Shallow wooden carrier for very small children, made from a single, oval-shaped piece of wood with slightly upturned sides.
Baby carrier, Nyulnyul People, Kimberley Region, Western Australia, Australia This Nyulnyul baby carrier is a simple tool, but it was completely indispensable for women living in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia around a hundred years ago. It follows the basic form of shallow water dishes also carved in this region, and it enabled its Nyulnyul owner to carry her baby with her when she set out on foraging trips. Like many non-agricultural peoples around the world, the Nyulnyul traditionally practiced a ‘hunter-gatherer’ lifestyle, where women collected root vegetables, fruit, funghi, insects, shellfish, and slower reptiles. Baby carriers such as this, bound onto the back with belts of human hair or fabric traded in from Western or Asian sources, made such work possible for women still nursing their infants. Wood. Early 20th century.
