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Names

Indigenous fibreworks collection

IDs

VC000042

http://emuseum.anmm.gov.au/code/emuseum.asp

Descriptions

Several hundred objects make up this collection highlighting distinct regional characteristics such as design, colour of dyes and the fibres used. These works signify ancestral events and actions reinforcing connections to land and sea.

Traditionally most fibre production centred on producing utilitarian and ceremonial objects. Today, artists are adapting innovative fibre techniques to create works relating to ancestral events and everyday themes. Woven objects have distinct regional and family characteristics in design, colour, weave and materials. A wide variety of fibres are used depending on geographical location, including reed, flax, pandanus, tree bark, cotton string, spun animal fur, feathers, shells, jute, sedge grasses, and even plastic. The collection includes fishing nets and traps, dilly bags, baskets, representations of water beings such as yawk yawks, and figures of humans and various sea life such as jellyfish, rays, turtles and crocodiles. The major parts of the collection come from Maningrida and Tasmania.

Some material included in this collection may be subject to copyright

By appointment only, please contact ANMM

Parts of this collection are digitised and available on the ANMM web site www.anmm.gov.au

Subjects

1980s-2000s; Bags (containers); Baskets; Fishing lines; Traps (trapping equipment)

Indigenous Australian peoples

Coverage Spatial

Maningrida, Northern Territory, Australia; Northern Territory, Australia; Tasmania, Australia; New South Wales, Australia; Elcho Island, Northern Territory, Australia

Coverage Temporal

1980

2009

Related Collections

Dates

2012-05-30 23:40