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Entwined

Artist interpretation of a banksia on a dark background.

Entwined

Plants and people

This exhibition is in the past.
12 June-14 November 2021
slq Gallery, level 2
#slqEntwined

Plant fever has come to State Library.

Explore stories about people and plants in Queensland and discover the masterpieces of botanical illustration in our collections.

Themes

TBC

Innate pleasure

Experience that innate pleasure in the natural world which relaxes the body and nourishes the soul.

Abe Muriata weaving at the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival, 2009.

Use and misuse

The lives of plants and people are totally intertwined. We couldn’t survive without them. They provide medicine, tools, food, and shelter, and manufacture the very air we breathe.

TBC

Botanical illustration

Experience the jewel-like beauty of masterpieces of botanical illustration in State Library’s collections.

A pile of bunya cones.

Kindred spirits

An intimate connection of kinship exists between Australia’s First Nations people and the natural world.

Young boy walking in front of a cart with orchids in 1921.

History

Discover stories, quirky and otherwise, about connections between plants and people in Queensland.

Collection highlights

Banksia spinulosa.

Stories

Library Shop

Kindred Spirits: plants & people by State Library of Queensland

Kindred Spirits: plants & people

State Library of Queensland

Joseph Banks' Florilegium book cover

Joseph Banks' Florilegium: Botanical Treasures from Cook's First Voyage

Joe Studholme et al

Indoor Green book cover

Indoor Green

Bree Claffey

Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia

Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia

by Philip Clarke

From the blog

Kakan (dilly bags) – Delissa Walker – On loan for Entwined courtesy of Cairns Art Gallery.
Keeping culture alive through weaving
One of the most complex and beautiful examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander technology is basket-weaving—the myriad of local forms reflecting the diverse country of the people who make them. Different plant fibres are used across Queensland. Plants such as lomandra species (wetland grasses), lawyer cane (a spiky vine known as “wait-a-while" for its tenacious grip on unsuspecting passers-by), pandanus and black palm have all been well-documented as basket material. The elegant engineering of the “two horned” baskets of North Queensland embodies the flexibility and strength of lawyer vine, along with the ancestral knowledge of the rainforest people who make them. These are practical tools with great beauty and cultural power. Each basket takes 4-5 weeks to make and can last around 3 years, used every day in the rainforest. Bicornual baskets are designed to sit in running water, to leach toxins from seeds that would otherwise be poisonous. These utilitarian and beautiful baskets allowed a wider range of foods to be eaten. During the 2009 Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival, a group of weavers from Erub, Torres Strait and Hope Vale, Cape York ran a weaving workshop together. This exchange of technique and culture can be seen in the Weaving Exchange: Erub Island and Hopevale 2009 video below. http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/f/1oppkg1/slq_alma21205554910002061 Abe Muriata, a Girramay man of the Cardwell region in North Queensland, is one of few men weaving jawun. He describes himself as self-taught: he watched his grandmother weave jawun but was not taught by her. Abe experiments with technique and media, creating traditional baskets and also reinterpreting traditional techniques for modern materials. Rhonda Brim, a Djabugay Elder, weaves bicornual baskets with lawyer cane, and dilly bags with lomandra (a wetland species) or black palm. When she was in her twenties one of her grandmothers, Wilma Walker, shared the cultural knowledge and techniques. Determined to keep culture alive, she teaches the younger generations, carrying on the long basket-making tradition. Fine examples of weaving and the weavers who make them are featured in both the Entwined: plants and people exhibition and Kindred Spirits: plants and people publication. Kindred Spirits: plants and people is available to purchase from the Library Book Shop. With text by Shannon Brett, featuring images from State Library’s collection and more, it explores the ancient and ongoing connection between First Nations people and plants in Queensland. This publication was developed in response to the Entwined: plants and people exhibition which is open now and runs until November 14, 2021.
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