Stylized female figure, timbuwarra, Pangia, Southern Highlands.
Flat woven anthropomorphic figures such as this were kept in Spirit Houses and apparently were associated with fertility and spirits. In ceremony they were carried or were pinned to the tall red wig worn by men. This practice was locally described as "female pinned by a penis to the wig." Moriarty refers to it as a female figure representing a dead wife intended for relatives and friends to pay their respects to.

Woven fiber and paint. 137 X 87 cm.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, M1677
Gift of Stan Moriarty, 1977.

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