Lorraine Connelly-Northey

b. 1962, Swan Hill, Victoria

Tribal Boundary: Waradgerie, New South Wales

Since 1990, Lorraine’s strong desire to undertake traditional Aboriginal weaving, together with her discontent to weave only the reputable grasses and sedges, resulted in her rediscovering her childhood environments, namely the Mallee and Riverine, to acquire a knowledge of the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle, in particular the plants, from which Lorraine intends to use the fibers for inclusion in her future traditionally woven works of art.

A heritage of mixed cultures strongly influences Lorraine ’s artworks. In the hands of Lorraine , the rich tradition of material culture undergoes further reinterpretation, transforming the forms of traditional Aboriginal artifacts into contemporary colonial artifacts through the use of rustic metal wires, mesh and corrugated iron – expressive of a shared history lived in coexistence with a settler colonial society.

2005

Found materials

With a deep desire to undertake traditional Aboriginal Weaving, I returned to the source – my childhood environments, namely the Murray River and the Mallee – to rediscover what my father taught me about life in the bush, in particular the plants of aboriginal usage.

During our travels throughout the bush, Dad and I would take in old rubbish dumps seeking out hidden treasures and items of interest and use. This was no doubt a deadly skill Dad had acquired as a ‘man on the land’ under the skilful eye of his Irish farming Dad, that in a piece of discarded material could be found another use. Now this skill was handed down to me.

Dad always drove me where I wanted to go, and here we were again, years later, Dad driving me almost daily, while rediscovered my childhood environments. He still chauffeurs me to those old dumps to find materials for my artwork. While I remain without a licence to drive means Dad is burdened with decisions of when and where we go, what we do and collect, how far and how long and of course the actual driving. After all, why should I drive, when I’m the reader, the writer, the researcher and an equal thinker in this unpaid partnership?

Born on the tribal boundary of the Wamba Wamba peoples, of Waradgerie descent, I remain uneasy about collecting traditionally reputable grasses and sedges for wearing from both the Wamba Wamba and neighboring Wadi Wadi tribal boundaries.

His Irish heritage, together with being careful with money, gained Dad a reputation of a tight Irishman – another skill I inherited! A skill I am becoming more grateful for as an artist using found materials because I resisted the temptation to purchase canvas and instead opted for the next best thing to stripping trees of their bark canvas – canvas of rusted corrugated iron from the old dumps. They are not native to the area, I am recycling and cleaning up the bush and of course they are free!

Painting these rustic canvases with acrylic traditional designs consumed more time than I was prepared to give. An idea to rub down the canvas with ochre was not appealing to Mum – the ochre did not do for her what the traditional designs and purchased paint did. Dad found this pleasing as there were materials he so proudly found, along with the corrugated iron that had always been part of his life. A further attempt to please Mum found myself reshaping the ochred iron. My acquired knowledge of Aboriginal society, especially of tool and implement usage, assisted me to stumble across the exciting realization that I had made a coolamon or bowl similar to that used by traditional gatherers. Now mum was happy too.

With my knowledge of traditional Aboriginal society together with found material, I could now make anything from a string bag to a possum-skin cloak, with my only limit being my imagination, together with my knowledge of traditional weaving techniques, I could also collect found materials that closely represent what a finished item of weaving would look like. For instance, a piece of iron, mesh or coiled wire reshaped until it becomes the form of a sting bag, a basket or coiled matting – without taking fibre from the bush.

>> view works by Lorraine Connelly-Northey