Aboriginal Cultural Activities

The skin covering the head is very difficult to remove; since it is not useful as a sewing material, the head is cut off.

Slide your fingers under the skin and rotate around to start the separation.

The fins present a problem if the skin is peeled back too quickly. Carefully pull the fins out and expose the tissue attaching the fins to the muscles. The fins will remain part of the peeled skin. If the skin is not to be removed as a cylinder, this care may not be necessary.

Continue to push your fingers down the body, rotating around the circumference to release the connective tissue.

After the skin is peeled back to the caudal fin, the body is cut from the tail.

The skin is completely removed from body and turned inside out.

Some flesh may remain on the skin. It can be removed with a scraping tool. A spoon works well. Since no chemicals are used to preserve the skin, it is recommended to remove as much attached tissue as possible, but some amounts will remain.

After scraping off the attached flesh, wash both sides in water.

The cylinder requires a material to be inserted inside to absorb moisture and have the fishskin dry without excessive wrinkles. The quality of the final dried skin requires attention to this process.

The fishskin is still moist but now it is stuffed and ready to dry. The absorbent material may be changed several times to assist drying.

Attach a string around the caudal fin and suspend for drying. It may take a day to dry. Once dried it can be used to make dolls or containers for artifacts. If worked by rubbing between your hands it can be given an interesting texture and some of the stiffness can be removed from it. The skin is now ready for some interesting artwork to be accomplished.