A decade ago, when Melbourne 's museum was less fashionable and still free, I took part in a workshop there, being taught to make coiled baskets by a highly skilled Aboriginal woman from Gippsland. My expectations were high - with hindsight, totally unrealistic. I went so far as to find a spot in my hallway where my newly minted basket would have pride of place. Eight hours later, my fingers sore and blistered, back aching, eyes glazed, I came home with a coiled piece roughly the size of a 20 cent coin.I kept that piece for years, a chastening reminder of the perils of underestimating a craft which may at first sight appear straightforward, and of demeaning the artefacts of an ancient culture.
It came to mind as I stepped into the temporary exhibition space at the Melbourne Museum's Bunjilaka Aboriginal Centre to be greeted by a large, handled pandanus saucepan in richly coloured stripes, constructed by artist Doreen Nabulwad in that same coiling technique with such skill it literally took my breath away.Would I have reacted that way without that earlier, salutary experience? Undoubtedly, although it certainly boosted my appreciation and understanding. My fingers ached just thinking about it.
Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken is an exhibition showcasing fibre work by women of extraordinary patience, dexterity and expertise. That it is bringing to a wider Australian audience work from an inaccessible part of our country which we might not otherwise have seen is important, but this is an exhibition which could stand on its merits in an international setting - and hopefully, may one day do just that. The contemp orary fibre works on display - mostly baskets, but also bags, framed bark paintings, buckets, saucepans and mats - have been made by Kunwinjku-speaking women from western Arnhem land , in particular from Gunbalanya, 17 kilometres from the border with Kakadu, and the surrounding outstations.
The exhibition was initiated by Injalak Arts and Crafts, which serves the artists of Gunbalanya and the outstations, because its manager and staff wanted to raise the artists' profile. Injalak approached the museum to collaborate on cultural projects and the exhibition, co-curated by Dr Louise Hamby and Jill Nganjmirra, whose work is exhibited, is one of the results.
Interspersed amongst the contemporary works and invaluable as reference tools as well as for their own sake, are historical fibreworks by unknown artists. While a 1914 mat, also used as a wrap, is displayed on a wall, a fragile knitted and looped string bag dating back to 1922 is shown behind perspex.So, too, a c1890 bag handle taken to Goulburn island from Echuca for use as a teaching aid. For unlike many of the techniques showcased in the exhibition - looping, twining, knotting, plaiting - coiling was not traditional. It was brought to the area from southeastern Australia by missionaries. So, too, the lace work seen on baskets and bags and as mat and basket edgings. Evidence, too, of the missionary influence are lidded baskets popular during those times and often sold as sewing baskets.
The exhibition is divided into small “rooms” by head-high partitions mounted with excellent large colour photographs. They include western Arnhem land , the materials and processes used - fibres drying, hands at work, for instance. The several dozen works are displayed on walls and on rather uninspired white pedestals.
A rather disappointing short video plays on a loop - the presence of only two hard chairs in front of it hopefully not reflecting the organisers' views on how many people are likely to watch it! It shows women collected pandanus, preparing it and the dyes with which it is boiled, and demonstrating coiling. They sit on the sandy ground, waving off flies, one with a small boy beside her, with hands, calves and even big toes used to provide tension as the fibres are worked. It would have been interesting to have seen more of these processes, and to have had the other techniques used included in the demonstration.
The initial impression of the exhibits is one of vibrant colours - the rich ochre land in the photographs provides context for that same colour in the baskets, plus the natural pandanus and vibrant purplish reds in the baskets. Many are worked in stripes, others in block or checkerboard patterns using these three main colours, derived from native plants.The red, from the plant Haemodorum coccineum, is available only in the wet season, the vibrancy depending on the part and amount of the plant used. There are many fine examples of this colour, ranging from Dorothy Dullman's elaborate Spider Mat , combining reds, oranges and natural, and created by not only coiling but also twining, plaiting and knotting the dyed pandanus, to Molly Nayilibidj's Saucepan - utilitarian in name, but a superb example of smooth, even coiling and colours worked in stripes and checkerboards.
As with that saucepan, these exhibition pieces, although functional, reveal the artists' creativity, often through decorative touches difficult to work. A fine example is Margaret Djogiba's Mat , made by a complex technique of three string twining, used mainly by senior women, in which three separate lengths of pandanus are twisted in sequence.
Another is Wendy Namarnyilk's superb Bucket , which plays with the notion of the utilitarian by joining bands of brilliantly dyed plaits with single rows of coils, then adding decorative coils to the top edges where the handle is attached.
Co-curator Jill Nganjmirra has gone a step further in devising figurative floral designs, coloured flower petal designs worked into the coiling in a mat and two baskets by Jill, her sister and daughter.Through text and photographs the exhibition tries to give a feel for the country where these women live and work. But more information about their customs and the traditional purposes and cultural significance of the items on show would have been useful. However at least some of the works are accompanied by timely reminders that they are not made simply for our entertainment. Three coiled mats displayed together on a wall near the entrance illustrate an important ancestral story in which the moon and a star were married on the “first moon”. Rose Nabobbob's mat has a circular centre and a star border.
The text with another group, including bags and baskets of varying sizes, says they were made to mark specific stages in the lives of women. The string bag was carried by a woman pregnant with her first child and would contain the makings of a toy for it. It is easy to admire the baby basket, large and flat, smoothly coiled, with side handles, so the text stating “the bones of a child would be carried for many years in a basket like this one” comes as a sharp reminder of the harsh realities of life for so many Aboriginal Australians.
A conical basket dating from 1912 and painted in rock art style with ochre is displayed with a photographic panel reminding that the rock art of western Arnhem land is of world significance and dates back more than 40,000 years. Baskets have been depicted in such art, including figures and ancestor spirits carrying them.Unfortunately there is no catalogue, although accompanying the exhibition and available in the museum shop is a superb book, Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken , edited by Louise Hamby. While probably not bad value - a richly illustrated hardback, it appears comprehensive and is described as the only publication about con temporary western Arnhem land fibre products and their history - it retails at $80, placing it out of reach of most exhibition goers.But the supporting text provided throughout the exhibition via wall panels and display plaques is informative and clearly presented and they, not the book, were the source for the information provided here.
So many works are deserving of mention - not possible, of course. But special mention must be made of the bags, some made from dyed, looped and knotted string, others - a more recent innovation - from pandanus to make them rigid.
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These oh-so-covetable works, some in complex openwork patterns, make a mockery of the imitations seen every day in Australian supermarkets. But these are works of art, as are all the works in this exhibition, and they should be seen and valued as such."
Sue Green is a writer and textile artist
Last modified 28-Apr-2006
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