Aunti
Corrie Fullard
is a respected elder of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Corrie Fullard
was born on Flinders Island in 1931, in the Furneaux Islands group, off the
northeast coast of Tasmania. Her mother, father and grandparents were also
born on the Bass
Strait
Islands. The tradition of shell stringing was passed down through many
generations of her family and hence, Corrie has passed these skills on to
her daughter Jeanette James, born in 1952.
The art of
shell stringing is a valued Palawa cultural tradition that has remained
intact and continued without interruption since before white settlement; it
is a tradition that is many thousands of years old. Traditionally,
necklaces were made as an adornment for ceremonies and as objects to be
traded with other tribes and bands of people for such things as ochre
pigment and stone tools.
The
Aboriginal community has always highly valued the mariner shell. The
green mariner species is harder to locate and collect and therefore prized
over the more commonly found blue mariner shell. A necklace of single
species green mariner shells of the traditional length (approximately
182cm), is the most valued of all necklaces. Collecting enough shells to
make such a necklace, may take as long as three years.
There are
three generations of shell stringers working today. But within the Palawa
peoples, three women elders are regarded as senior custodians of the
stringing tradition. They are Corrie Fullard (who has the passed the skills
to her daughter Jeanette James); Dulcie Greeno (and daughter Betty Grace and
daughter in-law Lola (Sainty) Greeno) and Muriel Maynard.
The
necklaces of Corrie Fullard and Jeanette James have been acquired by many
museums and private collections throughout Australia and internationally.
Jeanette James has been nationally recognised for her very fine work with a
Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in 2000.
Dick Bett
Hobart August 2006