Denmark Senior High School students have woven rugs from discarded fabrics to be stitched together in a vast dot replica painting to fill mining craters in the Goldfields.
Denmark woman Vivienne Robertson created the Reclaim the Void project in collaboration with Ngalia cultural custodian Kado Muir.
It is a response to the pain felt by northern Goldfields first nations’ elders about ‘those gaping mining holes left all over our country’.
Denmark Senior High School year nine textiles teacher Jodie Pollard took up the invitation of the Reclaim the Void project for students to weave rag-rugs to contribute to the artwork.
A photo of students and their rugs has gone into the online teacher’s resource alongside the project description, as an example of possible NAIDOC activities. Jodie says the students loved making their rugs, with many commenting it was their favourite class.
The project aims to gather 3000-5000 rugs made of discarded fabric by people from around Australia, and internationally.
These will be stitched together to form a huge ‘dot’ artwork based on an original painting of country by Kado’s mother, Ngalia artist Dolly Walker.
The finished artwork will be laid on country as a statement acknowledging the over-extraction of resources from sacred lands and the scarring that results.
The project seeks to put back metaphysically, at a cultural and sacred level, in a way that speaks to the heart and the spirit.
So far, about 1500 rugs have been contributed, housed in a Denmark sea container while they are catalogued and divided into colour piles.
Assemblage of the first ‘dots’ will begin in the WA Museum Boola Bardip, and the dots will then be stored until the final installation on country in late 2024.
Vivienne has undertaken one artist residency at the WA Museum, and will do a second early next year before the assemblage.
Denmark women Theda Mansholt, Robyn Glennister and Jill Rule have assisted in cataloguing, and are offering workshops in Denmark and the Museum of the Great Southern.
Denmark photographer Nic Duncan is the project’s documenter and her portraits will be part of a project exhibition at the WA Museum in 2024.
Vivienne said how for Kado, when the earth is disturbed, the vibration of the land and the spirit is disrupted.
Also the stories and the songlines, or dreaming tracks, where the ancestral beings travelled and left their essences in the land are disrupted.
The project highlights that all country has a story and dreaming and offers people a chance to contribute to fi rst nations people reclaiming country.
Vivienne said that by people reclaiming and acknowledging the voids both outer and inner, perhaps that would lessen destruction of the earth.
The final artwork will emerge from the willing hands and hearts of thousands of people across the country and the world, with each person playing an equal role.
Anyone wishing to contribute a rug, attend a camp on country, join a local workshop or volunteer in other ways can go to www.reclaimthevoid.com.au.
This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 20 July 2023.
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