Abstract
This is a Master of Arts Thesis.This thesis is intended to demonstrate that the Ulster Museum Aboriginal collection, previously considered to be a motley group of objects of uncertain age and provenance, now contains a small but important range of artefacts, illustrative of the main weapon and implement types in use in the inhabited geographical areas of Australia, circa 1836 to 1900. Some are closely dated and provenanced to the Victoria region.
By research and observation of it and other relevant collections in the Manchester Museum, the Museum of Mankind (the British Museum), the National Museum of Scotland and the National Museum of Ireland, the author has established that
the Victoria collection corroborates contemporary authorities such as Brough Smyth (The Aborigines of Victoria, 1878) . Additional previously unknown, related documentary evidence, both written and pictorial, has been discovered by the author among the Ulster Museum collections, which places the objects securely in their historical setting. The documents also provide further insights into the relationship between settlers and the Aboriginal population during the 1830s . The
evidence heralds the irreversible impact that European settlement was to have on the native population.
| Date of Award | Dec 1990 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
|