Photo by Trish Barnard

Accession Number: QE2497

Museum: Queensland Museum

Date Acquired:

Collector: Archibald Meston (1851-1924)

Date Collected: 1911

Where from: North Queensland

Description: L300 x W400 x D290mm

Basket made from twined lawyer cane (Calamus moti), and decorated with red and yellow ochre. These bicornual baskets are unique to the Rainforest peoples that inhabited the lands between Port Douglas and Cardwell. They are made from twined lawyer cane (Calamus moti.) and varied in size according to their purpose, and were often used as an important trading item. Smaller baskets were used to carry seeds and fruit, and place into the running water to leach toxins from seeds. The larger ones were use to carry babies and possessions, while ochred baskets were sacred and used to carry human remains. The long handles attached to the bicornual baskets are placed across the forehead with the basket against the persons back, allowing the hands to remain free. These baskets are made by men and women from communities in North Queensland and collecting the prickly lawyer cane is an arduous task. This basket has natural pigments of ochre applied to surface as they were once used for ceremonial or sacred purposes. Elders from the Girramay people around Cardwell have relaxed the protocols for sacred baskets and gave permission for them to be publicly displayed.

Trish Johnson (nee Barnard), Assistant Collection Manager, Oct. 2004.

See: ‘Archibald Meston’ authored by Russell McGregor

http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=61