Tracking the Boats: Tracing the Cultural Appropriation of Indigenous Australian Heritage on Post-World War II Australian Souvenir Wares

After World War II, Australian potters and makers increasingly used Indigenous Australian images on pottery and other household goods. This paper traces how several boat designs from Arnhem Land bark paintings were copied, changed and sold on artisanal pottery productions during the 1950s and 1960s. It focuses on three recurring scenes, including a canoe image from a bark painting by Yolŋu artist Nanyin Maymuru. By comparing original bark paintings with pottery, jewelry, boomerangs, greeting cards and other souvenirs, the study shows how culturally specific images gradually became detached from their original stories, places and owners. Museums, publications and anthropologists helped make these images available to non-Indigenous artists, often encouraging their use in Australian design. Different makers treated the source material in different ways: some copied it closely, while others simplified, altered or combined elements until they became generic symbols of “Aboriginal” Australia. The study also considers the views and circumstances of pottery artists, including Indigenous artist and activist Bill Onus, showing that the history of appropriation is not straightforward but more nuanced. The paper demonstrates that cultural appropriation occurred through repeated copying, reinterpretation and commercial use, turning Indigenous cultural heritage into souvenirs and symbols of post-war Australian identity while largely excluding the communities that created it from decisions about representation.