M0018561: Lonka lonka, pearl shell ornament, Australia

Previous title, replaced October 2020: Pearl shell ornament (Lonka-lonka

Photograph of a pearl shell ornament incised with a geometric design, known as a Lonka lonka, with curative and other magical properties. From the Arrernte people, Central Australia. It was purchased at auction by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1935 and accessioned in 1937 (accession number R1091/1937). It was included in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum exhibition "Medicine of the Aboriginal Peoples in the British Commonwealth" held in 1952 and published in Catalogue of an exhibition illustrating the medicine of the aboriginal peoples in the British Commomwealth.

1961

1 photograph sheet film negative; 10.2 x 12.7 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession register which provides an entry for the item: R920/1937. Wellcome also holds the exhibition publication.

Copyright is held by Wellcome Collection

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2022.

This item is fragile. Email library@wellcomecollection.org to request access to the physical item.