Arnhem Land Christmas card featuring Aranga Malignant spirit (1960s)

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Type: Greeting cards
Date: 1960 - 1969
Place: Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia
Materials: Graphite, Ink, Paper
Collection: Janet Norris collection
Accession number: 2018.0040.0009

Description

A Christmas card made of yellow paper featuring a lino printed design of an Aranga Malignant spirit on a brown background on the front. In the bottom right corner is a signature reading 'Browning'. Printed text across the bottom of the left side inside the card reads 'ARANGA is a malignant spirit known in the Oenpelli / region. He has a rainbow snake's head and is hung with / ornaments. He was married to two sisters.' and pencil handwriting in the top left corner reading '3 / 6/- per doz'. On the right side, there is brown text reading 'Greetings' in the centre, with swirling dot and line artwork around the 'G'.

Sold by Deaconess Winifred Hilliard to Janet Norris. Christmas card from Arnhem Land featuring Aranga Malignant spirit (1960s).

About the collection

This collection comprises arts and crafts sold by the late Deaconess Winifred Hilliard to Janet Norris, a fellow member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, Camberwell. Winifred maintained a craft program at Ernabella Mission from the 1950s when Janet was a member of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union at Trinity. The role of the group was to raise money to fund craft activities and support the various missions. They did this by selling Christmas cards and items made by the Aboriginal peoples of Ernabella, in particular. As a collection, these items represent the diversity of arts and crafts produced at such missions during the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to colourful Christmas cards, featuring reproductions of rock art, photographs of Aboriginal families, and abstract designs in Ernabella style, the collection contains two 'walka' paintings used for Christmas card designs and four examples of pokerwork from Ernabella. The collection also includes an early example of a batik by Tjunkaya Tayapa. These items reflect the Norris family’s strong support for the mission at Ernabella and other Presbyterian missions, as well as the reach of Winifred’s work in promoting Ernabella arts and crafts over the decades she lived there.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:59:19 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.