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A dillybag or dilly bag is a traditional Australian Aboriginal bag, generally woven from the fibres of plant species of the Pandanus genus.. It is used for a variety of food transportation and preparation purposes.
Dilly comes from the Jagera word dili, which refers to both the bag and the plants from which it is made.[1]
The dilly bag, otherwise known as yakou, yibali, or but but bag, is a bag worn around the neck to hold food like berries, meat, fish, etc. The Dilly bag is normally woven out of vines or tough dried grasses and sometimes had feathers or animal fur inside the bag to stop small pieces of food from falling through holes in the weave. Mainly used by women to gather food but can be used by men to help carry some tools for hunting.
Another use for the dilly bag (also named Mukurtu) was as a holder for personal or tribal artifacts. The "Dilly bag" term is also used to describe bags used by non-aboriginal Australians, for example, a smaller food bag carried by swagmen along with their swags.[2] The term is also used by Australians to describe similar bags for other purposes.
References
Further reading
- Dixon, R. M. W.; Moore, Bruce; Ramson, W. S.; Thomas, Mandy (2006). Australian Aboriginal Words in English: Their Origin and Meaning (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-554073-5.