As a travelling exhibition, tayenebe continues to grow and engage increasing numbers of people. The concept of exchange lives on in the workshops and public programs at each venue. New information will be included from each venue. Please see below for details.

At the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, the tayenebe makers have been sharing their knowledge and skills with people of all ages.

Tayenebe
Tasmanian Aboriginal womens’ fibre work
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
4 July – 25 November 2009

tayenebe – the dance
created in response to the tayenebe exhibition by Lesley Graham and grade 7 students, Ogilvie High School, New Town, Tasmania

A culmination of Society and History and Dance investigation of Tasmanian Aboriginal history and culture, performed by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
The tayenebe dance project derived movements based on the continuation of traditional crafts, the influence of colonisation and our part in the process of reconciliation.

Curator, Julie Gough led previews of the exhibition for gallery attendants, teachers and other special interest groups.

Vicki West and Nannette Shaw spent time in the exhibition talking with visitors and the press and sharing their insights about working with fibre and kelp.

Leading workshops for children has enabled makers to share important cultural understanding using the making of baskets and carriers as a way of showing, in the words of Aunty Verna Nicholls, “The baskets are not empty. They are full of makers and their stories, their thoughts while making.”

Children, parents and teachers have been learning about the land and water plants and about ways the women have learned from each other through telling stories and sharing their cultural life together.

In the workshops and in the gallery, children were encouraged to use drawing as a way of looking closely at the baskets and carriers and remembering the stories they had heard from the makers.