Boab Carvers { 46 images } Created 8 Dec 2018
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following images may contain images of deceased persons.
Today many Aboriginal artists of the Kimberley use boab tree nuts for carvings and paintings.
When the dark surface of the boab nut is scratched away it reveals a light colour underneath.
Large and regular shaped nuts are more popular but the smaller nuts are used, too. What is most important is the time of harvest. The nut has to dry on the tree, but needs to be picked rather than fall on the ground where it will most likely crack.
Motives include highly detailed faces, usually the much lined faces of Aboriginal elders, and native animals like snakes, kangaroos, birds and others, set in local landscapes.
Individual artists have individual styles, the preferred motives and the preferred nut shape vary. The colour, size and hardness of the nuts depends on the location of the tree... A carved boab nut is intimately connected to the region where both the artist and the tree grew up... What better souvenir to take home from the Kimberley?
Every boab tree is unique. They have character and personality as you would expect of such an ancient creature. Some individual boab trees are 1500 years old and older, which makes them the oldest living beings in Australia, and puts them amongst the oldest in the world.
Aboriginals used the giants as shelter, food and medicine. For the white settlers they served as easily recognisable land marks and meeting points, and not to forget as impromptu prison cells.
(Text from Outback Australia travelguide)
©Ingetje Tadros
Today many Aboriginal artists of the Kimberley use boab tree nuts for carvings and paintings.
When the dark surface of the boab nut is scratched away it reveals a light colour underneath.
Large and regular shaped nuts are more popular but the smaller nuts are used, too. What is most important is the time of harvest. The nut has to dry on the tree, but needs to be picked rather than fall on the ground where it will most likely crack.
Motives include highly detailed faces, usually the much lined faces of Aboriginal elders, and native animals like snakes, kangaroos, birds and others, set in local landscapes.
Individual artists have individual styles, the preferred motives and the preferred nut shape vary. The colour, size and hardness of the nuts depends on the location of the tree... A carved boab nut is intimately connected to the region where both the artist and the tree grew up... What better souvenir to take home from the Kimberley?
Every boab tree is unique. They have character and personality as you would expect of such an ancient creature. Some individual boab trees are 1500 years old and older, which makes them the oldest living beings in Australia, and puts them amongst the oldest in the world.
Aboriginals used the giants as shelter, food and medicine. For the white settlers they served as easily recognisable land marks and meeting points, and not to forget as impromptu prison cells.
(Text from Outback Australia travelguide)
©Ingetje Tadros
