The Djilpin women weavers are famous for their traditional Pandanus weavings such as fine fibre mats and dilly bags, and more recently have become increasingly renowned for more conceptual and sculptural contemporary forms.
Materials and Techniques
Pandanus fibres are harvested from the Top End Pandanus plant (Mukarra in Rittharngu). The fronds are bordered by thorny spikes and it needs deft hands to pull the young shoots from the centre of the top of the tree. The fronds are stripped and dried in preparation for dyeing. Dyes come mostly from Indigenous plants and tree roots. Traditionally the fibre wasn’t dyed and was a pale straw colour. Nowadays the dried strips are dyed in a pot over a camp fire, then dried and bunched together ready for weaving.
There are three main weaving techniques: coiling, twining and but but string. Coiling is a technique used to make baskets, where a bundle of core material is coiled upwards and stitched into place using a needle and usually pandanus thread.
Coiled baskets can be so tight they can hold water and they were sometimes used for cooking. Twining is a method of weaving where interweaving of warp and weft that has been traditionally used to weave conical baskets is now commonly used to create contemporary sculptures. But but string weaving uses material from the local but but tree. String is made from the bark of the tree, rolled on the thigh till it resembles twine. The string has a variety of uses including string bags, string for ceremony, binding objects, feather belts and armbands, and head dresses.
Djilpin Fibre Art
Ghunmarn Culture Centre and Djilpin Katherine Gallery both stock a wide selection of exciting sculptural fibre art. The Pandanus Project, a collaboration between women weavers from Beswick, Bulman and Katherine with fibre artist, Adrienne Kneebone, has resulted in increasingly conceptual fibre works being created with culture becoming embedded in contemporary forms.
Apart from fine woven mats, and a selection of bags and baskets, you will find a range of quirky or dramatic woven creatures, including fish, insects and crocodiles. There are also Mukuy or Buhl-mandi, spirit creatures like Mimis. Weaver, Sarah Ashley’s Mukuy figures, for example, tell the stories of her country, culture and spiritual beliefs. They belong in Yirritja country and at night you might hear them playing didjeridu. They can play with your mind and make you lose your way in otherwise familiar country.
In February 2011 Djilpin weavers visited Indonesia to exhibit their work in FIBERFACE 3 3rd International Fiber Art Exhibition in Jogjakarta, Indonesia.
