Beautiful, colorful, intricately woven baskets are produced by hand throughout Aboriginal Australia. Some the most striking are created in the Northern Territory area of Arnhem Land, 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 mixed traditions have contributed to a rich variety of artistic creations.

The baskets are predominantly 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. These fibers are dyed in vivid oranges, yellows, reds, blacks and purples by boiling in ground up roots of plants like Pogonolobus reticulatus and wood ash from Eucalyptus alba.

Maningrida is a small community that sits 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 commercial purposes and sale to collectors and museums by the finest aboriginal artists from Maningrida and other aboriginal communities.

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