Koolimans, Narrbong and Digging Stick 2012

Summary

Lorraine Connelly-Northey works with found materials, reclaiming these to make objects that embody Waradgeri (Wiradjuri) knowledge and presence. She bends and twists found materials into forms that represent items made and used by her ancestors, items that remain important to her people today. This group of sculptural works is made from waste metal that once littered her country. Each represents a precious and culturally significant item: a string dilly bag (narrbong), three koolimans (shallow carrying dishes) and a women’s digging stick. Traditionally made from carefully woven fibres and hand-crafted wood, these newly wrought items are made from white pressed tin that was perhaps discarded from an old homestead, thus bearing a not-so-distant memory of settler incursion onto traditional lands. These sculptures are also a potent reminder that women’s work and culture continues in many forms.