Kakan (Baskets)

‘I born up the Gorge on the riverbank in a gunya [shelter]
and police come along look for all the half-caste kids, but
they hid me . . . In them baskets.’

– Wilma Walker

The baskets made by Wilma Walker, a senior member of the Kuku Yalanji people of Mossman Gorge, are called kakan. These conical-shaped baskets were used for food collection, storage, the leaching of poisons (from seeds) in fresh running water, and carrying personal possessions. Larger versions lined with soft paperbark were used to carry babies.

When Wilma Walker was young, many ‘mixed-race’ children were abducted from their families and housed in missions or raised on stations. Her family decided to hide her so that the police would not be able to take her away. They hid her in a basket like these and gave her seed pods to play with so she wouldn’t cry. In this way, they successfully thwarted the government authorities. Wilma remembers:

I was just playing with that [seed pods] when them police come say, “No-one here. No more kids. All gone . . . take ‘em all away”.  When they went, all next day . . . young bloke . . . always climb up on the tree look for police, no car. And the car come along, he climb up there and, “They’re coming” . . . they hide me, so nothing.

Walker began to weave baskets as an adult, encouraged by her husband to draw on her memory of the old times. She taught herself traditional weaving techniques by remembering the baskets her family used to make and her story about being hidden. Walker is one of only a few senior Kuku Yalanji women who continue to weave baskets in the traditional way.

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See also . . .

Learn about the artist Wilma Walker.
Learn about the community of Mossman Gorge.