ESSAY: Lola Greeno August 2018
“All of the work that we’ve done in the past 30 years
has put a real value on our cultural practice and we have a real story to
tell.”
Tasmanian Aboriginal Women continue to maintain their
place in history, through their traditional shell necklace cultural practice.
Today women acknowledge the significance of their cultural knowledge and
skills, knowledge that is imbedded in their shell necklaces, in
the making stories, and through their traditional shell necklace cultural
practice. Today women acknowledge the significance of their cultural knowledge
and skills, knowledge which has been, and is being, handed down
to future generations. During the past three decades Tasmanian, Aboriginal
women have organised shell necklace making workshops on country. Through these
projects families have strengthened their links with
both families and communities. Also, through major projects such
as ‘Lola Greeno, Cultural Jewels, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery,
kanalaritja- An Unbroken String’ identity and connections to country have
also been strengthened.
In the past thirty years, Tasmanian Aboriginal Shell
stringing has grown from strength to strength. Since the early 90’s there has
been a huge revival from Elders working with Elders and the next generation of
interested makers. However, it was not until a decade later in 2002 that Arts
Tasmania developed new Shell Residency Program in the Furneaux Islands for three
Elders to accompany mentors to collect shells and make new work in 2002.
Although
many of the contemporary shell necklace makers once lived on Cape Barren Island, women who had firsthand knowledge to
do with collecting and making was usually gained via a
family member. Once these women had left the island to gain better
access to health services and education, all that changed as did their ‘island lifestyle’. Most people found an
opportunity to leave the Cape Barren Island once the “Cape Barren Island
Reserve Act” ceased to operate in 1951. The social change that this brought
about placed a great deal of stress on the few surviving makers on the islands
and elsewhere. Nonetheless, they were still creating new work and they shared
their knowledge of collecting places with ‘family’.
Information
on how to clean the interior of the shells, plus the removal of
the outer coating of the shells to reveal the iridescent pearl lustre
of the ‘maireener/marina’ shell was closely held by ‘the
Island women’. This knowledge was, and still is, guarded
information. The information is protected not only to protect
family’s access to shells but also to look after the environment.
My
journey as a maker began for me as a young girl on Cape Barren Island. My
mother and other Elders walked on the beach and collected shells in
front of our house on the beach at Prickly Bottom. We also helped friends
collect shells when we were on the ‘bird island’. When we
later moved to Flinders Island we walked the beaches there to swim or to collect
limpets and periwinkles to eat.
 |
| Truganini |
I
moved to Launceston to live in 1972. When my children
were in college, I enrolled in a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1992. The next stage
followed from the interest of fellow students and staff at the School of Art.
In the art school we were encouraged to talk about where we come from and why
the shell necklaces meant so much to Aboriginal women in Tasmania. Most people had
seen the historical images of Truganini and Fanny Cochrane Smith.
These images showed them wearing several strands of shell necklaces. My
response to these old images prompted me to talk to my mother about why it
was important that she carried on ‘the making’ from her
grandmother, about what type shells she collected, about where she collected
them and what happened to those first necklaces she had made.
A
unique part of the Cape Barren Island shell necklace making, was that the
women gave the shells a common name – ‘community names’. This
gave a direct connection to the fauna and flora in the context
of island life. There are approximately thirty different types of shells used
to make Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklaces – and they are still used today.
The makers retain the nine common names. For example, the black shell
is called the “black-crow”, white flat shell is a “cockle”, cream
shaped shell is a “penguin”, the tiny white shell
is “toothy”, and the orange colour shell is an “oat
shell”, with the smallest shell being a “rice
shell”. A flat based shell is referred to as a “button”, a
greyish shell is a “gull shell” and the shell used in the
traditional shell necklaces is the ‘’marina” shell – click here for shell reference link
Prior to colonisation the ‘’marina” shell
was the only shell threaded onto kangaroo sinew and cleaned by smoking in a
fire, to remove outer coating. They were pierced with a tool made from the eye
tooth of a kangaroo jaw bone to enable the shells to be threaded.
My
work in recent years has developed by using big shells related to food sources
in oder to create new sculptural pieces. One reason is we will need to consider
the environment when collecting ‘’marina” shells.
It has been seen that the seaweed beds have
been reduced as a consequence of by global warming
and that other invasive species are having an impact marine
life. My new collection of natural cultural material, referring to the food
source is being made from wearable material such kangaroo fur redesigned as
body adornment pieces.
In my search to learn more about reviving our ‘cultural
knowledge’ plus the practical skills and processes, we have discovered
many institutions that have developed Indigenous collections containing a number of
contemporary shells necklaces. A large part of the research carried out by Ray Norman, looked into the series of shell necklaces with one group referred to as
the ‘Hobart Necklaces’. These necklaces were part of a production line,
people, non-Aboriginal people by-and-large, were commissioned to harvest
and string large quantities of shells. Shell necklaces labelled
as Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklaces were sold by jewellery shops in
Hobart and elsewhere while other people ran an export trade selling in
two countries overseas – Hawaii in particular.
A private collection known as the ‘Winray Collection’, was purchased by The Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander
Commission (ATSIC). It was then housed in Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery
because of the lack suitable storage conditions for the Cape Barren Islander
community until the island secured a suitable Community Keeping Place.
Most National Institutions, Museums and Galleries have
redeveloped their collections and are acquiring shell necklaces and Tasmanian
Aboriginal Art from the 90’s to early 2000. Exhibitions and Art Programs in
Tasmania at this time saw the major research from Julie Gough and Zoe Rimmer
that led to two major shows, that in turn helped built the value of women’s
work. The exhibitions tayenebe, Cultural Jewels and kanlaritja
at the same time raised the profile of Tasmanian Aboriginal Artists.
Once the work was created, displayed, it is then set out
to influence new marketing requests reaching out from Launceston and Hobart to
Canberra and beyond. The sale of Tasmanian Aboriginal art has become source of
income for commercial galleries and that has seen a reasonable interest in
Tasmanian work develop via overseas markets.
Since I made my first shell necklace, I have focused
on the important family story about shell necklace making for me. I needed to
know it came from my grandmother, to my mother. As well, for me to be a part
of the knowledge and cultural experience is vitally important to my next two
generations. It is also important for me to be telling my story to my daughter and
grandchildren.
Initially I was keen to learn about how the
traditional shell necklace was made, what our early women did to originally
clean the shells, and how the shells were pierced then threaded in kangaroo
sinew. So, I also asked my mother how she cleaned her shells, for her first
necklaces. But today, we must also consider a future for our new generations,
by caring for the environment of our marine life. Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural
knowledge expands by the ongoing research, gaining access to new information
and by being alert to the ways the world changes around us. I have recently
undertaken a conversation with a science based academic to find new ways of
cleaning with new solutions using less toxic materials. I’m proud to be a part
of all that and our evolving histories.
