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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. 

 

 

Categories: Maningrida Arts & Culture

Name: Freda Ali Wayartja

Language: Burarra

Community: Maningrida

Biography:

Freda Wayartja is a master weaver and cultural leader and educator. She is from Yilan Oustation a Burarra-Martay speaking caln, one of the east-side od Maningrida language groups who specialise in the customary conical dilly bags, woven string bags and mats. She is particularly renowned for the use of mirlarl, (malaisia scandens), a type of vine that grows in the coastal jungle. The use of this vine to manufacture fish traps, barriers and large strong dillybags is unique to this region. 

She is a cultural leader in her community, teaching younger generations of weavers and also regularly leading demonstrations and tours for visitors and tourists. 

In 2022 alongside her sister and artistic collaborator Bonnie Burarngarra, Freda won the Telstra NATSIAA Wandjuk Marika 3D Sculpture Award for their piece An-jucheciya (tradition conical fish trap).  A meticulously woven three meter long fish trap made from Jungle vine,

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