Summary

This style of skirt is known as marubu in western Arnhem Land. Worn down the back, it was suspended from a string hung around the neck. The pastoralist at Oenpelli Paddy Cahill who collected this work for the museum noted that when a woman danced wearing one of these, she would 'very much resemble an emu'.

Local Name

marubu

Physical Description

A triangular twined skirt made with pandanus painted in sections with natural pigments. Vegetable fibre string and wool or fabric is stitched in rows across the surface separating the broad horizontal stripes.

Significance

The senior Kunwinjku fibre artist Jill Nganjmirra saw this skirt when she visited the museum in 2004. Jill commented on the 'very clever pattern' created in the centre with banyan string, and also remarked that it had not been finished.

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