Celebrating Aboriginal Heritage: UQ Museum Opens Shields Exhibition
A major exhibition celebrating the artistry and cultural significance of traditional Aboriginal shields has opened at The University of Queensland’s Anthropology Museum.
Titled “Shields: Design and Functionality,” the exhibition presents more than 130 shields, highlighting their historical, artistic, and regional diversity. These shields, traditionally used by Aboriginal people for demonstrations, conflict resolution, and symbolic warfare, date back as far as the early 1900s. Many pieces have been sourced from rural and regional communities across Australia.
Museum Director Michael Aird explained that the exhibition showcases the variation in shield design depending on their region of origin. “Our exhibition shows the variation in design depending on the region where the shields were created,” Mr Aird said.
Aird’s inspiration for the exhibition came from research he is undertaking for a forthcoming book about Queensland shields.
During his research, he discovered many shields in the museum’s collection were unprovenanced or incorrectly attributed. “For example, a database originally labelled one shield as originating from the Kimberley in Western Australia, but when we compared it with others that had similar designs, it would have made more sense to have come from Southwest Queensland or North West New South Wales,” he said.
The exhibition is further enriched by historical photographs that connect the shields to the people and places from which they came. These images have been sourced from a range of collections, including the Anthropology Museum, Fryer Library, The Royal Collection in the UK, Peabody Museum in the USA, National Archives of Australia, Queensland Museum, and private collections.
One photograph features a man from the Hervey Bay area holding a decorated shield during the 1901 procession of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in Brisbane. Research by Mr Aird has revealed that this shield has been held in the Queensland Museum since 1904.
The exhibition also bridges the traditional and the contemporary, featuring works by modern Indigenous artists such as Bernard Singleton Jnr, Judy Watson, Paul Bong, Jennifer Herd, and Dylan Sarra. These artists draw inspiration from traditional shield designs, continuing and evolving cultural practices.
Bernard Singleton Jnr, an Umpila, Djabugay/Yirrgay artist, reflected on his family’s heritage of archaeology and timber craftsmanship as a key influence. “Exhibitions like Shields showcase the continuation of practice and culture, while keeping our knowledge systems at our core,” Singleton said.
Yidinji artist Paul Bong said the exhibition allowed him to present his contemporary artwork on a new level. “By combining traditional shield designs with contemporary materials and forms, I’m showing that our culture is still alive and evolving,” he said.
Aird hopes visitors will leave with a deeper appreciation of the shields’ cultural significance and the diversity of Aboriginal traditions. “There’s so much cultural diversity, and I don’t think that’s something people realise,” he said.
English