'Oodnadatta Jacky - South Australian Native'. A charming vintage portrait photograph of a young Aboriginal boy wearing a large cloth hat and an even bigger grin
A sepia-toned gelatin silver photograph (visible image size 300 × 235 mm), behind glass in the original wide polished wooden frame (external dimensions 590 × 517 mm); the original mat is inscribed in white ink in a calligraphic hand with the title and photographer's details ('Chas P. Scott. Photo 21A Waymouth St, Adelaide').
The condition of all aspects of this impressive item is uniformly fine.
Charles Scott (1878-1928) is listed as a photographer at that address in South Australian directories 'from 1909 to 1915+' (Photohistory SA website). The Art Gallery of SA gives the date '1903-04' for this image in its collection, and we take this date to be when the original negative was exposed. The Adelaide 'Chronicle' for 8 September 1932 quotes a letter from F.W. Marsh, formerly of Oodnadatta, reminiscing about this portrait, a copy of which hung 'in the strangers' room at Tattersalls Club. Well, Jacky Rags, when about three years old, came with two other black boys early one morning to my place in Oodnadatta. When I asked what they wanted, I was told that his father (Charlie) had killed his mother that night with a boomerang, and that Jacky had come to me for protection. I kept him for a long time, but, when he was about 15 years old, he was persuaded to ask me to allow him to go for a spell, meaning he wanted to go to the camp in the bush. I let him go, and later found that the older blacks had performed certain ceremonies on him, from which he never recovered. He developed consumption, and died a year or so later. I think living on the whites' food for so many years and then going to the bush where those to be initiated are starved until they are very weak, so that the ceremony can be performed easily, led to his early death. The name, Jacky Rags, was given him because whatever clothes he received, in a day or two they would be in rags. He was a good lad'.
Item #108084
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