Paper short abstract

As the record of bodily movement collections of string figures literally contain 'latent possibilities for action.' This paper considers the affordances of a museum collection made in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land as revealed through reconnection with its contemporary source community.

Paper long abstract

As the record of bodily movement historical museum collections of mounted string figures (patterns made on the hands with a loop of string also known as cat's cradles), literally contain 'latent possibilities for action.' In the Australian Museum in Sydney is a collection of nearly 200 mounted string figures collected in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land in 1948 by anthropologist Frederick McCarthy. My fieldwork experience reconnecting this museum collection with the contemporary Aboriginal community in Yirrkala provides a case study of the scope for interventions to realise the latent potential of collections. String figure making is no longer the ubiquitous everyday activity that it once was. I worked with a number of older women in the community remembering a repertoire of figures they used to know. After analysing the different modalities of action and interaction involved in the process of remembering for these women, in this paper I look at the way the production of a series of etchings using string figure designs fostered a 'remembering' of string figures as part of Yolngu cultural identity in the present, by the larger Yirrkala community and a broader audience. The process of the string figures 'becoming art' can be seen as situationally dependent on the history, experience and expertise of the institutional and individual actors involved. I conclude with the general argument that the so-called 'hidden affordances' of collections, as exemplified here, is wholly in keeping with the future purpose envisioned for collections in the Museum Tradition of anthropology.