Gundjabarrk (Dilly bag) design popular by Injalak Women on linen

Hand screen-printed Linen.
The base cloth colour is black and the ink is purple.

All our fabrics are designed and hand-printed by our members (Aboriginal artists) in our workshop in popular Gunbalanya in West Arnhem Land, NT, Australia.

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The designers
This collaborative design was created by four Kunwinkjku daluk (women) artists, Priscilla Badari, Lynne Nadjowh, Sylvia Badari and Katra Nganjmirra. These women are all talented fibre artists and have works featured in “Twined Together” (2005).

The design
Gundjabarrk is a woven dilly bag which was used by daluk (women) to gather and carry bush foods in. They would gather Karrbarda (yams), mankinjdjek (cheeky yams) and other bushfoods such as bush honey. Gundjabarrk were also used to carry cooked meats such as kurdukadji (emu) and Kunj (Kangaroo). Women would secure their gundjabarrk with two sticks in the shallow running water of a creek and leave them there to wash the yams overnight, in the morning they would come and tip out the yams onto some paperbark and eat them for breakfast. Bininj (aboriginal men) would also use gundjabarrk to carry their tools such as Karramalk (stone axes) and lawk (stone blades) for cutting meat up with. Some wore them on their shoulders and some around their heads like the daluk. This design was based on real examples of woven dilly bags at Injalak Arts with all their variety of pattern and weaving techniques. The women have created a beautiful design that continues to express their connection with their cultural heritage through new mediums.