Fiona Hughes is a Trawoolway, Tyereelore Woman from Tasmania who also has ties to the Bunurong people of Welcome River in Victoria. Fiona is a maker of Traditional Shell Jewellery and Bull Kelp vessels both of which are made in the same way the Ancestral Women of Tasmania have done for thousands of years.
Fiona looked beyond these Traditional crafts and combined both of these Traditional ways of the use of the Shells and Kelp into pieces of jewellery by adding shells to the stalk of the Bull Kelp and with this combination Fiona has made some extraordinary beautiful Contemporary pieces of Jewellery. Fiona is passionate about her Island Heritage and knows the importance of passing on these Traditional Crafts on to the younger ones, especially her granddaughters.
Here we see large Mariner Shells, combined with Tasmanian Black Crows and Penguin shells, threaded together to create not only a necklace but a unique piece of art.