- In short: Palawa artist Jeanette James has created a series of eagle claw necklaces to highlight the plight of endangered birds electrocuted in powerlines.
- What's next?: One of her pieces has been selected for Australia's most prestigious Indigenous art awards.
In a small studio in Hobart, Jeanette James is deftly working a needle and thread through a hole in a tiny, iridescent shell.
Once it's in place, the 70-year-old moves another shell along the thread, and then another and another.
"You get your eye in and get into a little zone, and off you go," she says, as a necklace slowly begins to take shape in her hands.
For generations, palawa women like herself have been crafting jewellery from maireener shells collected in the shallows surrounding the Furneaux islands off Tasmania's north-east coast.
"I was passed on this skill, or craft, from my mother, who [had it] passed down to her from her family members," Ms James said.
It's considered one of the few Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural practices that have continued uninterrupted since European colonisation.
But Ms James, whose work has been exhibited in galleries around the world, hasn't limited her necklace-making to shells.
As part of an unusual collaboration, she was recently given the opportunity to work with the claws of eagles.
Over the past two years, more than 50 threatened birds have been found dead after coming into contact with powerlines in Tasmania.
They include white-bellied sea eagles and grey goshawks.
But most of the deaths have been wedge-tailed eagles – the largest raptor in the country.
In Tasmania, fewer than 1,000 of the endangered birds are believed to be left in the wild.
Many of the carcasses are brought to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), where they're analysed for burn marks and other injuries and illnesses.
"The work that we're doing is helping us to understand the cause of death of these individual birds," TMAG's senior curator David Hocking said.
That information is then shared with the state's electricity distributor, TasNetworks, which implements mitigation measures, such as bird flappers that hang on powerlines in areas considered high-risk.
TMAG only retains a small amount of the entire bird for its ongoing research, with the remainder of the carcass usually disposed of.
That was until an idea was hatched to provide the leftover specimens to First Nations artists who were preparing works for a TMAG exhibition called taypani milaythina: Return to Country.
For Ms James, the opportunity to work with eagle claws was one not to be missed.
But it also left her feeling confronted by the reality of how the birds had died.
"Looking at what was happening was really, really sad," she said.
"I thought, well, if nothing else, the necklace I make hopefully will cause a conversation and support the good work that they're doing, looking at how to protect wildlife species in Tasmania."
One of her eagle claw necklaces has since been selected for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, which will be held in Darwin in August.
Among the dozens of finalists chosen for the prestigious awards, she was the only one from Tasmania.
"Pretty thrilled, I was very happy," she said.
Those involved in the collaboration with Ms James were also delighted.
"It's fantastic to be able to see these specimens and these parts of these amazing animals that were unfortunately not going to be used for anything here, and to give them essentially a new life," Dr Hocking said.
"[It] lets us share the story of these birds and help get people to be more aware of some of the threats that they're facing in the wild.
"And to see such a beautiful object that is so different to the types of museum specimens we would normally produce, it's really quite amazing."
As part of its threatened bird strategy, TasNetworks has recently extended a partnership with TMAG, providing $100,000 in funding for bird necropsies and other research over the next two years.
"We've made a commitment to protecting the environment and conservation outcomes," TasNetworks environment and sustainability specialist Mahalia White-McColl said.
She said mitigation devices had been installed on about 5 per cent of powerlines in areas identified as high-risk.
Ms James said anything to protect the endangered raptors was worth trying.
"I'm sure the majority of people wouldn't be aware of how many are dying," the artist said.
"And the thing we need to do is help try and mitigate those deaths."
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Tasmanian Aboriginal artist Jeanette James creates eagle claw necklaces to highlight birds' plight - ABC News
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