String Craft: Bilum + Dilly Bag exhibition

Artists

Lea Taylor

Katie West

Bula’bula Arts

Babbarra Women’s Centre

Private bilum collection –

bilum artists from the Sepik, Highlands and

coastal areas of Papua New Guinea

7th October – 3 November
Venue: Exhibition Space, Building 418 Curtin University
              1 Koorliny Way, Bentley
Find us on campus
Enter 418:108      Exhibition in the search bar.
              Mon-Fri: 10am – 4pm (closed Saturday and Sunday)
              Free Entry

String Craft showcases the cultural and gendered significance of string crafts to indigenous Australian and Papua New Guinean communities, with reference to the Aboriginal Dilly Bag and the PNG Bilum. The display provides a space for audiences to explore the intercultural connections found in aspects of string making and looping techniques between the dilly bag and bilum and to learn more of the art of traditional string making and its connection to place and identity. 

String craft provides the foundational basis of the exhibition. The traditional PNG Bilum and the Aboriginal Dilly Bag are looped string bags made from hand twisted and plied natural plant material, and sometimes animal fibres, whose manufacture dates back well before European contact. Both the bilum and dilly bag are made almost exclusively by women, using similar weaving techniques and a wide range of natural raw materials for string making.  The different looping techniques and the various designs and shapes crafted by PNG and Aboriginal women in the making of the string bags are expressions of considerable skill, innovation and creativity. Apart from their multiple utilitarian uses, the bilum and dilly bag have enormous cultural significance and are important markers of clan, language and gender identity.  In both PNG and Australia the use and cultural value of string bags is changing as they become commodity items for sale to tourists and, in the case of PNG, as part of fashion and the art world.

Co-curated by Gina Koczberski and Anne Farren

String Craft: Bilum + Dilly Bag is part of the official Indian Ocean Craft Triennial 2024 (IOTA24) program. 

Want more information on the other IOTA24 exhibitions at Curtin, visit:

Learn more about IOTA 24 by visiting here.

IOTA24 is proudly supported by major partners Lotterywest and the WA Department of Local Government, Sport & Cultural Industries (DLGSCI); and founding partner Curtin University.

We acknowledge the support of WA Department of Local Government, Sport & Cultural Industries and Curtin University School of Design & the Built Environment in hosting this event on the lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people in Walyalup.