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.
Nawarlah – Brown River Stingray We hunt the Nawarlah (Brown River Stingray) during the wet season. There is a plant with a yellow flower that tells us that it is the right time. We know Read more…
Man-ngalinj (bush potato) Man-ngalinj is a root vegetable often described as ‘bush potato’. It’s duwa, the artist’s moiety. It has a bulbous root and a long thin vine with small flowers that grows across the Read more…
Nawarlah – Brown River Stingray We hunt the Nawarlah (Brown River Stingray) during the wet season. There is a plant with a yellow flower that tells us that it is the right time. We know Read more…