Hollow Log Coffins of Arnhem Land
Hollow logs are made by Aboriginal peoples in Arnhem Land from stringybark trunks hollowed out by termites. Yolŋu people of north-east Arnhem Land call them larrakitj, in central Arnhem Land they are known as dupun, and in western Arnhem Land, around Maningrida, as lorrkon. Once used in mortuary ceremonies, they are now also made as works of art.
Larrakitj installation at Tarnanthi, Adelaide
Use in Ceremony
Hollow logs were used in the final stage of mortuary ceremonies. After a person's death and a period of mourning, their bones were painted with ochre and placed inside the log, which was painted with the clan designs of the deceased. The log was then stood upright on country and left to weather and return to the land. The hollow log ceremony is unique to Arnhem Land.
Designs
The designs painted on hollow logs belong to the artist's clan and refer to ancestral beings, places and stories. They are not decoration chosen by the artist; the right to paint them comes through family and clan.
From Ceremony to Art
From the 1980s, artists began making hollow logs for galleries and collectors, painted with the same clan designs but without human remains. The best-known example is The Aboriginal Memorial (1987–88), 200 hollow log coffins made by 43 artists from nine clan groups at Ramingining and nearby communities in central Arnhem Land, now in the National Gallery of Australia. Conceived by Djon Mundine, it was made for the 1988 bicentenary of British colonisation, one log for each year since 1788, to commemorate Aboriginal people who died defending their country.
Today art centres such as Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka at Yirrkala and Maningrida Arts and Culture work with artists who make hollow logs for exhibitions and collections in Australia and overseas, while the logs continue to be used in ceremony.
References and Further Reading
- Morphy, Howard. Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
- Morphy, Howard. Aboriginal Art. Phaidon, 1998.
- Taylor, Luke. Seeing the Inside: Bark Painting in Western Arnhem Land. Clarendon Press, 1996.
- Perkins, Hetti (ed.). Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art. Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004.
- National Gallery of Australia. The Aboriginal Memorial.
- National Gallery of Australia. The Aboriginal Memorial: Burial Ceremonies.
