Pandanus Story by Rhonda Duncan

“The pandanus is a very good and unique material to use. We use part of it for colouring/ dying, to make a basket or a dilly bag- putting all the food in, and they used to use it for fishing net. You can eat the nuts. So many things you can do with pandanus. If you want to make a basket or a dilly bag you have to go out and find the tree, take the leaves down, sit down, take the spikes out, strip it, dry it. After a while you have to do all the colouring. Many different colours can be found: red, yellow, orange, brown- you have to go and dig up the colour, and then get a bucket to get some water, make a fire, and boil it, and then put that pandanus in for half an hour or one hour to make that colour. Then you got to sit down and make the basket – that takes maybe three or four weeks. It’s a long process! My design tells that story of pandanus.”
“If you want to make a basket or a dilly bag you have to go out and find the tree, take the leaves down, sit down, take the spikes out, strip it, dry it.”