Freshwater Turtle
Artist
Yvonne Koolmatrie
(1944)
Datec 1991
Object number00015875
NameSculpture
MediumSedge reed
DimensionsOverall: 510 × 290 × 65 mm, 500 g
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis piece is a soft woven three-dimensional sculpture of a turtle. The weaving technique is called coiled bundle with a simple loop stitch. Yvonne Koolmatrie has extended traditional basketry techniques to create three-dimensional sculptural forms and her marine creatures are based on her own ancestral stories and the lore of the Ngarrindjeri Community of the River Murray.HistoryYvonne Koolmatrie grew up along the lower Murray River. She learnt coiled basketry in 1982 at a workshop led by the senior Ngarrindjeri weaver Dorothy Kartinyeri. Koolmatrie collects sedge grasses from her favourite sites in the sand dunes of the Coorong area of South Australia. The wet environment of the Murray-Darling basin meant vast areas were dominated by sedges and rushes and it was from these that the Aboriginal people selected their main raw materials for basketry.
Ngarrindjeri are the descendants of the many clan groups that lived throughout the lower Murray basin. They maintain a vital cultural identity today. As in the past, life revolves around the river. It is a symbol of their cultural survival and potential for further cultural revival.
The Murray-Darling Basin is Australia's largest river system, food bowl and inland water-transport corridor. Its waterways have been contested for generations - from colonial frontier wars to colour bars at local pools, and between farming and the environment itself. Threatened by salination and erosion, infested by carp and algae and depleted by dams and weirs, the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin now flow wearily.
SignificanceThis freshwater turtle sculpture is a significant example of the modern fibreworks being produced by Indigenous artists of southern Australia.Koolmatrie’s experimental and exploratory works in local grasses woke an interest in a vanishing cultural practice, as a teacher and practitioner she has played a pivotal role in the revitalisation of weaving. Her intuitive process allows the sculptural potential of functional objects to be realised in innovative interpretations of traditional forms. Her use of Sedge as her primary medium connects her to her land and to the places where the spiny sedge is gathered. For the artist the near loss of the Ngarrindjeri weaving tradition, became her catalyst to pass on her skills and create works so that her artworks will endure for future generations.
