A Queensland Aboriginal man holding a throwing club and boomerang (possibly at Deebing Creek Mission, Ipswich), 1890s.

Photographic glass magic lantern slide, 82 x 82 mm; a tiny ‘Ilford’ label on the mount, but without photographer’s imprint or caption label; some blue ink marks at right edge, loss to some of the black paper border, but no chips or cracks.

This lantern slide was sourced together with another which was a group portrait of the Aboriginal cricket team at Deebing Creek Mission, near Ipswich, taken by David Farquhar Edward (1867-1896) in 1894. It is possible, therefore, that the portrait was also taken by Edward.

The Deebing Creek Mission (aka Reserve) was situated on the southern outskirts of Ipswich. It was founded by the local Aboriginal Protection Society in 1887 and was run by them until 1914, when it was relocated to nearby Purga. The population of approximately 150 comprised displaced Aboriginal people from throughout Queensland who had been forcibly settled there after being removed from Country; among them there was a significant number of Yuggera-Ugarapul speakers upon whose lands the European settlement of Ipswich was established.