Floating life: contemporary Aboriginal fibre art

89 Nets, traps and a sail: The art of Aboriginal fishing Ian Were Aboriginal hunting with nets was widespread throughout the Australian continent and, over the centuries, all manner of systems of netting and trapping were employed to capture fish, animals and birds for food. 1 Nets and traps varied considerably in the use of fibres, form, texture and pigmentation, and the ways they were made differed according to region and tradition. Nets ranged from modest sizes for small sea and river creatures to quite large ones for particular land animals, and the size of meshes varied accordingly. In the South Australian Museum, there’s a net made for trapping emus that measures 54 metres long by half a metre wide. 2 In contrast, one of the fishing nets included in ‘Floating Life’, Dorothy Bienenwangu Dullman’s Wollobi (Fish net) 2007, is more delicate and much smaller at 122 centimetres long. Apart from nets, sack- or basket-like devices were also created for trapping fish. The fish traps — of which there are around 20 in this exhibition, mostly from Arnhem Land — were either tightly or more loosely woven, depending on use. Sometimes a funnel-shaped section was added to the inside of the open end to help capture the fish. The traps relate closely to Aboriginal basket-making, where bags and baskets (made to hold valuables such as food, string, bone needles and flints) were woven from similar vegetable fibres. These were ubiquitous across the continent. Apart from the obvious visual connection, nets, bags and baskets share the basic domestic imperative for procuring, carrying and preparing food. In ‘Floating Life’, variation of form in the traps and nets, and baskets — there are over 100 baskets and string bags — is matched by diversity in materials. The traps and nets are made from fibres such as twined pandanus palm leaf, bark fibre string, sand palm leaf, jungle vine, sedge grass, river rushes and split lawyer cane, as well as bamboo and wood. All the items in the exhibition associated with fishing are contemporary, and have been expertly created for the art and museum market. Traditionally, though, makers also devoted more time to the finish and decoration of their products than efficiency required, qualities enhanced by these contemporary makers. While none of the objects have actually been used for their ostensible purpose, this is not to say they could not be taken from the gallery and applied to serve that particular utility. Some of the objects are relatively traditional — Indra Prudence’s An-gujechiya (Fish trap) 2006 and Ninney Murray’s Wungarr (Eel trap) 2005, for example; some more innovative — Lorna Jin-Gubarangunyja’s An-gujechiya (Fish trap) 2005 and Shirley Malgarrich’s fish traps from 2004; and some — such as Kathleen Korda’s Walipun (Fish net) 2008 and Yvonne Koolmatrie’s Yabbie trap 2007–08 — are hybrids, hovering comfortably between a net, trap, basket and sculpture. Lorna Jin-Gubarangunyja Martay/Burarra people NT b.1952 An-gujechiya (Fish trap) 2005 Twined pandanus palm leaf with natural dyes 174 x 45cm (diam.) Acc. 2007.039 Purchased 2006