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Coil Basket

Coil basketry is a well-established fibre art form in the Maningrida region, especially for women from the Kuninjku, Rembarrnga, Ndjebbana and Nakkara language groups. 

Artists make coiled baskets of many shapes and sizes, ranging from small round baskets to large oval baby baskets, and made mostly from pandanus fibre that is dyed with natural pigments. Bundles of fibre are formed into coils which are covered and stitched together with strands of fibre threaded onto a needle. Artists combine colours and patterns to obtain intricate new graphic patterns.

These techniques are believed to have been introduced to Arnhem Land by Greta Matthews, a missionary on Goulburn Island in the 1920s. She had probably learnt coil basketry from Aboriginal people in the south-east of Australia, possibly the Murray River people such as the Yorta Yorta or the coastal Ngarrindjeri. 

The coiling technique spread quickly from Goulburn Island to people on mainland Arnhem Land. 

 

 

Name: Sonia Namarnyilk


Language: Ndjébbana


Community: Maningrida


Biography:

Since the 1980s women artists have increasingly become involved in the mediums of painting and carving. While women had previously helped their husbands to complete the more arduous cross-hatching components of bark painting, during this period they were encouraged both by their kin and external art advisers to create works under their own authorship. Sonia Namarnyilk (1969) learned in this way from her husband Djorlom and she has developed a reputation for strong form and bold designs. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. 

The artist is also a designer at Babbarra Women's Centre, a women-centred enterprise that specialises in the production of screen and lino-printed fabrics. Common subject matter for Mamarnyilk includes yawkyawk (female water spirits), turtles and barramundi.


© the artist / art centre