Colorful,
intricately woven baskets are hand-woven throughout Aboriginal
Australia. Some of the most striking are created in Arnhem
Land in the Northern Territory, served by art and cultural
centers at Maningrida and Nhulumbuy. This area of approximately
10,000 square kilometers includes many indigenous clans and
language groups whose traditions have contributed to a richness
of artistic creation.
The
baskets are primarily coiled, string or "dilly"
bags. They are woven from various natural fibers such as those
made from the leaves of the pandanus plant, the bark of trees
like Kurrajong, Brachychiton diversifolius, Brachychiton paradoxum
and Ficus virens. Fibers are dyed in vivid colors by boiling
in ground-up roots of plants like Pogonolobus reticulatus
and wood ash from Eucalyptus alba.
Maningrida
is a small community on the remote northern coast of Australia's
Arnhem Land at the estuary of the Liverpool River. During
much of the year the community can be reached only by light
aircraft. Nhulumbuy, also known as Gove, is a area where bauxite
has been mined. It also situated on the northern coast of
Australia and is reachable primarily by air, especially during
the wet season.
Baskets
traditionally are used for gathering native foods like roots,
tubers, berries, honey and fish. The baskets offered by Aboriginals:
Art of the First Person have been woven for sale to
collectors and museums by the finest aboriginal artists from
Maningrida and other aboriginal communities.
