Bengaluru

A collaboration between Indigenous artists in Australia and traditional artisans in India seems to be helping preserve more than 70 textile designs that carry stories passed down through generations.

According to the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR), the project brought together the Babbarra Women's Centre in Maningrida, Northern Territory, and Tharangini Studio in Bengaluru, India. The two women-led organisations worked together to turn Babbarra's lino designs into hand-carved woodblocks.

The Babbarra Women's Centre has used lino printing for decades to put ancestral stories on textiles. However, the hot and humid climate of Arnhem Land caused some of the lino prints to decay, creating a need to preserve the designs in another way.

The project was supported by CAIR's Maitri program. More than 70 designs from the Babbarra archives were traced onto paper and sent to the artists and cultural custodians for approval. The designs were then carved into seasoned teak by artisans at Tharangini Studio, which has been practising traditional woodblock printing in Bengaluru for more than five decades.

Tharangini director Padmini Govind said the idea was to use the long-standing woodblock printing method to help protect the designs for future generations.

"The whole project started in a way of preserving cultural legacy using a new medium of woodblock, which of course has been tried and tested in India over many centuries," said Govind, as per a release. "We have woodblocks that are more than 100 years old in our archives, which we use even today."

The project, called Karri-djarrk-durrkmirri, means "we work together" in the Kuninjku language. CAIR said the project also helped the artists from the two countries build a connection through their shared work in textiles.

Govind said language was not a major barrier during the workshops, as the artists and artisans were able to work together through their craft.

"English is a third, fourth language for us, as it is for the ladies of Babbarra. We felt that we didn't really need that spoken, verbal exchange. It was all artists working with artisans and creating this textile format," she said.

In 2023, senior Babbarra artists Deborah Wurrkidj and Janet Marawarr travelled to India for the first time. A larger delegation from Babbarra later returned to India in 2024, with artists Raylene Bonson and Abigail Namundja, model and influencer Cindy Rostron, assistant manager Ziian Carey and manager Jessica Stalenberg. Govind also travelled to Maningrida as part of the CAIR-supported exchange.

The collaboration resulted in a joint exhibition at the Bangalore International Centre in 2024. It featured 21 hand-printed woodblock textiles made using natural dyes and sustainably sourced fabrics, along with photographs showing the process behind the project.

The exhibition later travelled to Australia's Northern Territory in 2025, allowing the works to return to the community where the original designs were created.

Babbarra manager Jessica Stalenberg said some of the woodblocks and lino prints will be kept in Maningrida's community-led museum so that future generations can access them.

"Maningrida has its own museum which is community-led and some of the blocks and the lino will go into that collection so that future generations can refer back to the work that was done," Stalenberg said.

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Meanwhile, the project has also received an Asia Pacific Arts Innovation Award for its work in building creative links between communities in the region.