Aboriginal (female)

This architectural ‘boss’ or carved stone figure depicts the face of an Aboriginal woman. Along with its male counterpart, it is situated in the Commemorative Courtyard of the Australian War Memorial. In 1940-41, Mr. W. Swan, stonemason, originally carved this piece as a gargoyle from a plaster model created by sculptor William Leslie Bowles. Research for the Memorial in 2016 concluded that Bowles had most likely based this female carved head on an image or images of Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, Truganini, who was probably the best known and most frequently depicted Aboriginal woman in Australia at the time. The Benjamin Law bust of Truganini of 1836 along with several later photographs of Truganini as an older woman bare a very strong resemblance to his carved female head.

In 2016, refurbishment of the Commemorative Area was undertaken to restore all gargoyles from Bowles’ original commission. The Memorial undertook national consultation regarding the process with Memorial staff, heritage practitioners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders in the local community and current and former serving Indigenous Defence personnel, the decision was made to re-carve the Aboriginal figures in their original likeness whilst removing their functionality as gargoyles. This decision was made to be more respectful regarding their depiction and their inclusion in the redevelopment preserved the Memorial’s original heritage design. The new figure now adorns the wall of the Commemorative Courtyard and is also part of the National Collection (see AWM2016.60.1).