Bábbarra Designs: Material stories by women of Arnhem Land

On display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia is a selection of Bábbarra Designs’ exquisite hand-printed textiles that tell the ancestral stories of Bábbarra’s Arnhem Land country and cultures.

Initially established as a women’s refuge in 1983, the Bábbarra Women’s Centre is now an established art centre with a strong focus on professional development and providing opportunities for artists. Its textile business, Bábbarra Designs, is one of Australia’s oldest continuously operating Indigenous textile enterprises. During the 1990s, Bábbarra began working in etching, lithography and screen-printing through a series of workshops and projects run jointly with Maningrida Arts and Culture. Today, the studio works with lino block printing, screen printing, natural dying and works on paper. Bábbarra Designs’ textiles are in the collections of major institutions across Australia and exported worldwide.

Gallery 10 | 24 March – 17 July