Ceremony; Hunting possum

Two rows of dancers are drawn across the page from edge to edge. The dancers are drawn in silhouette, differentiated by individual body designs indicated in red ink wash. The legs of the dancers, all bent at the same angle, lock together to give the impression of a group dancing in complete unison. Each row of performers dances upon a lightly sketched ground, distinguished from one another through their adornments. The lower row of dancers have bunches of leaves tied around the lower halves of their legs and are adorned with small feathered headdresses. These dancers may originate from Echuca or Goulburn River area, according to inscriptions on comparable rows of dancers. In the middle of the upper section an Aboriginal man is shown hunting a possum up a tree which is bare of leaves. To the left of this action, another tree is depicted.

This drawing is characteristic, in both style and iconography, of Tommy McRae’s work. In common with other single-sheet drawings, produced from 1860 onwards, the artist employs a two-tiered composition to explore different aspects of cultural life concurrently. The starting point of the composition is the freely sketched ground upon which the ceremonial performers dance in unison. This drawing made with split pen and ink exemplifies the rare economy of McRae’s art. The sparseness of his highly expressive drawing style allows the paper to suggest space. The landscape setting is indicated with singular brevity: the ground is loosely marked by a tangle of lines: a single skeletal eucalypt is suggestive of the bush.

Text by Judith Ryan © National Gallery of Victoria, Australia