| The
younger generation, taught the skills of fibrecraft by elders, also learn
about the natural landscape and the local and seasonal availability of materials.
Weaving time is also a sharing time for stories and cultural knowledge.
|
 |
| Woman and child
making baskets. |
|
Basket
weaving
Mulgrave River, northern Queensland
Photo: N B Tindale
South Australian Museum
|
|
Basketry
is one example of the interconnected nature of Aboriginal culture, in which
everyday objects also have religious meanings. The respect system in which
elders are valued for their wealth of practical and social knowledge is
also created and emphasised. So special techniques are passed down to the
next generation in this way. |
|
| Two women laden
down with baskets. |
|
Louisa
Karpeny and companion
South Australia
1915
South Australian Museum Angas Collection
|
|
'Queen'
Louisa Karpeny (right) and a companion, laden down with baskets in this
photograph taken in 1915. She was a well known weaver of baskets who often
stayed at the Point McLeay Mission in the mid 1800s, where basket weaving
was encouraged and baskets were offered for sale. She was also an important
informant to Edward Stirling. Whilst the topic of weaving, along with other
domestic activities, has been neglected until recently by social researchers,
it is significant that women important and knowledgeable enough to be key
informants to anthropologists have often also been weavers. |
|
| Dreamtime story
of The Basket Makers. |
|
Daly
River, Northern Territory
Maker unknown
South Australian Museum Christie Collection
|
|
A
Daly River Dreamtime story from the Northern Territory, told to anthropologist
Ronald Berndt in 1946, illustrates how baskets have always been an item
of exchange and trade. The basket in this photograph is from the Daly River
region. |
|
| Picture of a
'sister' basket. |
|
Nakal
Sister Basket
Kingston, south east South Australia
Possibly made by Ethel Watson
South Australian Museum Watson Collection
|
|
Sister
baskets are so named because the two halves are identical, like 'sisters'.
These were made by Ngarrindijeri people of south east South Australia. |
|
| Picture of a
Fighting Dilly Bag. |
|
Minjarpi
Elcho Island,Northern Territory
South Australian Museum Shepherdson Collection
|
|
The
photograph shows a feathered basket of plaited grass. It is generally called
a Fighting Dilly Bag and was used to hold weapons. Feathers were used to
trim special baskets and often had special significance, relating back to
Dreaming ancestors and stories. |
|
| Closeup of woven
pandanus sail. |
|
Pandanus
Woven Sail
Roper River, Northern Territory
Mara people
South Australian Museum Watson Collection
|
|
The
photograph is a closeup image of woven pandanus used for a bark canoe sail.
Strong pandanus palm fibres were used to make sails for dugout canoes, as
well as for baskets, hut walls and sleeping mats. In the far north and the
Torres Strait Islands, some mats show the influence of Papua New Guinean
weaving. The youngest leaves of the palm tree are pulled down with a hooked
stick, dried briefly, and woven while still fresh. |
|
| Baskets
were used in many stages of food preparation and processing. For example,
open-weave baskets are used to strain and rinse food, and also used to soak
hard foods in water to soften them. |
| Baskets used
for food processing. |
|
Location
unknown
Photo: Harold Shepherdson 1930s
South Australian Museum
|
|
In
this photo baskets containing hard palm-fruits are being soaked in a well. |
| |