About

Bábbarra Women’s Centre has a proud history of positive social impact.

From the early days, we have supported the lives of Aboriginal women in the community of Maningrida and on surrounding homelands.

Bábbarra Women’s Centre enables local women to develop and run women-centred enterprises that support healthy and sustainable livelihoods.

Bábbarra Designs is our main enterprise. We have a textile workshop specialising in the production of hand-printed fabric design using linocut block prints and screen prints. We are one of only a few Indigenous textile-producing art centres in Australia that design, print and sew product onsite, in community.

We are governed by women for women, led by the strong voices of our Bábbarra Women’s Board. In this space, we women are in charge. We operate an op shop and we support women artists on remote homeland outstations in the region.

We are part of Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, which was set up by Maningrida community leaders in 1974 to support people to live on their homelands.

Bábbarra is a word in the Ndjébbana language of the Kunibídji people on whose country the community of Maningrida lies. It is the name of a billabong belonging to the Dukúrrdji clan. You say ‘Bábbarra’ with the stress on the first syllable: ‘bá’, and you can read the Bábbarra story.