Weaving Wadawurrung history

By Lachlan Ellis

A new exhibition from a local artist is tying traditional Indigenous practices with contemporary styles, while expressing the artist’s connection to Country and ancestry.

Gordon’s Tammy Gilson is an award-winning weaver whose lineage is linked to basket weavers through both her Wadawurrung and English heritage – and her ‘Beenyak’ (Basket) exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat is showing that heritage to the world.

Ms Gilson said it took around six months to put the exhibition together, which including not only creating the woven items and adornments that are on display, but researching and speaking with elders on weaving techniques and meanings.

“What I’ve created is some traditional plus contemporary designs, sort of based on Lake Burrumbeet. There’s a fish trap system on the lake bed, I’ve made some eel traps, including one big one that’s more a contemporary design. I took some design elements I learned through the Blak Design program at the Koorie Heritage Trust, and sort of brought those elements into it as well,” Ms Gilson told the Moorabool News.

“For instance, one of the adornment pieces has a lost wax silver casting pendant on it. I made that out of wax and printed it into one of the woven earrings I made. There’s also a beautiful basket that’s a reference to one of the old Aunties’ baskets from the Von Stieglitz collection. I created pieces that showcase me as a Wadawurrung woman, giving me identity…the pieces all speak for themselves and have their own story. I’ve named them in Wadawurrung language as well.”

When asked which piece she was most proud of, Ms Gilson said it had to be the ‘Babarrang’ basket.

“I really love the big basket, Babarrang, which is our word for aunty. I really love that recreation, because that [original] basket is currently situated in the Ulster Museum in Northern Ireland. What I’ve created really are artifacts, with some being more traditional and some being more contemporary,” she said.

The Beenyak exhibition opened on Thursday 29 June, and finishes on Sunday 13 August.

Ms Gilson thanked curator Kiri Smart for her work in helping to prepare the exhibition.