TULABA (BILLY MCLEOD)

Acquired by the vendor in 1954 from a second-hand dealer in Londsdale Street, Melbourne

The Kurnai parrying shield is in good condition with no visible repairs or restoration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Cf. For a similar shield from Central Victoria with a flat concave engraved face bearing two anthropomorphic figures set against a hatched ground, see Cooper, C. et al, Aboriginal Australia, Australian Gallery Directors' Council, Sydney, 1981, p.85, pl. S 25. For other Victorian shields of the type see Howitt, A.W., The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, Macmillan & Co., London, 1904, (facsimile published by Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1996, reprinted 2001), p.336, fig.16; Black, R., Old and New Australian Aboriginal Art, Angus and Robertson, 1964, p.84, fig.72; and Brough Smyth, R., The Aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the natives of other parts of Australia and Tasmania compiled from various sources for the Government of Victoria, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1878, (reprinted 1972), p.331, figs.116-24, illus.

A rare Kurnai shield that may have belonged to Tulaba (also known as Billy McLeod, c.1832-1886) and bears his etched drawings. Tulaba was an elder of the Kurnai who provided much of the information on traditional practices on which A.W. Howitt relied for the latter's pioneering text The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, published in 1904.

The parrying shield has a flattish convex face bearing a scalloped organic shape, painted blue and divided into sections and said to represent a billabong. The blue colour is probably made from Reckitt's Bag Blue, a washing powder that provided Aboriginal artists with a previously unobtainable colour in the early days of European settlement. The billabong design is set against a ground pattern of crosshatching with white pipe clay rubbed into the surface. The two faces of the back of this triangular-sectioned shield bear drawings etched by Tulaba: on one face is a figure of a bearded man, possibly the artist himself, digging out an echidna from its burrow with a stick, and five swans or water birds and a plant; the second face bears a line of three emus and another of three pelicans and the inscription 'Billy McLeod drawn by'.

The shield shows clear signs of age and use, not only in the rich patination (especially at the edges), but additionally in a coloured patch of old pipeclay (and possibly red ochre) on its reverse. This suggests the shield may have been used on at least one occasion as a palette for ceremonial painting. Old shields were often highly valued for their magical properties – Howitt describes how "an ancient shield... brought... from the upper waters of the Murrumbidgee River... was greatly valued because... it had 'won many fights'." (Howitt, 1904, pp.719-20).

Tulaba was the son of Bembinkel, of the Bruthen division of the Brabiralung clan in East Gippsland, covering all the country watered by the Tambo, Nicholson and Mitchell Rivers down to the Gippsland Lakes. Taken from his family (though not his country) as a boy, Tulaba was raised by the pastoralists Archibald and John McLeod, from whom he acquired proficiency with horses and the English language.

When the explorer, scientist and magistrateAlfred Howitt established his hop farm at Eastwood on the Mitchell River in 1866, Tulaba and his family settled on the property, and remained there for many years. As Howitt's natural history interests began to extend in the 1870s from geology and botany to the new discipline of anthropology, Tulaba became (along with Billy Wood, Tommy Hoddinott and Bobby Coleman) one of this core group of Aboriginal authorities. The information provided by these senior men was the foundation of Howitt's contribution to the pioneering text Kamilaroi and Kurnai by L. Fison and A. Howitt, 1880, (facsimile published by Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1991) as well as to Howitt's The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. An engraving based upon a photograph of Tulaba bearing a boomerang and a shield, his torso painted in clan designs, is reproduced in Howitt, 1904/1991, on page 344.

Tulaba's immediate physical proximity, his status as a Kurnai leader, his inherited perogatives (he was the tribal son of the former great headman Bruthen-munji) and his willingness to share information (his nickname 'Taenjill' translates roughly as 'chatterbox') probably made him Howitt's single most important source on the traditional stories and lifeways of the Kurnai. Howitt actively encouraged Tulaba and his people to maintain their traditions, sponsoring a number of ceremonial revivals in the 1880s such as the great regional jeraeil (initiation) of 1884.

For further reading on Tulaba and Howitt, see Mulvaney, J., 'Tulaba (c.1832-1886)', in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, supplementary volume, 2005, pp.387-8 and the online edition; Stanner, W.E.H., 'Howitt, Alfred William (1830-1908)' in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, v.4, 1972, pp.432-5 and the online edition; and Gardner, P.D., Through foreign eyes: European perceptions of the Kurnai tribes of Gippsland, Ngarak Press, Ensay, Victoria, 1994.