Queensland Rainforest basket

Old Aboriginal Basket from North Queensland.

Object type: Container

Locality: North Queensland

Artist: Unknown

Circa: 1900’s

Width at base: 30 cm

Description:

This unique bicornual baskets known as jawun was produced by the rainforest peoples of northeastern Queensland in Australia. They are the most elegant  baskets in Aboriginal Australia.

Created only in the comparatively small region that lies between Cooktown in the north and Cardwell in the south. Jawun were used for collecting and processing food and, in the case of larger examples, at times for carrying young infants. Jawun were used for collecting and carrying food, such as nuts and seeds, on forays in the rainforest. They were also employed as sieves in the process of leaching toxic substances from certain plant foods in order to render them safe to eat. Filled with the food to be leached, such as the large seeds known locally as “black beans,” jawun were placed in running streams with the open top facing upstream and the hornlike projections wedged among the river stones. There they were left, at times for several days, to allow the water to flow through them and leach out the toxic compounds in the food.

This wonderful example has been painted with ochres and is in fantastic condition for such a fragile 100+ year old example

Sale Price SOLD

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