Thoughts On Carved Tribal Piece

[chadkeath]

Good evening to everyone and hope all is well. I honestly have no clue on what I got here. It is vintage and is a carved totem type tribal figure with painted designs on it. The wood is really light not a heavy wood. I'm not sure what it is, but is pretty cool. I am hoping someone on this forum may have a idea of what it is and what region it may have come from. Basically any info/thoughts. Thank you all in advance. Oh it is 16 inches tall and is all wood.

 

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[unclemac]

inexpensive tourist piece...the light wood is a dead give away.

 

[Red-Coat]

Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.

Reproduction or not, it’s a nice thing.

It seems to be styled as a ‘mokuy’ mortuary figure from Arnhem Land in the northern-most part of Australia’s Northern Territory. The first such figures were collected from Milingimbi Mission in 1927–28 by anthropologist W. Lloyd Warner, while making an ethnographic study of the Yolngu aboriginal people. In Yolngu languages a mokuy is a ghost, or the sinister spirit of a deceased person which inhabits the vicinity of the burial ground and will cause harm to intruders.

https://www.carters.com.au/index.cf...e-northern-territory-origin-wood-and-natural/

The painted wooden sculptures [below], three of the largest and most elaborate examples extant, were made at Milingimbi Mission during the early 1960s when sculptural production was at its height. Thereafter they were distributed by Alan Fidock at Milingimbi Mission to Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, which Jim Davidson opened in Melbourne in 1961, and eventually sold to Gabrielle Pizzi during the 1980s.

https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/lipundja-and-unknown-yolngu-artist-mokuy-figures/