Miṉḏirr (conical basket)

The Milingimbi Art and Culture certificate for this work states: Margaret Rarru Garrawurra is well known for her mol miṉḏirr (black conical baskets) and refinement of the natural black dye derived from native plants that grow in the undergrowth of the dry eucalyptus forests of Arnhem Land. This miṉḏirr marks a new development in Rarru's artistic practice. Ceriops tegal is a species of mangrove tree that grows on the islands of Yurrwi/Milingimbi and Laŋarra/Howard Island, in eastern Arnhem Land. It is also native to Indonesia and has been used by Indonesian textile artists for generations to create rich, red browns. In the publication ‘Aboriginal people and their plants’ 2007 anthropologist Philip A Clarke suggests that Makassan sailors also used ceriops to colour trepang during their visits to the Arnhem Land coast in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 2020 Rarru began to experiment with ceriops as a dye for her weaving fibres. This miṉḏirr is one of the results of her initial experiments.