I’d wanted to make a necklace like this for 15 years, after seeing an historic photograph of a Koorie woman wearing a kangaroo tooth necklace and a kangaroo tooth headband.

I also went to see two 19th century kangaroo tooth necklaces held in the collections at Museum Victoria.

My family helped me collect enough teeth from kangaroos found dead along the roads around Mildura and Broken Hill. Only two teeth from each kangaroo can be used. Finally, in 2008, I had enough teeth to make two large necklaces, like this one, one small necklace and two headbands.

Creating the necklace was both men’s and women’s business with Len Tregonning and Rocky Tregonning helping me by preparing the kangaroo leather and the kangaroo tail sinew. The sinew had to be moistened by mouth to make it supple and elastic before it could be used to fasten the teeth to the leather strips. As it dries, it shrinks, and the wrapping becomes tight and secure. The leather and sinew were also soaked in ochre.

MAREE CLARKE Mutti Mutti/Yorta Yorta

Further Information

TRANSCRIPT

MAN:

# Know who you are

# You could be this You could be that

# You could be anything and everything

# But I

# Most of all will be sailing

# Back to the country, yeah

# Back to the land

# The greatest secret

# And I'll wonder what I am

# Look how wonderful life turned out

# Your life's been blessed so far

# Your mother and your father have been blessed... #

INTERVIEWER: So how did you go about collecting the teeth?

MAREE CLARKE: Just went up to Warrakoo Station, up past Lake Victoria, with Len and two kids. We just basically stop at every dead kangaroo. Sometimes their teeth or their head isn't even there. So we'll just walk around and have a look and see if we can find the head and the jaw. If the jaw's all attached and stuff, in the head, sometimes you have to... crush the jawbone.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

MAREE CLARKE: And... pull the whole jaw out and then pull the teeth out. I had these teeth soaking for about three weeks, and they came out fairly easily, but normally, you know, you just bust up the jaw bones and pull 'em out.

INTERVIEWER: So, did you pull out the teeth?

MAREE CLARKE: Yep. Yep. You crush the skull. I've taught my nephew how to do it. He just needs to get a little bit heavier. He's only nine. But he loves it. So the tooth would sit in there like that.

INTERVIEWER: OK.

MAREE CLARKE: So that's... But then after soaking for weeks, I just pull it out. This takes a long time - to prepare the skin - 'cause you got to cut all the hair off, shave all the hair off. Because once you cut all that down, it's really prickly. And so, you don't want it sort of all being all prickly on your finger.

INTERVIEWER: So what inspired you to make them in the first place?

MAREE CLARKE: I guess being a jewellery maker. I made my living making jewellery when I first moved to Melbourne. And used to make necklaces out of echidna quills. And I saw the image of the kangaroo tooth necklace, like, years ago.

INTERVIEWER: Did you go into the Melbourne Museum and have a look at the old one?

MAREE CLARKE: At the old one?

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

MAREE CLARKE: Yep, which was absolutely beautiful. And so I took really detailed photos and replicated that to a tee, and Len and Rock prepared all of the skin for me. Because I see this as having quite a bit of men's business stuff and women's business stuff. You know, 200 years ago, I couldn't have... I can't imagine a woman going out, getting a roo, bringing it back by herself... skinning it, preparing the skin, chopping the tail off, getting the sinew out of the leg and the tail to make this. I just... I just can't imagine it.

(Man sings)

MAN: Bite?

MAREE CLARKE: So we shave all this hair off. This one's quite a long little one. This will be a whole little strip. I would mark out all the teeth. Cut little strips where that's going to be. Cut little tiny strips of leather. Feed that through, pop that in like that and bind it together. Now I've got to wash them all again. Separate them. Make sure I've got 75 beautiful teeth. Yeah, put the ochre on the leather. And sometimes if it gets too stiff with the ochre, then Len put emu oil on the last one and it just... it looked beautiful.

LEN: Softens it up.

MAREE CLARKE: Yeah. It becomes soft again like this one.

MAN:

# The greatest secret

# And I wonder what I am

# Look how wonderful life turned out... #

 (Laughing)

MAN:

# Your mother and your father have been blessed

# For all its worth with love and emotion

# For all its worth with love and emotion

# The shroud of love

# The shroud of hope

# The shroud of mystery

# And whatever you're gonna find that's true... #