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Twined Basket

Twined basketry is a well-established fibre art form in the Maningrida region, particularly among Burarra language group artists whose Country lies east of the Liverpool River. Artists create baskets in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, most commonly from pandanus fibre dyed with natural dyes, with hand-rolled kurrajong fibre string used to create the handle. The tightly woven twining technique draws on the making of burlupurr (dilly bags), carrying a traditional fibre practice into contemporary sculptural forms.

Common colours used to dye pandanus used for weaving burlupurr and baskets 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.