Basket weaving

Item

Title

Basket weaving

Subject

Basket weaving in Botswana

Description

This item relates to the craft of basket weaving in Botswana and the objects from Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust's collections made with this technique, including woven hats.

SL 07:15
There used to be like an organised body that was buying our baskets. I was just questioning about the market. And the answer was they used to be an organised body that used to buy from us, but they're since... they're now out of business. So what I do is walking from house to house selling my baskets, and that's how I get to market my baskets...

SL 08:11
My question was the people who actually buy baskets are they locals are they like tourists or what is really happening. She said it's mostly Batswana who buy my baskets because they have a need for my baskets. They have usage. They use them. People who still use them at home. It's still a very useful or meaningful domestic utensil, the basket. So it is the locals who buy my baskets.
[extract from transcript by KL of MAC_BB_20190821_RPM9_basketmaking an interview by Scobie Lekhutile with basket maker Nchadinyana Teseletso]

SL 49:26
like the reason why I vote for the hat is because of the materials used with like you were saying. This is the same, same material that we find in our general people's baskets or basketry. Moretlwa bark and grass and looking at the material you can't say the item is lost, it clearly comes from this region because people are still weaving with it, with those materials.
[Scobie Lekhutile talking about the use of basketry techniques and materials used in making the hat R4007/61, from research interview MAC_BB_20190805_NS2, transcribed by KL]