Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.168.145
Object Name
Poster
Title
James Range Country
People
Albert Namatjira James Klugmann
Date
around 1945
Description
A poster featuring a print of a watercolour painting by Albert Namatjira, gifted to the English delegation of the Communist Party from the Australian delegation. The print takes up the majority of the page, depicting a scene from Central Australia with mountains, trees, shrubs, and grassland painted in a range of blues, greens, oranges, and yellows. The print is labelled "James Range Country, Central Australia / From the watercolour by Albert Namatjira / Published by the Legend Press Pty, Ltd. By permission of the artist. Copyright / Printed in Australia by McLaren & Co. Pty. Ltd." Lettering t the sid reads "Albert Namitjira (Aranda Tribesman) receives royalties on all sales of this reproduction". Albert Namitjira was an Aboriginal Australian artist from the Western Arrarnta man. He became the first Aboriginal to be granted Australian citizenship in 1957, exempted from laws that denied Indigenous Australians the right to vote, own property and drink alcohol. However, he was arrested
for introducing liquor into his community and imprisoned for two months, leading to his death by a heart attack in 1959, aged 57. A written inscriptions on the poster reads "From the Australian delegation to the British delegation for their good work... in the class struggle" it is signed by many people, including Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) historian James Klugmann. The upper right corner of the poster is folded over and there are dirt marks across the paper
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