Description
Composition: Hand dyed wool and cotton
Size: 122 x 183 cm (48 x 72 inches)
Features:
- Hand embroidered/chain-stitched
- All natural fibres – embroidered wool on cotton canvas
- Fair Trade certified
- Limited edition – individually numbered
- Certificate of Authenticity supplied with each kilim
- Royalties paid to the artist/family on every sale
- Hard wearing
- Back has non-slip surface
- Each kilim has flap on the rear for ease of hanging with dowel/rod
- Matching cushion covers are also available
Chain-stitched kilims are a traditional rug/soft furnishings making technique from Kashmir. Can be hung portrait or landscape if preferred.
Artist: Anmanari Brown
Anmanari Brown, a senior Pitjantjatjara woman, was born in the 1930s at Purpurna and lived with her family in the desert. For a while they camped on the mission at Warburton where she briefly attended school. Anmanari is a senior cultural woman recognised for her knowledge of the tjukurpa and traditional cultural practices. She lives in a wiltja at Irrunytju with her husband Nyakul Dawson, surrounded by daughters and grandchildren. As well as painting Anmanari crafts traditional punu (wood) objects. She regularly goes bush to sing inma at sacred sites with the other senior women, hunt tinka (lizard) and perentie (goanna), gather maku (grubs) and minkulpa (native tobacco), collect tjanpi (spinifex) and puna (wood).
Anmanari frequently paints the Kungkarrakalpa (Seven Sisters Dreaming). The seven sisters were born at Illuwarratjarra. They travelled from Kaliwarra to Wannan in Western Australia, stopping at significant sites and rockholes including Kuru Ala, Anmanari’s mother country and a sacred place for women. As the sisters walked across the desert they were followed by a wati kula-kula (lustful man) called Nyiru. He wanted to take one of the sisters as a wife, but he was an old man and they did not want him. At Kuru Ala, he hid behind a windbreak watching the young women. The sisters were a bit frightened, so they hid and ran away. He tracked and followed them across the desert. Sometimes he tried to trick them, once pretending to be wayanu (quandong fruit). Another time the sisters saw a kuniya (python) which they dug up for meat but when they tasted it they realised that it wasn’t good kuka (meat) and must be Nyiru. “They got sick after eating that…The women hunted him away, but he still keeps following them. He is always playing tricks to try and get one of the sisters. That Nyiru, he’s a cheeky one. He caught one of the sisters, the big sister and took her. Too much. She died. He is still chasing them.” The sisters can be seen wandering across the sky as a cluster of starts with Nyiru following behind (the Pleiades).*
Courtesy Mary Knights
*
CARE INSTRUCTIONS:
Do not put place/use in direct sunlight or colors may fade. To clean – dry cleaning recommended. Can be ironed (on the woollen side of the rug) on a wool steam setting. For a big rug it’s easiest done on the floor.
About the Better World Arts chainstitch kilim products
These beautiful, unique textiles are a cross-cultural collaboration combining Aboriginal designs and traditional Kashmiri rug-making techniques. Chain stitched, using hand dyed wool, each is a completely handmade piece. Fi
