Carrier Item Number: 3509/6 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Flexible basketry pouch, or carrier, woven from rattan strips. Opening is circular, base is hexagon-shaped. Coil decoration along top edge, protruding upward. Checkerboard pattern across sides. Squares consist of plain golden brown, black, and decorated. Designs in those squares are plain lines, mixed with bands full of zigzags; done in black. Identical decorated bands on base, along left and right sides. Rest of base is covered with plain horizontal and vertical lines. Woven straps on either side of pouch. They are tied together and threaded through two loops attached to the base. Black zigzags and “V’-shaped designs throughout straps.
Carrying basket; worn like a backpack, with straps over the shoulders.
Collected in Sarawak Malaysia by Grace Chatter, the mother of Ross Lea's wife, Jacqollyne. Grace (nee Soh) was born in Malaysia at the beginning of the last century, and was the daughter of a wealthy gold miner in Sarawak. She married a man from the British consulate, and brought the collection with her when she moved to Canada in her senior years.