Wrapped in Country
This wall draws together designs that reflect Country – Gunditjmara Lands in the west and Yorta Yorta in the northeast of Victoria.
These designs were engraved into the skins of two nineteenth century possum skin cloaks that now rest in the Museum. They are the only two full cloaks from this region, and this time period, left remaining in the world. To preserve them for future generations, we are only displaying one cloak at a time.
We thank the Elders of the Gunditjmara and Yorta Yorta who have helped us to share the cloaks and given their cultural knowledge and stories. We also acknowledge the guidance and support of the Gunditj Mirring and Yorta Yorta Nations Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation.
Gunditjmara Koormookyan
The Gunditjmara kooramookyan holds special significance in our hearts. It brings pride to our people, it is a spiritual experience as we make connection with our ancestors who made it. It was these ancestors who gave the vision to bring possum cloaks back to live in community. This vision sparked a cultural revitalisation “fire” that brought the Lake Condah cloak and the Yorta Yorta cloak together to bring about the return of possum cloaks as living cultural practice back in community across south-eastern Australia.
Our Gunditjmara kooramookyan, also known as the Lake Condah possum skin cloak, was made by 7 men from 7 families of our Gunditjmara family clans. At the time of making, the men and their families were resident on Lake Condah Mission, near Heywood in south west Victoria. Our beloved historical cloak was collected from here in 1872 and brought to the museum. It is made of 50 brushy tailed kooramook(possum) skins and sewn together with poorooyt (kangaroo sinew). The holes for stitching were made with keerndeeyn (bone awls). The designs were carved into the skins with sharpened tools such as teemboon (mussel shells) or a pareeyt-pareeyt (stone knife). Some of the skins have been decorated with paleep (red ochre) sourced from along the Wannon River north of Lake Condah.
karpa-n watnanda kooramook-meeyt-a
poorppyt-a
karraparr-n meeyt-ee-a teemboon-a
Language Gunditjmara