Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

75 It has been recently reported that a coral reef exists far below the ocean off the north-eastern coast of Tasmania, which is apparently comparable to Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef in the lusciousness and diversity of its life. 1 It is just like Tasmania to have kept such a secret; many of its beauties and marvels are revealed only over time. In part, this comes from often being overlooked by the world beyond; in part, it is possibly something in the nature of the place. A number of species of sea snail in the waters around Tasmania hide exquisite nacre (mother-of-pearl) beneath the outer layer of their shells. Palawa women have been making necklaces from these and other small shells in a cultural practice that goes back unbroken through the ravages of recent history into the millennia, possibly to the time when the ocean set this land apart from the rest of the Australian continent and the regions to the north. The coastal tribes traded the necklaces with inland people for ochre and for stone for tools, and made gifts of them in the first friendly encounters with European visitors. The Europeans stayed, and the sealers who set up camps on the Bass Strait Islands kidnapped the local women for their diving and survival skills, and more besides. The women continued to make necklaces, and passed on the knowledge of where to find shells, which ones to use, and how to prepare and string them to their daughters. They, in turn, sold the necklaces to buy essential goods in the Europeanised communities that persisted on the islands. Resilient and adaptable, the necklace-makers took up the use of spun threads, vinegar (to reveal the nacre) and sewing needles, which allowed them to thread the minute rice shells not used before. 2 Now, after so much has been lost, this exceptionally beautiful and significant practice is receiving the acknowledgement it deserves. The shell necklaces An unbroken strand: Palawa shell necklaces Francis E Parker Jeannette James Palawa people TAS b.1952 Traditional Palawa shell necklace (detail) 2006 Black crow and green maireener shells from Flinders Island with synthetic thread 182 x 1.5cm Acc. 2007.205 Purchased 2007. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation