Description

• Size: 125 x 150 cm
• Composition: 100% cotton – knitted
• Colour: the photos are colour accurate, this is a lovely rug
• Eco label has information about the artist and the design
• Made in India – certified Fair Trade

Artist: Damien & Yilpi Marks

Design: Dry Season Story

Royalty fees are paid to the artist for every sale.
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Design Story:
This is a very detailed painting that describes a dry time of year in Damien’s homeland, Mount Liebig. The painting illustrates aspects of landscape and culture around that area that was told to Damien by his great-grandmother and great- grandfather. There are women sitting with their children collecting bush potatoes (the mass of red shapes at the bottom of the painting). The women are talking and getting ready for a ceremony. There is one man (wati) sitting down with his waru (spear). The spinifex is dry and so the man is walking around making bushfires. He is a good man, he is undertaking controlled burnings so the spinifex burns up and then good fruits can grow after this. There are several symbols in this painting. The small sun-like symbols represent women’s body painting, these are the images the women are painting on each other as they sit down ready for inma – traditional ceremony. There is a dry creek bed running through the painting (in red and white), and there are cracks in the ground and claypans. There are also dried rockholes (tjukula), and next to them are tali tali’ sandhills.

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Made by Better World Arts, an Australian social enterprise that is Fair Trade certified.

Better World Arts has been operating for over two decades. Our role models were Oxfam, Fred Hollows (the Fred Hollows Foundation) and Anita Roddick (The Body Shop).
We work with traditional artisans from remote regions in Kashmir, Peru, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal (Tibetan refugees).
We work with Australian Aboriginal artists from remote communities across Australia, from Arnhem Land to Central and the Western Desert regions, from rural locations and from cities.