Garry Warwee

b. 1975

87 x 42cm

Wood, Pandanus Spiralis, natural bush dyes

In the Dreamtime, Wak, the Ancestral Crow Man, taught the people how to build barriers across a stream using saplings, mud and grass, leaving a gap in the middle from which a conical basket floated, secured on each side by bush rope tied to a sapling. The Mandjabu is only used at certain times of the year - towards the end of the wet season, when the fish are fat, for fat is much prized. At the end of each wet season (April/May), the trap is set up at the same time, across a small shallow creek.

First a barrier of saplings, grass, mud and paperbark is erected across a creek, with a small opening left in the middle. Barramundi, catfish and Saratoga fish, which are the most plentiful species in Arnhem Land, swim upstream through this gap. Then when the tide turns,, the conical basket, with the removals le, cone shape piece inserted and tied onto the basket is lashed to a sapling on each side of the gap, so that it floats with the tide running out. The men designated to look after the trap wait patiently for the fish to swim into the basket.