Corrie Fullard was born in 1931 on Flinders Island, the biggest of the Furneaux Islands, situated in Bass Strait. Having grown up watching her mother, father and grandparents gather, dry and clean shells before stringing them into necklaces, Fullard decided at the age of 16 that she would dedicate her life to continuing this tradition of shell necklace stringing. Fullard’s jewellery consists mainly of her favoured shell, the marineer shell. After collecting, the shells are cleaned to reveal a luminescent green finish and then fashioned into necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Other shells that she works with are the blackcrows, oats, rice, toothies, gulls and penguins.
Although known within Tasmania as a shell stringer, Fullard did not exhibit nationally until she entered her necklace, Jewel of the Sea in the 5th Indigenous Heritage Art Award at Old Parliament House, Canberra in 2000. In 2001 in an collaboration with her daughter, Jeanette James, she was selected as a finalist in the 18th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin. Her work is included in the permanent exhibition, “Strings Across Time”, at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. In 2003 the National Gallery of Australia included Fullard’s necklace in the exhibition “Tactility – Two Centuries of Indigenous Objects, Textiles and Fibre”, and in 2005 Brook Andrew included Fullard’s work in the exhibition, “Passage”, for the Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, New South Wales.
In 2000 Fullard began working closely and collaboratively with her daughter collecting, cleaning, stringing and exhibiting shell jewellery. In 2007 the Bett Gallery in Hobart exhibited the work of both women in the exhibition, “Corrie Fullard & Jeanette James”.
Retirement age did not slow Fullard from conducting residencies and workshops. In 2001 she was interviewed for the National Museum’s Oral History Project and from 2000 to 2006 she was a tutor in the Tasmanian Aboriginal Education Schools Visiting Program, where she conducted workshops in shell-working. She has also participated in residencies on Flinders Island and in Cockle Creek in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Fullard has conducted shell-stringing workshops at a number of festivals including Oyster Cove, Risdon Cove and Cygnet Festivals. Since 2005 she has participated in the annual Tasmanian Arts and Craft Fair. The year 2008 proved to be a year of travel for Fullard who, with her daughter, travelled to Woodford, Queensland, in June to conduct daily workshops at the Dreaming Festival and in September the women were invited to Kodiak Island, Alaska, to showcase their work as part of the Alutiiq Museum’s Visiting Artist Program.
Fullard is represented in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Australia; the Lake Macquarie City Gallery, New South Wales; the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; and the Museum and Art Gallery of Tasmania, Hobart.
Fullard was residing in Hobart in 2008.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2011
