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Woven Hat

Maureen Ali, established Burarra fibre artist, has created a whimsical contemporary fashion piece, in the form of a woven wide brimmed hat. The hat draws on the intricate traditional weaving technique used to make burlupurr (dilly bags) and bamagora (conical mats), and made from made from Pandanus spiralis, a plant which grows in many areas of Arnhem Land. Common colours used to dye pandanus used for weaving burlupurr include: – barra gu-jirra: the soft, white and fleshy end of the pandanus leaf imparts green to the fibre. – mun-gumurduk/ gala (Pogonolobus reticulatus): a bright yellow root that is crushed and put in a billycan with the fibre and boiled. It creates yellow when boiled once and deep orange hues when boiled multiple times. – ngalpur (Haemodorum brevicaule): a bright red root which yields a range of purply red to brown colours. – Baluk: ashes of certain plants are added to the boiling billycan with the fibre and dye plants to alter the colour that is imparted to the fibre. The fruiting body of gulpiny (Banksia denanta) is burnt and the ashes added to other day plants to make the colour pink.