Found on eBAY: NOT apple seed, NOT Tasmanian, NOT made by a Tasmanian Aboriginal maker.

SOLD: 13 Jun, 2010 – 21:07:04 AEST
2 Bids – Winning bid: AU $27.00
Click on the image to enlarge

This entry on eBAY was logged at 5.20 pm AEST on June 7
While the seller has given potential buyers some Internet sites to visit they seem to have been chosen for the contradictory and confusing information that they give. Indeed, the Hawkins' antique site is out of date. This is a case where science has proven that the seeds are NOT apple seeds and there is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER for the seeds themselves – Leucaena leucocephala – being imported into Tasmania or for there being any Tasmanian Aboriginal involvement in this class of work's manufacture.

Interestingly, there are reports of these seeds turning up in necklaces made by Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory where the Leucaena leucocephala plant is an invasive woody weed. It is worth noting that Leucaena leucocephala is a tropical plant that will not grow in Tasmania except under artificial conditions.

ipil seed Aboriginal Tasmania apple seed necklace

eBAY Find – May 2010 Australia

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Sadly this photograph does not give us a clear view of this necklace, nonetheless it bears all the hallmarks of Filipino/Palawan cultural production. It also provides further evidence of how deeply etched the "apple seed" misinterpretation is in the Globalised cultural imagination.

If something looks like something it is not always what it appears to be.

eBAY Find – May 2010 SA

To have your work copied is an unacknowledged mark of respect but it does seem that this seller is relying upon the information posted here to lend credibility to his sale. There is not much more to say about this find except what's been said on the site before.

fromj2u