Basket, 2003
Launceston
flax (Phormium sp.), oat shells (Columbella lincolnensis), maireener
shells (Phasianotrochus irisodontes)
Collection of the National Museum of Australia
2003.0045.0002

Muriel Maynard (1937–2008) was a weaver and shell-necklace maker from Cape Barren Island. As a young girl she collected shells with the island women and learned to string traditional shell necklaces. Later Muriel became a teacher of shell-necklace making to young Aboriginal women. Muriel maintained an active interest in all Aboriginal community projects, and she tutored in the Aboriginal Speakers Program in primary schools throughout Tasmania. In 2000 Muriel, along with two other fibre artists were commissioned to make a fibre installation at the Lake St Clair Visitor Centre in south-west Tasmania. Always refining and experimenting with her basket making, Muriel’s baskets were first shown in the exhibition, Island to Island, as part of the 2001 Ten Days on the Island festival. Muriel participated in early tayenebe workshops, her generous spirit and investigative style in shell and fibre craft has inspired many Aboriginal women. Muriel’s work is represented in a number of public and private collections, including the South Australian Museum; the National Museum of Australia; the National Maritime Museum; the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; and in collections in Japan, the United States and New Zealand.

Based on the biography by Lola Greeno originally published in Woven Forms: Contemporary basket making in Australia, Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design, Sydney, 2005. Reproduced with permission of Fiona and Noel Maynard and the author and publisher.

Water carrier, c.1998
East coast, Tasmania
bull kelp (Durvillaea potatorum), flax
(Phormium sp.), tea tree (Melaleuca sp.)
Private collection