Baby Carrying in Possum and Kangaroo Skin Cloaks

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander poeples are advised that this article contain images and names of people now passed.

Skin cloaks were often the main items of clothing worn by Aboriginal people throughout south-eastern and western Australia as these temperate zones were much cooler than the northern parts of Australia. They were worn for warmth and rain protection, used as baby carriers, coverings at night and for burial. Cloaks were also used in many other ceremonial and spiritual settings such as initiation ceremonies, marriages, graduations, baby naming, and connection to country. Cloaks were highly treasured and told stories of belonging, community and spirituality, 

The cloaks were made from the skins of possums, kangaroos, wallabies, and other fur bearing animals.  Possum skin was commonly used on the south-eastern side of the Australia and in some areas of the south-western side, in  south-east Queensland to Tasmania and across to the south-western areas of Western Australia. Brush tail possums were the species most commonly used for possum skin cloaks.  Possum fur was prized as the fibres are hollow and the fur has excellent thermal properties to keep the wearer  warm or cool and the fur doesn’t freeze.

The process to make the cloaks were complex, labour intensive, and often time consuming with some variations in how they were made across the regions.  The cloaks  and sewn together with kangaroo sinew, and were often coloured with ochre.  In Australia’s south-east, Aboriginal children were birthed into a small possum skin cloak, made of four or five possum skins that were stitched together. Added skins and designs would shape the cloak over a lifetime and become a burial cloak upon death. Cloaks could comprise fifty or more skins. 

In New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia the skins were shaped into square pelts and then sewn together. In Western Australia the skin’s used were mainly kangaroo and the whole skin was sewn together with another leaving the tail to hang at the bottom of the cloak. The cloaks from Western Australia are called Buka or Boka.

With time, a cloak became more than an item of clothing. Designs were incised into the leathery side of the skin depicting symbols important to the wearer and their clan group and each combination was unique to an individual.  Designs could include naturalistic figures, cross hatching, wavy lines, diamonds, zig zags and other geometric patterns. Each family had their own design which helped to identify who the owner was.  Symbols marking important events or milestones such as initiatory rites of passage made the cloak a marker of identity and a visual biography.

With the introduction of European style clothing and with the annual issuing of blankets from the Crown in 1814 the manufacture and use of skin cloaks began to cease.  Some Aboriginal women adapted the blankets for use as a baby carrier.  However, the issuing of these blankets to the Aboriginal community  caused them to suffer more from the cold, and respiratory illnesses as they did not provide the same waterproof qualities and warmth as the skin cloaks.  

Teenminnie, a Ngarrindjeri mother in a possum skin cloak carrying her toddler on her back, Adelaide region, South Australia, circa. 1870s.
​
Collection: State Library of Victoria
Photographer: Samuel White Sweet from Samuel Sweet/Library of Harry Grattan-Guinness (1825–1886)

Mum and bubs in kangaroo skin cloak, Adelaide, South Australia, circa. 1860s-70s.
Photo credit: Otto von Hartitzsch.

Marie of the Bunyong (possibly Boonwurrung or Buninyong) tribe in possum skin cloak, and child, 1878. Humpy (a temporary shelter also known as a are also known as gunyah, wurley, wurlie, or goondie) is shown in the background.
​Photo credit: Fred Kruger.

Mother and child, probably Perth area, Western Australia, circa. 1860s.
Photo credit: Manning & Knight.

Mother and child in a kangaroo skin cloak, Murray River region, South Australia, late 1800s.
Photo credit: Henry Yorke Lyell Brown

Ngarrindjeri mother and baby in a kangaroo pelt cloak, Adelaide region, South Australia, pre-1893.
Photo credit: Crump & Co.

Early photo of mother with two children, Adelaide, South Australia, 1860s-70s.

Photo credit: Bernard Goode. (Ididj Australia) ​

Mother carrying her child on her back in typical fashion, kangaroo pelt cloak evident, Adelaide, South Australia, 1874-79.

Photo credit: The Adelaide School of Photography.

Maggie Arnott and child, Gippsland tribe, Victoria, 1878.
Photo credit: Fred Kruger.

Jemima Wandin holding Robert wandin jnr, Coranderrk, Goulbourn.  Photo credit: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/173153306205384/permalink/810597579127617/​

Hariet & Rose, Goulburn & Ballarat Tribe. Studio portrait of two Aboriginal Australian women: Whole-length, woman on left wrapped in a blanket, with dilly bag over her shoulder, woman on right, wrapped in a possum skin cloak, standing holding a staff, a baby on her back also wrapped in a fur. Author/Creator: Kruger, Fred, 1831-1888, photographer. (attributed). Date:  possibly 1878

Annie Hamilton, Coranderrk, late 1800s.  You can read more about the woman in this photograph here https://australianmidwiferyhistory.org.au/separation-protectionism-1837/

Original photograph of a woman and her child captured by Nicholas Caire at the Lake Tyers settlement in 1886.

Florence Moffatt carrying Gladys Edwards on her back, Lake Tyers, Victoria, 1880s.
​Source: Indidj Australia

Mum and baby girl  at Mt Margaret mission, Western Australia, 1923. Source: IDIDJ Australia

There are more photos of mother from the Golburn region (Victoria) wearing their babies here - ​https://www.facebook.com/groups/1630898903860281/posts/3731087850508032/

An aboriginal Mother, carrying her baby on her back, taking food obtained from the Tea and Sugar train back to her wurley (a shelter or hut, made of branches and leaves). The Tea and Sugar Train (also known as Slow Mixed Goods Train No. 5205) was a specific train that provided service to isolated Australian towns on the Nullarbor Plain between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta along the Trans-Australian Railway.  Date: late 1930s.  Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

If you have any more photos or information about babywearing with skin cloaks that you would like to share, send me a message and I'll add it to this post (or leave a comment below).

Sources and Further Reading:
https://www.facebook.com/NGVMelbourne/posts/for-many-people-around-the-world-this-week-might-have-been-their-first-time-seei/952647460231878/

​https://museumsvictoria.com.au/article/the-timeless-and-living-art-of-possum-skin-cloaks/

​https://netsvictoria.org.au/artist/possum-skin-cloak-story/

​https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/possum-skin-cloak

https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/possum-skin-cloaks-then-and-now/

https://www.facebook.com/ididjaustralia/photos

​https://www.southernnaturalparentingnetwork.org/around-the-world-in-a-baby-carrier/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-country-kin-and-cloaks

​https://www.abc.net.au/news/deeptime/topic/clothing-and-jewellery/possum-skin-cloaks/

https://waramisydney.org/2020/03/03/update-current-work/ This article contains lots of information about how the cloaks were made plus some historical details.

​https://theconversation.com/what-designers-can-learn-from-aboriginal-possum-skin-cloaks-38655

​https://www.facebook.com/ididjaustralia/