Rosalind Langford

Skin to Blanket Central to my work is the exploration of my Aboriginal identity as a Yorta Yorta woman. The forced dispossession and colonisation period of the early 1830’s to the 1950’s in Victoria and Tasmania, cultural practices including the making and wearing of opossum skin cloaks were discouraged. Prior to 1830 almost every elder had their own opossum skin cloak to wear. Colonisation ensured European blankets and knitted rugs replaced opossum skin cloaks. By the mid 1950’s the skills used in the making of traditional cloaks had almost disappeared. European blankets and knitted rugs replaced traditional skin cloaks. However, in 1999 four Yorta Yorta Aboriginal women, Vicki and Debra Couzens, Lee Darroch, and Treahna Hamm together with advice from Yorta Yorta elder’s in Victoria reclaimed the cultural practice of opossum skin cloak making. My works have developed out of this revival. My decision to include in my works traditional designs from the 1853 Madien’s Punt and the 1872 Lake Condah possum skin cloaks are from my grandmother’s country and are held by Museum Victoria. Tasmanian Aboriginal rock carvings and my own contemporary designs use the medium of traditional ochre that I collected. My early intention was to create a body of work through the process of mono- printing, however, this process was quickly abandoned in favour of a set of woodcut prints and a screen printed queen size woollen blanket. The process of using traditional ochre as a medium on woodcuts and screen was a difficult technical process for several reasons. I was unable to access through my research any other artists to draw on for guidance who had used traditional ochre for screen or woodcut printing. Therefore, the technical process to arrive at being able to use ochre as a printing medium especially for screen-printing was extremely time consuming. The binding mediums when mixed with ochre changed its true colour and density, and the ochre was drying too quickly to print. All of the above difficulties I was able to overcome through persistent experimenting and receiving valued advice from the printmaking staff. Although the work on the blanket represents an historical perspective of a rich culture, the physical nature of the blanket also represents the ‘Christianisation’ and near genocide of a people.