The Briggs Family Tea Service represents the marriage of George Briggs, a free settler to Tasmania, to Woretermoeteyenner of the Pairrebeenne people, and the four children they had together. The tea service brings together the materials common for water holding to each culture: porcelain in Britain and bull kelp in Tasmania, representing the beginnings of a hybrid culture.

Trent Jansen’s Tea Service consists of a teapot, milk jug, sugar bowl and three cups. Each piece of the set represents a member of the Briggs Family, formed during the turbulence of the early decades of colonial Van Diemen’s Land. The teapot and sugar bowl represent the parents; father, George Briggs of Dunstable in Bedfordshire, and mother, Woretermoeteyenner of the Pairrebeenne people of north-east Van Diemen’s Land.

Woretermoeteyenner, born in the mid-1790s, was an important member of the Pairrebeenne people; her father was Mannalargenna, the leader of the Pairrebeenne. By 1810, Woretermoeteyenner was living with George Briggs, bearing five children to him in the decade that followed. Jansen pursued relationships with the best makers of traditional processes for all elements of the tea service, bringing together experts in the materials used by both cultures.