POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Eel trap by Yvonne Koolmatrie

Object No. 93/332/1

‘Inside some of these works are the seeds and heads and roots of the rushes, sometimes sewn into the weave, sometimes just enclosed in the body. One day, if people are no longer weaving or they forget what material to use, or if someone says the weaving is extinct like they did before, they can look inside my weavings and they’ll see the seeds of the rushes.’ Yvonne Koolmatrie: Riverland, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2015, pg. 29 Ngarrindjeri weaver Yvonne Koolmatrie (b.1944) began weaving in 1982, after attending a workshop conducted by the elder, Dorothy Kartinyeri. It was during that one-day workshop that she learnt how to harvest the spiny-headed sedge (Cyperus gmnocaulos), without interrupting the new growth, how to process the sedge and how to start to weave the beginning of a conical basket. It was the start of a revival of her relationship with the river, with the sedge and the start to her teaching, maintaining, innovating and sharing this practice. Her fire has not dampened over her three-decade career. It was her therapy after losing her eldest son, and it became her gift to share. A master of her practice, Yvonne closely studied the pieces made by river peoples that are housed in the South Australian Museum. Looking and relooking at the different objects, their stiches, analysing the colour and smell of the sedge. Sedge slowly darkens and loses its fragrant smell as it ages. Then she taught herself to weave, eel traps, fish traps, yabbie traps, egg scoops, cockle bags, burial bags, weapon bags, sister bags and mats both functional and story mats for teaching. The eel, fish and yabbie traps from her first decade of practice that are in the Powerhouse are amongst the functional objects that the riverine peoples would have used frequently to source foods. Each functional object for the collection of food is engineered specifically to trap the intended prey in their habitats. The eel traps have large, fanned openings and a small hole at the end of its long conical body. The smaller hole is where person would catch the eels as they pass through the net, with its large mouth inviting eels downstream into the trap. Yvonne, like Dorothy before her, is a generous custodian of weaving. This is a deliberate choice to ensure that people of the rivers know how to perform their agricultural sustainability responsibilities to harvest and analyse plant and river health. It is a deliberate choice, planting seeds in the minds of those she teaches techniques to in case, like her, they practice and become makers and innovators who engineer materials for the landscapes of tomorrow. If people forget, we can always help them find answers in her stiches.