Possum-skin cloak workshops at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts
Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung), her husband Nicholas Hovington (Palawa), and her family, Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji), Kerri Clarke (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba) and Molly Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji) travelled to Massachusetts in April to facilitate possum-skin cloak making workshops at Mount Holyoke College. The students, who were enrolled in a course conducted by Dr Sabra Thorner called “Decolonizing Museums”, a subject which has evolved in concert with the Living Archive of Aboriginal Art and Knowledge project (ARC INDP 200100042), participated in four workshops. Maree and her family generously passed on their knowledge of this cultural art-making practice, which saw the students working hands on with the cloaks, sewing pelts and using wire-nib pyrography tools to burn designs on the skins of the pelts. Once complete, Maree photographed the students wearing the cloak. To find out more details about the workshops, please read the following articles:
‘Indigenous artists in residence present: Ancestral Memories!’, Mount Holyoke News.
Mitch using wire-nib pyrography tools to burn designs on the skins of the pelts.
Kerri and and another student burning designs on the pelts, alongside Mitch assisting students to weave bracelets from raffia.
Molly Mahoney and Juliette Gagnon Strong Heart (Anishinabee) beaded the possum tails on the cloak using a blend of traditional Anishinabee techniques with contemporary string bead-making. The inclusion of beading acknowledged the First Nations peoples of the lands of Turtle Island (North America) and paid respect to the practices of the traditional knowledge holders, a process the Australian artists insisted on including in the making of the cloak.
Kerri, Maree and Mitch painting the cloak.
The completed cloak!
All photographs by Dr Fran Edmonds and posted with permission.
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