Indigenous Shields Exhibition Challenges Perceptions
The University of Queensland's Anthropology Museum is hosting a groundbreaking exhibition of over 130 Indigenous shields, challenging visitors to see these artifacts as both defensive tools and powerful symbols of culture, identity, and resistance. The Telfair Museums launched an exhibition exploring Ossabaw Island's influence on American art.
The "Shields: Design and Functionality" exhibition is the result of dedicated research by its director, Michael Aird, who discovered that many shields in the museum's collection were either unprovenanced or incorrectly attributed. This scholarly undertaking has involved meticulously comparing designs and consulting historical photographs to correctly identify the regional origins of these cultural artifacts. The exhibition showcases significant regional variations in shield design, from the simpler styles of the Brisbane region to the more intricate patterns of the North Queensland rainforests. Some of the shields on display date back to the early 1900s and were sourced from various rural and regional communities across Australia. Beyond historical pieces, the exhibition features works by contemporary Indigenous artists like Bernard Singleton Jnr, Judy Watson, and Paul Bong, who draw inspiration from traditional shield designs to continue and evolve these cultural practices. This juxtaposition highlights the living and dynamic nature of Indigenous culture. The Telfair Museums' exhibition, "Off the Coast of Paradise: Artists and Ossabaw Island, 1961–Now," is the first major exhibition to explore the artistic legacy of the 26,000-acre barrier island. The show features work from 32 artists, including internationally renowned figures like Harry Bertoia, Sally Mann, and Anne Truitt. This exhibition specifically highlights the influence of two revolutionary multidisciplinary residency programs, the Ossabaw Island Project (OIP) and Genesis, which ran from 1961 to 1982. These programs, while influential, remain little known today, and the exhibition aims to bring their significant history to the forefront. A major new commission by Allison Janae Hamilton, titled *Venus of Ossabaw*, is a central feature of the exhibition. The film engages with the history of enslavement on Ossabaw and will be screened nightly on the facade of the museum's Jepson Center. Ossabaw Island was sold to the state of Georgia in 1978 to be maintained as a heritage preserve for scientific and cultural study. Human presence on the island dates back at least 4,000 years, and it was inhabited by the Guale Indians at the time of Spanish exploration.
