Elizabeth Galaminda

This bowl that Elizabeth made is from Pandanus leaves, which are collected from the Pandanus tree that are all over the island. Elizabeth then striped the leaves into thin strands. These strands are then boiled in ‘colour’. The yellow colour is from the roots of the medicine tree, the red is from coconuts, the brown is from mixing the yellow and red together, the black is from a berry that grows near the freshwater Ajurumu Billabong, the white is from the base of the Pananus leaf, and the green is from boiling the pandanus leaf ashes. The stripped leaves and the colours are boiled in drums over the fire to absorb all the pigment then left hanging to dry. After this the weaving process begins, which can take weeks or moths depending on the size of the work.