Aboriginal Culture: Wetlands Conservation

History

CELEBRATE THE CULTURE OF AUSTRALIA'S FIRST PEOPLE COLLECTION. 1of 8 quilts
Date 2019. Set of eight quilts. Set exhibited at: • Museum of the Great Southern, Albany Western Australia, 8-29 July 2018, which included NAIDOC week. Displayed as a component of WA Inspired Art Quilters’ Exhibition • Boddington Field of Quilts WA, 23 September 2018 Set sold at Boddington Field of Quilts.

An over-riding ethos of Aboriginal people is to ‘care for country’ and life depended on it. Caring and associated conservation were achieved through: rights and responsibilities; totemic, gender and age restrictions; valuing water; seasonal and selective food gathering so that plants and animals could regenerate; and education from generation to generation, through story, song, dance and example. Firing the land, sometimes unintentionally, having at hand only manual weapons and tools, no restriction of habitats with roads and fences, also explain conservation of country.

Description

Materials and techniques: Aboriginal fabric, Bush Plum and Waterhole designed by Heather Kennedy; machine applique, hand embroidery, hand and machine quilting.