women's past, present, future

"Elisa Jane Carmichael connects to her saltwater country of Yoolooburrabee through her paintings and weavings which have been exhibited around Australia and the world.

The Quandamooka woman from Moreton Bay in Queensland holds a degree in Fine Art and a Masters of Fine Art in Fashion at the Queensland University of Technology.

She was drawn to weaving and clothing as art forms while doing her Master’s degree and researching a museum collection.

Inspired by saltwater country, her products incorporate looping, twining and coiling techniques which are used all around Australia. But there is a specific Quandamooka weave loop and knot which she readily uses in her creations.

As well as exhibiting her work, Elisa holds workshops where she teaches her techniques and explains the theory, culture and history behind her work.

She has presented her university research at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and has been published in national and international publications.

‘I will continue to learn, research and develop my work as a Quandamooka fibre artist and painter,’ Elisa said.

"To many Aboriginal language groups across Australia, the Coalsack (a dark nebula next to the Southern Cross) represents the head of the Emu in the Sky, an Aboriginal “constellation” which stretches from the head to the body and legs, through the dark lanes in the Milky Way, to the constellation Scorpius... The word “constellation” is in quotes, because for many Aboriginal peoples, the dark patches in the sky, particularly the dark dust lanes in the Milky Way, are more important than the patterns of bright stars that form Western constellations.

The first mention of the Emu in literature was in 1873... gao-ergi “emu in the dark space under the tree” (we have taken this to mean that the “tree” is the Southern Cross, and the “dark space” is the Coalsack). Parker and Lang [in 1905 relate] the story of Gowargay, the featherless emu, who is the “devil” of waterholes, but goes to sky camp at night in the Coalsack. Gawarrgay is the ceremonial name for the Emu in the Sky, and dhinawan is the name for the “real” emu bird on the Earth.

There are two aspects of the Emu in the Sky [here], the first being stories connected to the Emu, and the second the significance of the Emu in ceremony and keeping of seasons.

A woman’s story tells children to:

"Look in the space between the stars, what do you see? What you’re looking at is an emu running, and when it runs, it sticks its neck out. When the old people saw this shape in the sky they knew that the emus were laying their eggs, so the old people would go out into the bush to find the eggs for food."

Aboriginal woman with her baby, in a canoe fishing with a line, c. 1805. (Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW)