Chris – Papulankutja – Women Collecting Bush Foods (Printed in Oz)

Fabric: Cotton canvas feature fabric.

• H: 27 cm (10.5 inches)
• W: 21 (8.5 inches)
• D: 6 cm  (2.5 inches) (gusset)

Features:

• Magnetic clasp on front
• Handy pockets under flap in feature fabric including with velcro fastening
• Fully lined
• Adjustable strap
• Internal zip pocket
• Discreet external zip pocket on rear
• Limited edition
• Fabric printed in Australia by Next State
• Design story included
• Can be gently hand washed

The artists are paid a royalty fee for every metre printed.
Please note that each bag is unique and the placement of the fabric design is different and wonderful on each item.

Care Instructions: Dry cleaning recommended. Some of our customers wash their bags by hand or on a gentle machine cycle.

Fabric Designer: Barbara Lane

Title: Women collecting bush foods

Story: This painting shows two women (minyma) collecting mai (bush foods). The ochre circles with a blue centre represents their campsite. The U-shapes represent the women, that’s the imprint left in the sand from people sitting. The remaining circles are some of the many different varieties of edible plants that grow in Ngaanyatjara Lands and can be harvested. A traditional diet included fruits and vegetables such as tjarnmarta (bush onion), wakati (native pigweed), kampurarrpa (bush tomato), arnguli (bush plum), ili (native fig), mangata (quandong) and seeds from wakalpuka (acacia) and wangurnu (woollybutt grass). In the division of labour in traditional society women were primarily responsible for collecting mai (bush foods) and men hunted large game.

Papulankutja Artists is a community-based, not-for-profit Aboriginal Corporation governed by a committee of elected members.

It evolved out of the Women’s Centre where painting had been encouraged as an activity for both men and women since the mid 1980s. With the Aboriginal art market taking off it became necessary to establish a legal framework to protect the artists and their entitlements.

Papulankutja Artists was born in 2003 and a year later registered as an Aboriginal Corporation with the members governing the art centre. After five year struggling to find a home Papulankutja Artists moved into a purpose built art centre in 2009. The art centre also works with artists in Mantamaru (Jameson), a community 75kms to the west.

The fabric was digitally printed then beautifully crafted by our fair trade partners, in Cambodia. The artists are paid a royalty fee for every metre printed.All our bags are made in small batches as all the fabrics are handprinted in very limited quantities, usually no more than 2 metres.
Fair Trade: #whomadeyourbag – Mr Run Cheak and his wife make the small and large messenger bags. They have been working for social enterprise Kravan House for more than 15 years. Mr Run Cheak was a farmer who stepped on a landmine in 1993. At Kravan House he retrained as an artisan which has given him good steady income and he has become a master craftsman.