Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

15 On weaving In her book On Weaving , the great modernist Anni Albers states: One of the most ancient of crafts, hand weaving is a method of forming a pliable plane of threads by interlacing them rectangularly. Invented in a preceramic age, it has remained essentially unchanged to this day. 5 She describes the single-element methods of looping and netting, and multiple-element techniques — knotting, coiling, twining, braiding — as achieving a similar result without a loom. This range of processes, commonly used by Aboriginal weavers, allows for maximum invention and creativity for artisans who have so much to express and communicate through their work. Fewer tools are needed than for loom weaving, and works in progress are more portable and easily moved between home and bush sites where natural materials are plentiful. A variety of materials and methods was customarily used. Makers in Queensland might use two stakes in the ground to support and tension their string bags, whereas across the north of Australia a convenient knee or toe does the job. In remote areas, leaves, barks and grasses are on hand to tie, bind, wrap or thatch; bark fibres are rolled into string on the thigh, with delicate feathers introduced in a seamless backward plying motion. A traditional method for making tough ropes involves three participants turning and twisting bark fibres suspended over a low-hanging tree branch. Seasonal ‘nets’ were rolled from river spinifex in the Kimberley to trap barramundi, whereas in the Northern Territory the prized fish are funnelled into sturdy conical traps twined from jungle vines, set in watercourses dammed with sticks, paperbark and grasses. A group of these unadorned traps is included in ‘Floating Life’, contrasting with coloured pandanus sculptural versions showing subtle differences in shape, tone and texture. While continuing to build on traditional forms, Aboriginal fibre artists are taking their work in exciting directions through introducing new materials and methods. In a recent invention, simple cane frames formerly used to support looped and knotted fishing scoops have been extended by Anniebell Marrngamarrnga into a gloriously complex system onto which she builds impressive rolled pandanus string figures such as Yawkyawk spirit (Pregnant with twins) 2007. In an even more radical departure from the traditional, Lorraine Connelly-Northey mines rubbish dumps to assemble the rusty discards of industry into elegant forms inspired by classic Aboriginal string bags, randomly inserting delicate feathers and echidna quills to jolt our realisation of her personal cultural losses. Background In the early 1980s, through reading Jennifer Isaacs’s revelatory book Australia’s Living Heritage: Arts of the Dreaming , I became aware that exquisite weaving was still being made by Aboriginal women. Though brilliant fibre pieces languished in museum collections, it was clear that, in the emerging Aboriginal art movement, bark paintings and wooden sculptures were privileged by curators and collectors, and were therefore much more in evidence. In 1983, I went to live in an area of central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, with a strong continuing tradition, and over 12 years there researched the genre and collected fibre works for major galleries and museums. The aesthetic appeal of objects and materials was given primacy and the artists’ skill and vision celebrated — the works were more often positioned in fine art collections than in anthropology museums. Margaret Rinybuma Murrungun/Djinang people NT b.1949 Mindirr (Conical basket) 2004 Twined pandanus palm leaf, natural dyes, with bark fibre string 33 x 24cm (diam.) Acc. 2004.245 Purchased 2004. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation