Kanalaritja

kanalaritja: An Unbroken String celebrates the unique practice of Tasmanian Aboriginal shell stringing, one of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community’s most culturally significant and longest continuing cultural traditions.

Shell stringing is the Tasmanian Aboriginal community’s longest continued cultural practice. It was maintained by a small group of Pakana (Tasmanian Aborigines) on the Bass Strait Islands throughout the 20th century. The exhibition features shell necklaces created in the 1800s alongside contemporary works by today’s stringers, many of whom learned the tradition in cultural renewal workshops. The exhibition toured across Australia between 2017 and 2019.

The development and production of kanalaritja: An Unbroken String was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program, and the TMAG Foundation. TMAG acknowledges the generous support of lenders, including the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and Museum Victoria, which enabled the return of a 19th‑century necklace to Tasmania after more than 160 years.