Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the use of manufactured cloth in Arnhem Land from early objects containing cloth in museums to the latest artistic expression of screenprinted fabrics.

Paper long abstract:

Starting around 1912 collected objects in museums from Arnhem Land reflected the value systems of the collectors. Early anthropologist were more likely to obtain items made from traditional materials rather than ones incorporating European goods. Cloth was one type of manufactured material that was not desirable by outsiders. As a result, manipulated fabric incorporated into objects made the object less likely to be collected. Although this does not mean the cloth and the object did not have value for the Aboriginal people using it. Opinions changed as decades past in the twentieth century about the use of outside materials. Originally cloth was manipulated using techniques previously known but screenprinted cloth is an introduced technique using manufactured materials. This paper examines how it ,through its various stages of production, fits within an economic and cultural system from both the artists producing it and the buyers.