Ethnography

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"Cameragal the chief of the most powerful Tribe in New South Wales"

Artist: Port Jackson Painter
Created: [between 1788 and 1797]
Dimensions: 29.5 x 18.7 cm
Reference: Watling Drawing - no. 53

 

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Full-length portrait of an Aboriginal man named as Camaragal, standing in a landscape in front of a river or harbour inlet. The man is naked and his skin is very dark brown, overlaid with black concentric rings describing the contour of his body, particularly the belly and knees. His septum is pierced by a nose-bone, and there are several grey-white markings on his upper arms, chest and left thigh. He holds two fighting spears and a fishing spear in his right hand, and two throwing sticks in his left. He is depicted standing on the bank of a river or harbour inlet with a canoe in the water on the left, and a figure paddling a canoe in the mid-distance to the right, with a sparsely wooded far shore. The water is represented by a pale blue wash with grey lines, and the land by a pale yellow-green wash overlaid with brush marks of darker colours which describe the slope of the land. The sky is unpainted. The upper part of the drawing is framed by a pencil border.

 

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