Internationally renowned weaver, Yvonne Koolmatrie was born in 1944 in the small town of Wudinna located in central Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. She grew up in the Meningie/Coorong and Riverland districts of South Australia.
She began her weaving career after attending a workshop in 1982 that was facilitated by the South Australian Museum and presented by Point McLeay elder and weaver Aunty Dorothy Kartinyeri who taught the workshop participants coiling techniques and which plants to use and how to work the plant fibres into a form suitable for weaving. Dorothy Kartinyeri passed away soon after presenting at this workshop. Koolmatrie found weaving helped her in her healing in overcoming the death of her son. Out of this tragedy Koolmatrie has gone on to become one of Australia’s most important weavers and is internationally recognised as such.
Her most recognisable weavings are of eel traps, turtles, mats, bowls and biplanes. She also works her peoples Dreaming stories of the Wuluwan (River Bunyip), the Prupi (Child Stealer) and the Rainbow Serpent into woven forms.
Her exhibiting career began in earnest when her work was included in the 1987 exhibition 'Ngarrindjeri Art and Craft’ at the South Australian Museum. In 1989 she showed in the 'Ngarrindjeri Basketry and Painting’ exhibition at the Jam Factory in Adelaide and in 1990 she was included in 'Look At Us Now: South Australian Aboriginal Artists’ at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute and in 1991 Tandanya showed her work in 'Two Countries, One Weave’ which was followed by 'Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition’ at the Art Gallery of NSW that toured to the National Gallery of Victoria and Tandanya. These were followed in 1993 by 'Yanada New Moon’ at Ivan Dougherty Gallery with Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Sydney and 'Murrundi: Three River Muray Stories’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia in Adelaide. In 1995 Koolmatrie’s work was included in Goulburn Regional Art Gallery’s 'Below the surface’ exhibition which toured nationally in 1996. Also in 1995 Queensland Art Gallery included her in their exhibition 'Working the River’. In 1997 Koolmatrie participated in the residency and group exhibition 'Off Shore: Onsite’ at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. This show brought together Indigenous visual artists from around Australia and the world as part of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games’ 'Festival of the Dreaming’.
These exhibitions were followed by her entree into the international art world when in 1997 Hetti Perkins, Brenda L Croft and Victoria Lynn selected Koolmatrie as one of the participants in their jointly curated exhibition 'fluent’ that was shown at the 1997 Venice Biennale in Italy. The other artists included in 'fluent’ were Judy Watson and the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Perkins wrote of Koolmatrie’s eel traps that were displayed in 'fluent’ that they “have an inherent gracefulness and balance which markedly distinguishes them from other versions. It is Koolmatrie’s intuitive process that allows the sculptural potential of the eel trap to be realised in spirited interpretations of traditional forms.” Later in the essay Perkins explains that some of Koolmatrie’s woven objects “have not been created for almost a century; a sign of the colonial dislocation of Indigenous cultural practices.” (Perkins, 1997, AGNSW)
In 1998 after her success at Venice, Koolmatrie was curated into 'Mapping Identity’ at the Centre for Contemporary Craft in Sydney (and a national tour) and in 1999 she was included in 'Spinifex Runner at Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery (now known as Campbelltown Arts Centre).
Brenda L Croft included Koolmatrie in 'Beyond The Pale’ at the Art Gallery of South Australia for the 2000 Adelaide Biennale. Other artists included in 'Beyond The Pale’ were Ian Abdulla, Destiny Deacon, Julie Dowling, Lola Greeno, Gordon Hookey, Gertie Huddleston, Kitty Kantilla, Abraham Mongkorrerre, Clinton Nain, Rosella Namok, Mitjili Napurrula, Lennah Newson, Jimmy Njiminjuma, Lena Nyadbi, Kathleen Petyarre, Rea, Ginger Riley, Michael Riley, Darren Siwes, Ken Thaiday Sr, Long Tom Tjapanangka, Judy Watson, Joyce Winsley and Pedro Wonaeamirra.
Having reached the highest levels of art exhibiting, Koolmatrie has not forgotten her local and the national community. She has exhibited in smaller exhibitions such as 2002s 'What’s Going On: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Murray Darling Region’ at the Mildura Arts Centre in Mildura, Victoria, in the 2006 'Our Mob’ exhibition at the Adelaide Festival Centre and the 2009 national touring exhibition, 'Re Coil: Change & Exchange in Coiled Fibre Art’ in 2009.
Koolmatrie also works as an arts educator presenting workshops in traditional rush weaving techniques for the Nalta Ruwe Aboriginal Corporation in Glossop, South Australia as well as conducting workshops in arts and community centres across Australia including Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, where she has also advised on the planting of a 'Weaving Garden’. Koolmatrie has said that in her experience “weaving connects people, bring them together. At workshops you attract people from all over to learn together, and a strong exhibition can become the focus for a serious workshops and instruction.” (Koolmatrie, 2000, pg 43)
Koolmatrie has works in the collections of the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, the South Australian Museum, the National Museum of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.
In 2009 Koolmatrie was living and working in Berri, South Australia
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
ecwubben
allast
Olivia Bolton
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2012
