NB both the NGV and SLV provide over-arching messages concerning Aboriginal images, advising that deceased people may be represented, that care has been taken to avoid including images of a sensitive nature, and that terms and conditions concerning any work may have been imposed by Indigenous communities.
Similar advice and provisos apply to all works catalogued here.
In fact, there are very few images of Aboriginal people in the present catalogue, in itself a commentary of sorts on the overwhelmingly white Anglo-Saxon character of the early development of Melbourne’s art collections.
The list of relevant entries is as follows:
Barak Untitled [Aboriginal ceremony] {1895} SLV [PA]
Barak Untitled [Aboriginal ceremony, with wallaby and emu] {1895} SLV [PA]
Dawson Australian Aboriginal Cricketers 1867 {1896} SLV [PH]
Fuller Barak 1885 {1901} SLV [PA]
Summers (Charles) Aborigines of Victoria 1866 {1867} SLV [SC]
Walter Portraits of Coranderkk Aboriginals 1866 {1866} SLV [PH] (and a photograph of William Barak from this series, reproduced in the Introduction to Photography)