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ARTIST ONCE KNOWN The Macassan Prau with Dugout Canoes, c.1974 ochre on bark 77 x 39.5 cm inscribed verso: catalogue number in chalk (partially effaced) PROVENANCE The Artist, painted Elcho Island, North-East Arnhem Land, NT Sotheby's, Fine Tribal Art & Aboriginal Paintings, Sydney, 19 November 1995 Private collection, NSW The Macassan Prau with Dugout Canoes depicts one of the most significant encounters in northern Australia's history, the arrival of the Macassan trepang (sea cucumber) traders from Sulawesi, Indonesia, who sailed to the Arnhem Land coast long before European settlement. For hundreds of years, these skilled seafarers travelled south with the monsoon winds in their prau (wooden sailing vessels), establishing enduring trade and cultural relationships with Yol?u and other coastal peoples of the Northern Territory.