Ancient practices from across the Indian Ocean could preserve stories decaying in a remote Northern Territory community on the Arafura coast. The Bábbarra Women's Centre sits amid bauxite boulders on a pandanus-lined shore next to turquoise waters. It is on Kunibídji country, 500km east of Darwin, where a small group of women create textiles that tell their stories of life, animals, flowers and the yawkyawk, the mermaid spirit.
Since the centre opened in the late 1980s as a women's refuge, it has been a place for economic and cultural security for women and children in Maningrida. "It's beautiful there," said Bangardidjan Cindy Rostron. The Kune, Dalabon, Rembarrnga woman grew up watching her aunts and mother share stories through etching, lithography and screen printing; stories she now wears in elaborate gowns along some of the world's most renowned runways.
"I've grown up watching them, making like the dream-time story," the model said. "And story and history, I think it's really important for us sharing culture by doing art." Ms Rostron is one of six women artists who will head to Bangalore in India for a dual exhibition called Karri-Djarrk-durrkmirri (we work together) along with Bangalore's Tharangini Woodblock Studio.
But the journey is not just about her mother's work, as Ms Rostron also has Indian heritage. "My father wanted me to go to India, because there's a history," she said. "My dad, my father, he's half Indian .
.. it's good for me to go there and experienc.