- One time coming back from Albury-Wodonga
I'd passed two dead echidnas on the side of the road,
which you hardly ever see.
And I drove all the way back to Melbourne,
got my big waeco esky,
drove back 150 kilometres back up the highway,
picked up the two dead echidnas, drove back to Melbourne
and boiled them up in big pots in my backyard
in inner-city Melbourne.(chuckles) Yeah, it was fun.
My name's Maree Clarke.
I'm connected to the traditional lands of Mutti Mutti,
Yorta Yorta and Boon Wurrung, and Wemba Wemba peoples.
I'm a practising artist,
have been practising for over 32 years.
I started by making jewellery out of timber and seed pods,
and gum nuts and things,
and then moved into working with more traditional elements
like the kangaroo tooth necklace.
I do a lot of research in museum collections
and learn how the traditional objects were made,
and replicate that,
and then pass that knowledge on to the next generation.
And it's just the most incredible thing to be working
in my backyard, you know, with nieces and nephews
who still want to hang out with their Auntie
and learn culture.
And I remember like working on possum skin cloaks
and the kangaroo tooth necklaces.
And my husband's taught the boys and the girls
how to pull the sinew out of the tail of the kangaroo,
and nobody wanted to go back to cloak making,
they just wanted to keep pulling the sinew out of the tail
and binding the teeth to make the necklaces.
And then I also make river reed necklaces.
And I started first off by making a
10 metre river reed necklace
for the Koorie Heritage Trust based in Melbourne,
and then I started supersizing them to 50 metres.
It's a bit of a wow factor and people take notice,
and it talks about the loss of land, language,
and cultural practises, on this, you know, huge scale.
For this particular exhibition at MCA
I wanted to have a whole black collection,
but of course, kangaroo teeth are white and they're organic,
So I got Canberra Glass Works to fabricate
black glass crystal.
I just thought it would be a beautiful thing to do.
They also, you know, fabricated the,
the black, glass river reeds,
and the glass seed pods that are now filled with
with ochre from country.
And I call those ones: A Moment in Time.
And then also as part of this exhibition of photograph,
two of my nephews, I wanted to have the boys wearing
the necklace this time,
because I haven't photographed my nephews wearing
any of the jewellery, it's usually my nieces.
And those particular necklaces were given to people
passing through country, Boon Wurrung country,
as a sign of safe passage and friendship.
So I would hope that people who see the exhibition,
that, you know, here in the 21st century,
my glass kangaroo tooth necklace is just as valid
as the historical kangaroo tooth necklaces,
and the glass, river reed necklaces are just as valid
as the traditional ones.