Big John Dodo and Karajarri Histories

John Dodo (c. 1910–2003) is known in the Australian artworld
for making enigmatic sculptures of men’s heads, often wearing ceremonial
headbands. This essay draws on new information about Dodo from an
archival interview and from the memories of his widow Aunty Rosie Munroe,
as well as his grandchildren Anna Dwyer and Mervyn Mulardy Jnr. Among
the Karajarri people whose country lies along the coast and inland from the
community of Bidyadanga, Dodo is remembered not so much as an artist
as a diplomat. Dodo played a central role in negotiating a native title case
and in laying the foundations for a cultural revival among the Karajarri today.
He is also remembered as a ceremonial leader and a pikkra, a person who is
a root of Karajarri law. Dodo’s history as a leader suggests new interpretations
of his carved heads that may well represent something of this personal and
ancestral power.