Australian First Nations People

Kangaroo Tail Skin Blanket, Coranderrk Mission, Victoria.

The blanket featured in the images originates from Coranderrk Mission, Victoria.
This blanket or wrap is made of strips of hide from kangaroo tails.
Many different hides can feature on these wraps, such as possums, kangaroos or macropods, koalas and more giant marsupials.
Circa the late 19th Century to the early 20th Century, it measured 2 metres long X 90cm wide.
The backing is soft like hessian.
Coranderrk Reserve was a farming community from 1863 to 1924 spread over 2300 acres where a community of hundreds would live there at any one time.
Coranderrk was a popular tourist destination, and the sale of baskets, bags, boomerangs and skin rugs made by women and older men contributed significantly to the station’s income.
Coranderrk’s woven goods, which were particularly admired, were stocked by a Collins Street shop in 1869.
Every person, every artifact, and everything has a story; it tells us the past.
We must hang on to these stories forever.