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Woven Stingray

Fibre Art is an ancient Aboriginal women’s craft that is still made today using the same techniques as their ancestors. Making fibre art is labour intensive and much care and fine needlework is required to ensure the finished object is both functional and beautiful. Fibre art from the Ghunmarn Culture Centre includes dilly bags, floor mats, bush fans, woven creatures found in the landscape, plants such as yams (bush potato), baskets, place mats, and spirit figures such as mermaids and Mukuy’s. Natural pandanus fibre (Mukarra), is used to make much of the fibre art produced by the artists of Djilpin Arts. Women collect the pandaus by pulling from the top of the pandanus tree, then stripping and drying the leaves before they are dyed with natural bush colour collected from the Beswick surrounds.

Categories: Djilpin Arts Aboriginal Corporation

Name: Sylvia Campion

Language: Kriol, Kune, Rembarrnga

Community: Maningrida

Biography:

Sylvia is a talented artist who paints, carves and weaves using a mix of traditional techniques, materials and tools, along with their modern counterparts. Sylvia grew up surrounded by talented artefact makers and absorbed knowledge through a traditional style of apprenticeship. 

Helping her father she learned how to harvest and make a traditional grass reed brush called "munjyelk" or jarlk, and then mastered its use painting ochres and modern acrylics. Her father also taught her the art of wood carving.

Her mother and grandmother taught her the art of weaving and hand making bush string. This was also learned by helping and absorbing bush knowledge such as harvesting, stripping, dying, weaving and rolling. 

"At 20yrs old I started to paint, carve and weave on my own." Now, Sylvia combines all these techniques creating intricate woven sculptures with carved details finely finished using traditional painting techniques.

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© the artist / art centre