Aboriginals have lived in Australia’s Northern Territory for 60,000 years. One of their everyday objects is an extraordinarily simple string bag made from natural handspun bush string. These societies use string bags in their everyday hunting, fishing and food gathering activities. String bags are specially designed for food that is wet or bloody, as it allows liquids to drain away by gravity. Its lightness is also adequate for ventilating the smells of raw meat or fish. Finally, the form of these bags is able to adapt to any content, and the structural capabilities of natural fiber insure the possibility of carrying heavy loads. The bag in the picture is about 56 cm. (22 in.) long, and it is made using centuries old hand weaving techniques. In aboriginal societies, hand weaving is produced by men and women for various purposes, including tight and open weave conical bags, netted string bags, fishnets, etc. Stylistic similarities and differences arise through family groups working together, availability of certain materials and dyes, influence of new material and dye sources, and the demands of the community. The word for bag varies slightly in most of the local languages: in Burarra, it is jerrk; in Ndjennana and Eastern Kunwinjku, it is djerrk; in Rembarrnga and Kune, it is djerrh, etc. The importance of bags –all types of bags- in modern Western societies is clearly explained by the primordial role bags have played in many primitive societies for thousands of years.
