Stunning  decorated Kimberley Boab nut Marine life 1970s

This is a stunning example of boab nut carving from the 1970s.   It a magnificant marine life scene including a shark, turtle and a variety of fish species.  It includes a display stand for easy display. 

Boab nut carving is a long-standing tradition among Indigenous communities in the Kimberley. It's something that’s been practiced for generations. There’s a good chance these carvings were originally made as gifts or trade items even before European settlement in the north Kimberley, though that’s still up for debate, since it’s hard to date the nuts precisely. Still, back in 1897, naturalist Saville Kent, and later Basedow in 1916, both described and photographed engraved boab nuts from the west Kimberley region.

Decorating boab nuts—whether through painting or carving—is a form of art that’s truly unique to the Kimberley. In his writings from 1897, Saville Kent noted that the designs carved into the nuts were rectangular and looked a lot like the patterns found on wooden tools and pearl shell objects from the area. By the time anthropologist McCaffrey visited the Kimberley, artists had developed a wide range of styles—from the traditional geometric and figurative designs to more detailed, naturalistic carvings.

Boab nuts are typically collected around April and May, once the shell starts to dry and harden. After that, they get brittle and start to crack, which makes them unusable for carving. To prep the nut, the outer fuzzy layer is rubbed off using sand, revealing the smoother, harder brown shell underneath. Carving is done with a sharp tool, scraping away the soft brown layer—kind of like a linocut—to uncover the lighter-colored shell below. Skilled community carvers can often tell who made a carving just by looking at the technique, the flow of the cuts, or the symbols used. And importantly, artists only carve what their culture gives them permission to carve.

19cm high x 11cm wide excluding stand 

Please view the photos carefully as they make up an important part of the description