crafts: Asia and the Pacific 257 Carrying One’s Life in Australia Most medieval Australians were nomadic, moving in small groups through territories shared with other small groups In some places such as forests, the nomads had a fair amount of certainty that if they moved with the changing seasons, they would find seasonal foods each place they journeyed In other cases their lives consisted of constant movement across the land, always searching for food and water They needed to carry with them food, water, and small personal belongings, such as magical objects and symbols of status Their solutions for satisfying their needs are examples of the ingenuity of people and how human beings creatively exploit even small opportunities in their environment For instance, in eastern Australia, bags were made out of bark A section of bark was folded in half, holes were made along the edges where they met, and cane was used to stitch the edges together Resin was used to seal the bark so that the bag could carry water In Arnhem Land in northern Australia, people made bags out of bark, but they seem to have preferred bags made of green palm leaves for most of their carrying needs They harvested fresh palm leaves and folded the leaves so that their edges aligned The bottom end of the stalk was folded inward, and the loose ends were sewn together These bags were often decorated, with ochre being favored for making the designs More common in Australia were baskets of a variety of shapes made of woven grasses, often with human hair woven into them These served for general tasks of carrying but also were used by both men and women to carry magical and other personal objects Men’s baskets were decorated with bird down and feathers—brightly colored feathers were preferred Both men and women’s baskets were decorated with images of sacred places or of trees and streams Frequent use of the baskets would have rubbed off the images, which suggests the baskets were not opened and closed often, although it is possible that rubbedoff images were just replaced with new ones were used for carrying food or small items To carry water, Australians used sacks made from possum or kangaroo skins These were sewn with sinew, using small kangaroo bones as needles The insides of the skins were lined with bark, and then skin and bark were soaked, releasing tannins from the bark into the skin The tannins acted as preservatives and helped prevent the skin from fouling the water After the soaking, the skin was rubbed vigorously to soften it Elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific baskets were used for food storage In the streams of Southeast Asia people used baskets to dip into the water to catch fish In most areas almost everyone was expected to know how to make baskets, but in India basketry was a recognized trade of special craftspeople Usually women, Indian basket makers worked with many kinds of grasses, most commonly those found growing in or near water The basket makers gathered the materials themselves Their products could be very sophisticated, especially the boxes householders used to store valuables, laundry, spices, and other everyday articles With loose weaves the craftspeople created sacks, and with tight weaves they fashioned sandals They made mats used to line roofs, to cover Ivory throne leg; Eastern Ganga Dynasty, Orissa, India, 13th century (Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Charles Lang Freer)