Skins Cloak - Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll

Skins Cloak is about the making of possum skin cloaks in Australia. 30 people perform the ways in which their Aboriginal Ancestors made and used these objects.

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Displayed on 7 channels (which this short sample above shows) these videos were exhibited in various ways at the National Museum of Australia and Homebase Berlin. Produced by a large Arts Victoria grant this is the first of a series of complex and long term art-research projects on decolonisation, in which I work with a community of people to produce performances for a film.

Skins Cloak was the outcome of collaboration (2007-2013) with the film team I directed to propose to move the Koori women’s cloak making into the discursive spaces of contemporary art. My method of open-endedness will be used to tell all the different stories I learned in the process of making a film about possum skin cloaks. The film similarly does not select one argument to make but details divergent perspectives on the possum skin cloak’s history and significance.

The sound sources heard in the video are:
1. Synchronized sound from the performances and conversations in the studio in Melbourne in 2000-2011, scripted over the period of 2007-2010
2. Children of the Wasteland, Black and White/Monochrome, 24 minutes, 1953
3. A Symphony of Australian Birds, Simtrax Studios

The Skins Cloak credits are as follows: Directors: Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll with Vicki Couzens, Alex Schweder, Lee Darroch and Maree Clarke

Producers: Arts Victoria Creative Development Fund, Koorie Heritage Trust, and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Cinematography: Kasimir Burgess

Sound Design: Joel Stern

Still Photography: Melanie Wigg

Catering, Runner: Alex McLean

Props and Costume: Len Tregonning

Songs: Rob Bundle

Editing: Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Alex Schweder

Performers: Kamahi Djordan King & The Bushette, Lee Darroch, Maree Clarke, Vicki Couzens, Rob Bundle, Yaraan Bundle, Kent Morris, One Fire Aboriginal Dance Group led by John Tye, Anjee Lee Solomon, Robert Bamblett, Aaron Clarke, Evie Clarke, Robert Bamblett Jnr with Anjee Lee Soloman, Manarra Bamblett, Keanu Bundle, Jarrah Bundle, Indie Bundle Bell, Ethan Bundle Bell.

For more see Art in the Time of Colony, Chapter 1