Marinelle Basson
Keepsake Island

I imagine the first women who lived on this island made baskets. I imagine they collected keepsakes and carried them in a special basket. Their keepsakes may have been pretty shells, feathers, smooth pebbles, colourful leaves – reminders of simple but precious things and of favourite places.

As they walked to collect the grasses, reeds and bark for making the baskets, they may have walked from coastal dunes through dry eucalypt forests; maybe on through rainforests and up to alpine moorlands. They saw plants and animals that were on the island long before them: tree ferns, southern beeches, velvet worms, freshwater shrimp. They saw brightly coloured berries and flowers; they saw echidnas and wombats, heard parrots and honking emus. Their special baskets reflected the colours and textures of the land – the precious Island Life.

The sea that surrounds us defines the island, and locates it on the map of the world. It also protects the island. Tasmania – its plants, animals and people – is a keepsake to treasure.