Name: Maureen Ali
Language: Burarra (Martay)
Community: Maningrida
Biography:
Maureen Ali learned to weave under the guidance of her sister Bonny Burarn.garra, a highly skilled fibre artist who has exhibited in commercial galleries around Australia since the 1990s. She also learned from her watching her mother, leading fibre artist Lorna Jin-gubarrangunyja, who won the Wandjuk Marika Award at the 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) in 2013 with a colourful pandanus fish trap.
Maureen has been practicing since 2006. She is Burarra, one of the east-side 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.
Bamagora A ‘bamagora’ is a Burarra word for a traditional woven tent-like structure. A bamagora was woven to create a shelter for a child or adult when sleeping.
Warraburnburn In Burarra and Gun-nartpa languages the figure represented in this artwork is generally known as a wangarra ‘ghost spirit’. For the Warrawarra clan ghost spirits have their own particular characteristics and their own name – Warraburnburn. The Warraburnburn Read more…
