Aboriginal Artists of the Nineteenth Century

Sayers examines a considerable body of drawings produced by Aboriginal artists between 1803 and 1903. Often regarded as inauthentic art because of their stylistic borrowings and fluctuations, these objects are products of the interaction between Aboriginal society and the British colonizers. The largest group of drawings comes from three artists: Tommy McCrae, William Barak, and Ulladulla Mickey. Visually their drawings are varied, but they possess many of the aesthetic qualities which characterize contemporary Aboriginal art, displaying intense vitality and an acute understanding of flora and fauna.