June Colquhoun“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in baskets… I would still collect today if I saw an exceptionally good one.” June Colquhoun, 2014 June has been interested in collecting baskets for as longs as she can remember. Both her grandmother and her mother were also interested in basketry, and provided her with books of weaving practices that spurred her enthusiasm. She began her collection as a child, slowly building it piece by piece. Later in life, her husband’s job as an aerospace engineer took June too many different places around the world, including Nepal for five years, and India for four. In 1951, she also travelled to Darwin, eventually settling in Perth, Western Australia. Through each place she travelled, June looked to collect indigenous baskets that embodied traditions of the region. Her friends and family would also bring back baskets form their own travels to add to her collection. June’s baskets had to be used; they had to embody the every-day life of those who made them. “We would stop on the side of the road [while traveling] next to a woman carrying a basket on her head. I would get my son to jump out offer her 2 rupee for it.” June Colquhoun, 2014 Collecting such a large amount of baskets often required an understanding of how baskets were made and used in particular cultures. Most of all, June was fascinated with how basket weavers could create such intricate and well-made pieces while still living a highly traditional lifestyle. Now in Western Australian Museums World Cultures and Australian Ethnographic collections, June’s baskets can be cared for and exhibited for all to appreciate their diversity, pattern and design.