Danie Mellor is a descendant of the Rainforest peoples of the Atherton Tablelands, who have a long tradition of carving spectacular shields from the soft buttress roots of rainforest fig trees.

In Topographical shield 2002, Mellor references his Country by depicting its geographical contours in the form of a map. The complex designs are reminiscent of those used by the Jirrbal people, whose Country lies south-west of Ngadjonjii and Mamu Country. Trunk shield II (Middle Nellie Kelly shield) 2001 is similarly made of reclaimed metal and alludes to the displacement of his great-grandmother, Nellie Kellie (née Brackenridge), a Ngadjonjii/Mamu woman. Mellor’s use of reclaimed metal — a trunk — is a metaphor for both displacement and his reclamation of this aspect of his cultural identity, analogous to keeping culture strong.