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The Arnhem Land Collections

The Region

Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, remained a relatively isolated region until intensive mining exploration and development began in the 1960s. This was due, in part, to the Federal Government declaring the area an Aboriginal reserve, with restricted access, prior to the Second World War. Today, Arnhem Land is the home of a large Aboriginal population, living not only in the coastal settlements (former mission stations now operated by the communities themselves), but also at many outstations that have been more recently established.

The northern sector of Arnhem Land may be divided culturally into at least two distinctive regions: north-eastern and western. A mid-north division can also be identified. These regions can be seen on the map (to be added shortly).

The Berndt Museum has about 1,700 objects from the Arnhem Land region. These include paintings and drawings, figures of mythic beings, wuramu figures, and sorcery images. The extensive collection of crayon drawings is particularly significant.

Highlights

Some highlights of the Arnhem Land collections can be seen in the Virtual Tour. Paintings and drawings from Yirrkala, in north-east Arnhem Land, were featured in the Djalkiri Wänga exhibition of 1995.

Objects Held

Many items are multi-purpose, being used for fighting, hunting and music.
Collections of stone materials are usually given a single registration number.

Object Type	Number
Ceremony	170
Communication	5
Dress/ornament	50
Fishing	7
Habit (e.g. smoking)	11
Household	45
Hunting	1
Music	30
Raw materials (e.g. ochre, spinifex resin)	26
Ritual	104
Tools	45
Toys/children’s paintings	108
Water transport	3
Weapons	15
Medical	13
Souvenir art	48
Fine art (e.g. acrylic paintings)	31
Bark/crayon drawings	985
TOTAL	1,697

Photographic Collections

The Museum has an extensive photographic collection. It contains photographs, negatives and colour slides, and consists of many small collections donated to the Museum.

The following collections contain significant Northern Territory material.

Collector	Date	Location
Sansom	1977	Darwin