Born in Launceston in 1952, shell necklace stringer, Jeanette James, collected shells with her sister for their mother, Corrie Fullard , since early childhood. From 1961 to 1967 the two sisters would help their mother make shell ornaments that were sold at a local shop. Though she had been working with shells all her life, she did not create her first necklace until she attended a 1989 workshop at Orford on the east coast of Tasmania. Nor did she exhibit in any major exhibition until she was accepted as a finalist with her work, kanalaritja (mariner shell necklace) in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2000; she went on to won the 3D category of this award. In 2007 another of her necklaces, Trimanya was short-listed for that year’s Telstra awards and was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery.
Her necklaces continue the tradition of Tasmanian Aboriginal women who, says James in her artist statement, “crafted these beautiful necklaces to wear on special occasions and to trade with other tribes for items such as ochre and tools.” James and her mother travel widely around the coastlines of Tasmania, including the islands of Bass Strait, collecting shells which are then cleaned in readiness for necklace creating. This collecting and cleaning process may sometimes take up to eight months. The shells that both these women favour are the mariner (sometimes spelt marineer), blackcrows, oats, rice, toothies, gulls and penguins.
James has exhibited her work in a number of exhibitions including the group show “Singular & Multiple: New jewellery from Tasmania”, curated by Kate Rhodes and Brian Parkes and held at the Henry Jones Art Hotel in Hobart in 2007. Also that year she exhibited with her mother in the exhibition “Corrie Fullard & Jeanette James” at the Bett Gallery in Hobart. In 2008 she participated in the group show “Island of Inspiration: new jewellery from Tasmania” with Indigenous and non-Indigenous jewellers including her aunt Dulcie Greeno, at Metalab in Surry Hills, Sydney.
Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; the Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Speers Point, New South Wales; the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Queensland Art Gallery.
In 2008 she was living and working in Hobart, Tasmania. At this time she also sat on the board of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2011
