LOT DETAILS

Materials:

natural earth pigments and attached shell fingernail with bees wax on carved softwood

Measurements:

42.13 in. (107.00 cm.) (height)

Provenance:

:~Executed on Bathurst or Melville Islands circa 1960~Dorothy Bennett, Darwin~Wesfarmers Limited, Perth~Sotheby's, Aboriginal and Tribal Art, Sydney, 9 November 1997, lot 68~Private collection~~Cf. For another example of a carving of Wuriuprinili's stick carved by Albert Croker see Sandra Le Brun Holmes, The Goddess and the Moon Man: The Sacred Art of the Tiwi Aborigines, Sydney: Craftsman House, 1995, p.53; for a thorough discussion of 'the creation period' in Tiwi mythology, with a number of references to the activities of Wuriuprinili, see Charles P. Mountford, The Tiwi: Art Myth and Ceremony, London: Pheonix House, 1958, pp.23-38. ~ ~In Tiwi mythology, following the death of their god Purukupali, when the Tiwi were no longer immortal, the laws and ceremonies of the Tiwi were given to them by Purukupali's nephew, Wuriuprinili (Fire). According to Holmes, following Purukuparli's death, Tokampini the Bird Man, and Old Fire Skin travelled across the Melville Island carrying strange walking sticks. Holmes states, 'The stick carried by Old Fire Skin was entwined with snakes and has his fingers and fingernails carved on top of it' (Le Brun Holmes, 1995:42).