Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

68 Baskets in Queensland: memory, time and invention Julie Ewington Before white occupation, the enormous bio-diverse expanses of Queensland supported the making of many kinds of fibre containers by Indigenous peoples. From the dry spinifex country in the north-west, where contemporary artist Shirley MacNamara lives, to the rich eastern rainforests, to the islands off the southern coast, invention was essential to the survival of these subsistence societies. Late nineteenth-century baskets surviving in the world’s museums testify to the ways that Aboriginal peoples in Queensland, as elsewhere, managed their lives with the assistance of fibre implements and objects. Many of these were reported in detail by WE Roth, the Protector of Aborigines, in 1909. 1 Some historical fibre baskets in Queensland resemble those from other parts of the country: in many regions relatively simple utilitarian vessels for food gathering and storage were made, such as puunya from Lockhart River in remote far north-eastern Cape York, for instance; while exquisitely elegant diagonally accented bags from Stradbroke Island near present-day Brisbane demonstrate the diversity of styles and the marks of individual makers in various regions. Plants, dyes and the specific techniques employed varied widely, as did aesthetic preferences for proportions and decoration, but across the expanse of the state a great variety of beautiful Indigenous baskets spoke to the elegant reductions wrought from simple materials over long periods of time. Necessity is not only the mother of invention — she demands success. Queensland’s most complex bio-region, the northern rainforests that stretch from Cairns south to Cardwell, and from the coast up into the hinterland ranges, also saw the creation of one of the world’s most specialised and technically complex baskets: the magnificent bicornual jawun was used for fishing, leaching, gathering and even, with very large examples, for carrying infants, in dense linked settlements along the rainforest trails. Made from stiff spiny lawyer cane ( Calamus caryotoides ), the jawun featured in every aspect of life, from everyday uses to exchanges of elaborate ochred versions as ceremonial gifts, such as the one by contemporary weaver Abe Muriata in the Gallery’s Collection. The jawun is an astonishing feat of engineering and exceptionally beautiful. 2 From the early twentieth century, missionaries left their mark on basket-making in Queensland communities, as elsewhere, by teaching the ubiquitous sturdy coiling technique imported by Christians who had spent time in the Pacific Islands. Many baskets like this were made during the twentieth century, as Aboriginal communities were encouraged to make objects for sale — we see them illustrated in newspaper accounts of agricultural shows over the decades, as Queensland Indigenous communities experimented with income-generating craft projects. Today, Ruby Ludwick, Philomena Yeatman and other artists from Yarrabah continue with the coil method, in superbly restrained baskets made for modern domestic uses. The basket illustrated here is perfect for sewing, though its shape would have rendered it unwieldy for semi-nomadic life in the rainforest. Nevertheless, it is coloured with natural dyes taken from local plants. Like many baskets made from plant fibres in cultures across the world, Queensland’s beautiful fibre baskets were gradually overtaken during the twentieth century in daily life, as other more sturdy and less labour- intensive materials came to hand — mass-produced buckets, string bags, gunnysacks, and eventually plastic bags. Survival cares nothing for regret, and time is precious. Yet, knowledge of country has persisted through the decades, and contemporary weavers draw on it today in many communities where baskets are made once more, this time for the art market. Doreen Yam Olkola/Egng ochow people QLD b.1947 Abmin (String bag) 2007 Open-knotted polypropylene 40 x 38cm Acc. 2008.177 Purchased 2008. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund