Aboriginal man ornamented for a corroboree
This photograph taken during the goldrush period, shows an unknown Indigenous man ornamented for a corroboree. Newspapers record that corroborees were performed on the goldfields in exchange for money and goods. Many ceremonial dances are sacred and people from outside a community are not not permitted to watch. It is thought that the Indigenous dancers invented much of these performances to protect their genuine cultural practice from Europeans.
Antoine Fauchery and Richard Daintree, photographers. ca. 1858
Accession number: H84.167/52
From the State Library of Victoria's Pictures Collection.
