Shell necklaces

Updated on Sun, 09/27/2020 - 17:39
Authors
Katherina Petrou, Lisa Roberts
Place/Language
Tebrakunna / Palawa
Climate change disrupts traditional cultural practice.

 

This report, accessed today, 27 Sept 2020, tells of fears that disruptions to natural climate patterns will disrupt traditional cultural practices  in Tasmania: https://dailygreenworld.com/2020/08/09/earth-changes/earth-changes-earth-changes/arctic-antarctic/fears-indigenous-tasmanian-necklaces-could-become-lost-art/

Palawa artist Lola Greeno 's practice of making shell necklaces dates back hundreds (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of years.

Around 2004 I met Lola at the National Folk Festival in Canberra where she was selling some of her pieces. The photo above shows a necklace and bracelet I bought from her then. The white shells are 'cockles'. The black ones are 'black crows'.  

It's the maireener shells Lola also uses that are threatened. She reports, “My prediction is — and I hope I’m wrong — in 10 years, you will hardly see any maireener shells to make necklaces out of, sadly...”

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