GARRIMARRA 2004.206 2004.207

Aboriginal peoples across Australia use many systems of nets and traps to capture fish, animals and birds for food. The contraptions can be made from pandanus palm leaf, bark fibre, sand-palm leaf, jungle vine or sedge grass, and be tightly or loosely woven, depending on location, purpose, and the materials at hand. These pandanus fish traps, made by women artists based in and around Maningrida in central-north Arnhem Land, are dyed using local bark and root chips, with white ashes added to create subtle colour variations. Fish traps from this region are typically cone-shaped, with a woven funnel stitched inside the mouth to help retain the captured fish. The makers of these innovative pieces have injected new life into an ancient tradition – utility, craft and art are perfectly united. They float comfortably between net, trap, basket and sculpture; the past becomes the present, and the present evokes the past.