The Advertiser Aboriginal 'crown jewels' to be auctioned 2oct99 THE controversial history of the Strehlow Aboriginal artefacts collection is set to take a new turn with the sale of the family's private collection. Mr Carl Strehlow will auction 350 artefacts left to him by his father – eminent anthropologist and linguist Professor Ted Strehlow – before he died 21 years ago. Described as "the crown jewels of Aboriginal culture", the collection includes ceremonial headwear, boomerangs, photographic images of Central Australia and a catalogue of hand-drawn pencil sketches of insects. It is expected to fetch more than $400,000. Mr Strehlow, 26, of Prospect, hopes it will be the final chapter in the collection's controversial history – plagued by allegations of secret sale agreements and smuggling, seizure and legal actions. "The time has come when my collection must be preserved in an appropriate manner," Mr Strehlow said yesterday. "It will give me great pleasure in knowing my family's achievements will now have the opportunity to pass to museums, galleries and private collections where they will receive the ongoing respect they deserve." The son of a Lutheran missionary in Central Australia, Professor Ted Strehlow was raised among the Aranda people. From 1933 until his death in 1978 at the age of 70 he devoted himself to learning the ways of the tribe and, in turn, was entrusted with its sacred tribal secrets. As their Ingkata – ceremonial chief – he was permitted to record their most intimate and secret traditions, giving rise to the collection of priceless film and audio tapes, photographs, diaries, journals and artefacts. The 1200-piece collection is now housed in the Strehlow Research Centre, established about 10 years in Alice Springs. Other objects were left to his son Carl. This angered Central Australian tribal Aborigines who strongly objected to the collection being controlled by an uninitiated person. But Mr Strehlow is sure there will not be any public outcry this time as "there's actually nothing for auction which would be culturally sensitive". Auctioneer Mr David Weber, of Megaw and Hogg Auctions, said there had been world-wide interest in the artefacts. The auction will be held at Megaw and Hogg's auction rooms at 26 Leigh St, city, from 6.30pm on Monday, October 18. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
