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.