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Yvonne Koolmatrie

(Australia 1945– )

Language group
Ngarrindjeri, Southern Riverine region
Title
Eel trap
Place of origin
South Australia → Australia
Year
1997
Media category
Weaving
Materials used
sedge rushes (Lepidosperma canescens)
Dimensions

168.0 x 59.0 x 59.0cm

Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Mollie Gowing Acquisition Fund for Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1999
Accession number
97.1999
Copyright
© Yvonne Koolmatrie
Location
Not on display
Further information

Yvonne Koolmatrie has lived all her life in Ngarrindjeri country, which ranges from the Coorong, a wetland wilderness at the mouth of the Murray River, upstream to the present day farming communities of the lower Murray Riverland. Koolmatrie grew up in the Riverland and experienced the hardship of seasonal work that became the only means of survival when Aboriginal people were denied access to their traditional lands. Throughout her youth, Koolmatrie saw little evidence of the cultural practices of her ancestors that have become her life's work.

At a one-day weaving workshop in 1982, conducted by the elder, Dorothy Kartinyeri – one of the last people practicing the coiled bundle technique Koolmatrie learned the critical first stage of Ngarrindjeri weaving. She was also instructed in the correct harvesting and preparation of sedge grass. In the once fertile environment of the Riverland, now degraded by intensive agricultural practice, suitable supplies of rushes are rare. Koolmatrie is careful not only to guard the location of her source, but also in harvesting, so as not to disturb the roots and young sedge grass plants. The subtle scent, form and hue of the finished works palpably evoke the environment of the Murray River.

Koolmatrie began to practise the weaving technique and gradually to experiment with form, extending the range of objects she had studied in the South Australian Museum '... to put my story in my weaving'. For Koolmatrie, the near loss of the Ngarrindjeri weaving tradition crystallised a twofold responsibility: to pass on her skills and to create work of the highest possible standards so that her fibre forms will endure for future generations.

'Eel trap', 1997, was first exhibited in 'fluent', Australia's representative exhibition at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997, which also featured the work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Judy Watson. Created to the scale of nineteenth-century works in the collection of the South Australian Museum, Koolmatrie's eel trap does not intend to break with tradition but rather explores the possibilities of innovation. She has said, '... I look at different things. I might be along the river and I see different shapes and I think, that's a good way to weave. I don't sketch it, I just get my rushes and start to weave.' Koolmatrie's intuitive process allows the sculptural potential of functional objects to be realised in spirited interpretations of traditional forms.

Hetti Perkins in 'Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia', Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004

Bibliography (7)

Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art, Carlton, 2010, 160-161 (colour illus.), 281.

'Mollie and Jim Gowing's lasting legacy' by Jane Wynter, pg. 12., Look Nov 2010, Nov 2010, 12 (colour illus.).

'One sun one moon' by Hetti Perkins, pg. 22-27., Look Jun 2007, Jun 2007, 23 (colour illus.).

Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Margie West (Australia) (Author), Theresa Willsteed (Editor), One sun one moon: Aboriginal art in Australia, Sydney, 2007, 278-279 (colour illus.).

Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Theresa Willsteed (Editor), Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia, Domain, 2004, 62-63 (colour illus.).

'1970-2001: International exposure of Aboriginal art' by Jennifer Isaacs, pg. 548-557., Art and Australia (Vol. 39, No. 4) Jun 2002-Aug 2002, Jun 2002-Aug 2002, 556 (colour illus.).

Michael Lynch (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997 Australia, Sydney, 1997, (colour illus.), 46. cat.no. 10

Exhibition history (9)

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, La Biennale di Venezia, 15 Jun 1997–09 Nov 1997.

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 20 Dec 1997–15 Feb 1998.

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, 13 Mar 1998–03 May 1998.

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 05 Jun 1998–05 Jul 1998.

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 17 Jul 1998–06 Aug 1998.

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, Tandanya, 26 Aug 1998–08 Nov 1998.

Fluent, La Biennale di Venezia 1997, Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 20 Nov 1998–31 Jan 1999.

One sun, one moon, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 03 Jul 2007–02 Dec 2007.

Country Culture Community (2008-09), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 12 Nov 2008–19 Apr 2009.