Weaver sails to a win
Margaret Rarru Garrawurra, a Senior Yolŋu artist from Laŋarra in Arnhem Land has taken home the top prize of $100,000 at the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) for her artwork Dhomala (pandanus sail).
Ms Rarru Garrawurra told the Koori Mail that she was excited when she found out she had won one of the most prestigious art awards in the country.
“I was with my sisters when I found out about winning. We were very happy. It makes us proud to get first prize,” Ms Rarru Garrawurra said.
“This is a Makassan dhomala (sail). Yolŋu people were watching Makassan people weaving their dhomala over time … then they started to make them,” she said.
“My father picked up the skill as well. He used to make them, Makassan dhomala. I was watching my father making these dhomala. He was making them, and I was watching. I thought about how he made them. My father and I started remembering. And now I’m making these.”
Margaret Rarru Garrawurra was born in Galiwin’ku (Elcho Island). Today she lives on her mother’s Country of Laŋarra (Howard Island) and at Yurrwi/ Milingimbi, both off the coast of Northeast Arnhem Land.
Dhomala (pandanus sail) is an ambitious work of weaving, rendered using a mixture of natural dyes to achieve deep red, black, orange, and yellow.
The work embodies the time consuming processes of harvesting pandanus…