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Djon Mundine OAM (Bandjalang people, NSW) et al
The Native Born: Objects and representation from Ramingining, Arnhem Land
Museum of Contemporary Art 2000
296mm x 237mm, soft cover, 242 pp
$50 rrp

This book is inspired by a collection of Aboriginal art in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, comprising over 200 works by artists from Ramingining in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

Bernice Murphy’s introduction focuses on the history of this collection and Aboriginal art within the MCA, and the broader issues relating to the custodianship of Aboriginal art.

Djon Mundine’s major essay provides a broad social and historical context to this collection, as well as a first-hand perspective on the life, environment and art of Ramingining and the effects of contact with non-indigenous culture – with pastoralists, missionaries, collectors, teachers, and anthropologists.

John rudder writes about the Aboriginal (Yolngu) conceptual reading of the world through a variety of classificatory systems.  He shows how these systems reveal a concern with the relationships between all things – plants, animals, humans and places – and with both the practical and spiritual identity of things.

This book includes over 100 colour plates of paintings and sculptures from the collection, as well as photographs of the natural environs around Ramingining.  There are numerous portraits of the artists and illustrations to contextualise each essay, as well as a fully illustrated catalogue list of works in the Ramingining collection.