A Strong Arm And A Good Eye - Weapons and Tools

My family is Gunnai/Gunditjmara bloodline. Our family has skills with wood. We’re craftsmen/artists, passed down over generations, very strong on the Mullett side. Uncles and great-uncles passed down the knowledge and skills.

The artwork identifies the markings, symbols and lines of our family. The vertical and horizontal markings relate to the Gunnai people, markings of our area and a lot of the animals are totems of our family on three sides: Monero, Gunditjmara and Gunnai.

In Gunnai Country, not a lot of ochre colours were used, mainly charcoal, white ochre and yellow ochre with a very small portion of red ochre. We use technology relating to wood-burning for our designs, very precise images are achieved. Originally we used irons in the fire years ago where you would have to bend and shape wire in the fire to do markings. The new process using small machines speeds things up. It was a different technology in the old days which required different skills and knowledge of the concentration of heat and smoke.

We don’t disturb the trees but only take a small part of them to make our artefacts. The woods we select in our area are blackwood, wattle, hickory (acacia family), ironbark, red box, banksia and sheoak.

ALBERT MULLETT Gunnai