Photograph by Dr Rosita Henry
Accession Number: Oc.1933.0403.55
Museum: British Museum
Date Acquired: 1933
Collector: Derwent Vallance (1875-1960)
Date Collected: c.1905
Where from: Mulgrave
Description: H330 x W310mm. Rigid open bicornual baskets from the Queensland rainforest region were traditionally made by women and only initiated men. Their design and decoration varies according to how they were to be used. The ochred bicornual baskets were once used for ceremonial or sacred purposes. Men made smaller painted baskets to hold their belongings and ceremonial objects. Unpainted baskets were used to hold food, and men sometimes used them to carry babies. British Museum has named this bicornual basket a ‘Jawun’ but this may not necessarily be the correct language name used by the group in the Mulgrave Region. (Jawun is a Djirbal language word spoken by people from the Innisfail to Cardwell region). Bicornual baskets are made from lengths of fibre stripped from lawyer cane (Calamus sp.) a large prickly climbing palm, twined together to produce the distinct crescent shape form. They are still made by both men and women using a twined technique handed down from one generation to the next.
See: ‘Derwent Vallance’ authored by Dr Rosita Henry
http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=1108
Contact: Dr Gaye Sculthorpe, Curator of Oceania
British Museum, Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, UK
Phone: +44 20 7323 8035