WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following may contain images and names of deceased persons.

Going to Arnhem Land has always been a life goal. And learning basket weaving has always been an interest of mine. In 2016 I had an incredible opportunity to combine the two goals into one amazing adventure. 

For five amazing days I embarked on the Indigenous Weaving Journey run by Rene Bahloo of Weavery. [http://weavery.com.au/]. Along with fellow participant, Betsy Mills, we stayed in Jabiru and traveled into Arnhem Land each day, across the crocodile infested Cahill’s Crossing, to the community of Gunbalanya.

In Gunbalanya, we met Priscilla Badari, Sylvia Badari and Christine Nabobbob who were our teachers, companions and friends for the adventure. All three women are very talented weavers and artists working with Injalak Arts Gunbalanya. [http://injalak.com/]

Each day was an epic experience where we learnt a million things about a million things from our knowledgeable, patient and generous teachers – connection to land, indigenous culture, dreamtime, people, the bush, plants, language, weaving, harvesting, art, screenprinting, women’s business… to name a few.

Most days we squeezed into a trusty troopie to adventure around bush to collect resources for weaving – roots and seeds to make dyes, hook sticks to harvest the pandanas, the pandanas for the fiber and wood for the fire. Then spent the rest of the day grinding and boiling up the dyes, splitting the pandanas (I never mastered this skill, despite patient instruction from EVERY teacher AND nine year old Chelsea) and dying the fibre into magnificent natural colours, straight from the land. We mostly worked in the shade of a tree by the Injalak Arts Centre, with magnificent sandstone monolith Injalak as our backdrop and constant companion. 

I made great friends with Sylvia’s daughter, Chelsea. We were crammed into the back of the troopie together for a lot of the galavanting, and amused ourselves with silly selfies, drawings and jokes. 

On our last day we hiked up Injalak Rock, with expert local guide Gabrielle Maralngurra, to see the mindblowing array of rock paintings, shelters, and galleries. A true privilege. We then lunched by a waterfall and shared stories, whilst weaving of course! We visited Injalak Arts Centre and learnt about their screen printing practice – fascinating. Before we left  I gifted my teachers some of my wire birds and we said some emotional goodbyes. 

I had the best time ever – truly one of life’s best adventures.  I’m grateful for every second.