Coiling technique was introduced in the 1920s at Goulburn Island to the Maung people by missionaries and quickly spread to the mainland. Many artists produce coiled baskets of varied shapes, ranging from small round baskets to large oval baby baskets made from dyed pandanus. Artists combine colours and patterns to obtain intricate new graphic patterns.
Name: Alison Kuwanjguwanj
Language: Kuninjku
Community: Maningrida
Biography:
Alison Kuwanjguwanj learned to weave from her mother Frewa Bardaluna, a master fibre artist who had numerous exhibitions with leading Australian commercial galleries. Alison's work is distinguished by her soft tonal range, strong sense of design and intricate technique.
Alison predominately uses gun-menama (pandanus spiralis) it make woven panels, dilly bags and 2D sculptures of animals and yawkyawks (female water spirits). To prepare the pandanus the inner leaves of the plant are collected using a hook. Each V-shaped leaf is first split in half along its spine. After removing the sharp spines, the two surfaces of the leaf are then split away from other. After this preparation, the pandanus is boiled in a billycan with plant materials to dye the fibre. Like her contemporaries, Alison only uses natural dyes and achieves enormous variation. Common colours in her work 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.
(Margie West, 1995, Maningrida - the Language of Weaving)
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…
Bush Jewellery – Earrings The women of Maningrida and surrounding homelands use a combination of locally found seeds, bone and shells to make a variety of jewellery including necklaces. earrings and bracelets. Many of the artists Read more…
Bush Jewellery – Earrings The women of Maningrida and surrounding homelands use a combination of locally found seeds, bone and shells to make a variety of jewellery including necklaces. earrings and bracelets. Many of the artists Read more…