I N T H E P U B LI C DO M AI N : Y O M U T T U R K M E N R U G S A N D T R A P P I N G S AT T H E P O W E R H O U S E - TAASA Review December 2012

I N T H E P U B LI C DO M AI N : Y O M U T T U R K M E N R U G S A N D T R A P P I N G S AT T H E P O W E R H O U S E – TAASA Review December 2012

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This article was originally found in the December 2012 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 21, Issue 4, Page 19).

The full article is available for free to TAASA Members.

Christina Sumner T he Powerhouse Museum has recently received the very generous gift of a spectacular collection of rugs and trappings woven by women of the Yomut Turkmen nomadic group.

Brilliantly colourful, culturally expressive and technically skilled in their execution, this large and very special collection captures the essence of an independent people and their way of life. The ancestors of the Turkmen are said to have moved westwards into Central Asia from Mongolia around the 10th century.

Mostly tent-dwelling pastoral nomads who moved themselves, their flocks of sheep and goats, their camels and cherished horses with the changing seasons, the Turkmen were strongly independent and warlike, always regarding themselves as separate tribes rather than as a single nation...