The Hitchhiker's Guide to Australian Aboriginal bodily adornment, object making and jewellery, BC-AC (Before Cook - After Colonisation)

Abstract

In this paper I presented a thumbnail sketch of Aboriginal body wear, bodily adornments and bodily modification practices from pre-Anglo-European contact until the present day. Many of my examples were drawn from Central Australia and the Western Desert, where I lived and worked for many years from the early 1980s until the early 1990s. A comparative approach was taken, and these practices were examined in relation to certain contemporary body adornment and modification practices currently popular in the dominant culture of this country. In addition, I provided an overview and sampling of a number of recent jewellery projects and other bodily ornamentation and adornments currently being crafted and created in various parts of Aboriginal Australia. In this presentation I did not purport to provide exhaustive coverage of this very broad field, but rather, to provide a basis for those who may wish to explore related topics further.