Another picture from our outing to Tocal Field Day on Sunday. This isn’t the clearest picture, but the lighting wasn’t very good to do the cloak justice.
This cloak was one of the exhibits on display at the Field Day and was made by Mitch Mahoney for his year 10 school art project.
Mitch is the grandson of a friend of mine and if anyone is interested in his story, here is a link to an article from the Museum of Victoria where Mitch spent a week recently as part of the MV’s Indigenous Pathways program. He also got the opportunity to display his possum skin cloak.
I am so impressed by this young man, have just read the link, thank you Babs for sharing this, he has so much talent and with his philosophy of life, will no doubt succeed in his chosen field :-)
Now that sure is impressive! What a creative and unique idea! Just out of curiosity though, where did he get the possum skins from? Did he actually go out and well, ya know find possums? Aha :)
@tesssa@ourrube I think this is used as a ceremonial cloak. I believe that individual skins are given to babies when they are born and then the idea is to add to it as they grow and each pelt adds to the story of their family.
@888rachel@huvesaker Thanks It is a really beautiful piece of handiwork. I believe the ochre is found locally and ground down and mixed with some sort of liquid to paint on the pelts.
@lilminimonka Thanks Brianna. I agree it is impressive and the cloak tells the story of his people. The skins come from New Zealand. Australia introduced possums to New Zealand and now we are buying them back because they can't get rid of them quick enough. They are regarded as vermin in New Zealand.
Thanks for providing the narrative. I really enjoyed reading the linked material. When saw the photo, I thought quilt. Love the illustrations on the piece especially the owl.
@nanm@iwatts@angelar@dgrynn@paulaw@loweygrace@lynnz@eyesmile@ethelperry Thank you all so much. Mitch is a very talented young man. I am sure we will be hearing from him a lot in the future. I believe he does sell his possum pelts. This cloak though I believe is not for sale as it tells his family's story. The hand prints on the cloak are the prints of family members.
