Mare I is the Kunwinjku word for woven mat. These mats were sometimes worn, used in ceremony and on the ground but traditionally without colour. Encouraged by missionaries who had seen coloured mats in the South Pacific regions, women with knowledge of plants and their medicinal properties experimented to extract colour.

Yellow - orange: Mandjurndum (the bright orange roots of the Pognolobus reticulatus bush)

Brown: Wirdilwirdil (the red bulb of Haemadorum breviculae grass)

Green: The growing shoot of the pandanus itself (Pandanus spiralis), boiled with the ashes of the pandanus leaves.

Purple - pink: Windilk ( the seeds of the Haemodorum coccineum plant, related to Kangaroo Paw)

Grey - Black: Manbedde (the leaves of the quinine bush, Petalostigma pubescens)