Tied to landscape and culture, basket making is a diverse, international craft with overlapping traditions from around the world
y first foray into basket making started innocently. I found a kit at a craft fair, consisting of nothing but a needle, and a folded page of instructions and reams of raffia dyed in an ombre blue-grey. The picture on the front of the box showed a woven pot housing a rubbery succulent. The instructions were simple and I quickly found myself in a methodical rhythm, a coil of raffia slowly growing, curving, taking shape under my fingers.
“I think she wanted me to learn because she knew how important it would be for me for later on in life when I really wanted to take on more cultural journeys with it,” Leatham says. “It’s part of how I connect with my culture, my ancestors before me, with all the natural traditional materials from country – the gifts I get given, which I make with respect and honour.
“You’ve really got to sit down with elders or you know, ones like myself, and learn the stories and connect that way. And then it’s beautiful to see someone else go off and create – not for profit, but to create in their own way and put their own journey into it,” Leatham says.When she teaches non-Indigenous people, Leatham sometimes brings native plants out, to highlight the relationship between the craft and the natural world.
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