the moment of Buckley’s entry into the Aboriginal world," he said.
The National Historic Collection held at the museum already includes a sketchbook by McRae, which was acquired in 1986.
Other works by 19th century Aboriginal artists, including William Barak, are also present in the collection, as well and the pen and ink drawings by the artist known only as Oscar of Cooktown.
The drawings will be on display in the gallery in coming months.