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Eltham Secondary College students looking at the Apinis loom

Eltham Secondary College students looking at the Apinis loom

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Eltham Secondary College students looking at the Apinis loom
Copyright: Museum Victoria
Photographer: Rodney Start

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Museum Victoria

Looms are symbols of artistic skill, cultural maintenance and universal female traditions. This countermarch floor loom was made for Anna Apinis in a displaced person's camp in Germany, around 1947. The loom was brought to Australia when the family migrated in 1950, and used continuously by Anna, and then by her daughter Anita. They used it to weave traditional and experimental Latvian designs. Anita donated the loom to Museum Victoria, Melbourne, in 2006.

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Story objects

Handcrafts class, Latvia, 1931

Portrait of Anna Apinis, 1937

Ervins and Anna Apinis on their wedding day, 1938

Memmingen Displaced Persons Camp, Germany, c. 1945

Anna Apinis teaching weaving, 1948

Building at Parkes Holding Centre, NSW, 1950

Group of Women outside Parkes Holding Centre, NSW, 1950

Anna Apinis outside Parkes Holding Centre, NSW, 1950

Anita Apinis on her christening day, 1953

The Apinis family at Revesby, 1960

Welding workshop, Clyde Railway Station, 1960

International Day, c. 1960

Graduating class of Sydney's Latvian Primary School, 1963

Notes and drawings by Anna Apinis

Ervins Apinis' technical drawings for Anna's weaving loom, c. 1949

Kivicka Loom at the Immigration Museum

Kivicka Loom at the Immigration Museum (1)

Ervins Apinis demonstrating the unplying machine, 1998

Eltham Secondary College students looking at the Apinis loom

Kivicka Loom at the Immigration Museum (2)

Woven Rug - Zemgale region, Latvia

Length of red fabric - Nica Region, Latvia

Length of blue and yellow fabric - Zemgale Region, Latvia

Length of black fabric - Zemgale Region, Latvia

Length of fabric using ‘Auseklis’ motif - Zemgale Region, Latvia

Woven Belt - Zemgale Region, Latvia

The Apinis Loom