An Impressive Jawun (bicornual basket), Queensland, 19th Century width: 46.0cm

Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Thorpe Gallery, Sydney
Private collection, Sydney

In her essay, "Working the River: Baskets of the Rainforest", Julie Ewington describes in great detail the construction, material and uses of the Jawun: "Their engineering is extraordinary. Their subtle curves were born from the ready availability of tough and flexible lawyer canes and the necessity to leach toxins from a variety of nuts and seeds among staple rainforest foods...the lawyer canes (Calamus moti) are so-called because of the sharp prickles on the juvenile vine which grab and entangle you...They are tough, flexible, hardwearing and, crucially, extremely water resistant.

The hydrodynamics of Jawun are remarkable. The shape and construction of the basket works with rushing water, as the funnel opening and fanning horns allow water to pass quickly through, leaving objects and fish safely behind. Jawun are used a sieves for several key purposes. They may be placed in running water over a period of hours or days, so that toxic substances in foodstuffs can be leached out – the two horns or crescents of the baskets may firmly be wedged between sticks or boulders in the rainforest creeks; and they are used for fishing in creeks for shrimp, yabbies and small fish...

The Jawun is a multi-purpose basket of great versatility. When worn collecting and carrying food, the basket was looped by a long handle to the head and lay along the spine, leaving the hands free for gathering – or perhaps for carrying young children. Originally men made jawun and women used them; today both men and women make the baskets. The wide funnelled opening of the rigid basket stayed generously open to receive nuts and seeds collected along the way, and these would then lie in the curved horns at the bottom of the basket. On the forest trail the basket could be hung from its shorter handle from the branch of a tree to keep the contents safe from animals, and at campsites was suspended from the strut of a shelter. As Ernie Grant observed the jawun were also hung at the entrance to a mija – this place directly above the campfire served to smoke-harden the baskets. The very largest baskets were for carrying babies.'

Lindy Allen, Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2003, p.161