Please join US in welcoming the women from Numbulwar, for our final EXHIBITION of the year:
OPENING EVENT
THURSDAY 27 NOVEMBER, 6PM
with a special performance by Djirri Djirri Dancers.
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Ganbuy Nanja: Rewoven Stories
A group exhibition featuring the Wagilag Clan: Rose Wilfred, Megan Wilfred, Virginia Wilfred, Joy Wilfred, Jocelyn Wilfred, May Wilfred, Nicola Wilfred, Rena Guyula.
In Rhitarrngu, ganbuy means animal traps and nanja means ghost nets. Ganbuy Nanja: Rewoven Stories presents a series of imagined “animal traps” woven from both maguj (pandanus) and nanja, mapping the journey of Numburindi women from ancestral practice to contemporary challenges.
The works speak through dualities. Women gather pandanus in the heat of the day, peeling and dyeing its fibres to weave wulbung (baskets) and bulpu (dilly bags). Rangers drag ghost nets from saltwater Country, where they suffocate marine life and mangroves. Freshwater billabongs surrounded by pandanus trees contrast with the open sea, and natural fibres meet industrial waste.
The nets are pulled back to Numbulwar, still entangled with skeletons of sea creatures. The women soak, scrub, and unravel the fibres, reworking what was once destroyed. In the bush, they collect old animal traps and rusted wires, merging them with pandanus and ghost nets. Inland and sea Country are reunited in these newly imagined forms.
These “traps” become metaphors: playful, ironic, yet deeply political. They turn the weight of external forces into acts of resistance and strength, while reaffirming Numburindi women’s resilience and sovereignty. Through this reappropriation, tradition and innovation converge, ensuring that ancestral knowledge endures and adapts in a living cultural continuum.
EXHIBITION DATES: 27 November - 21 December 2025
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Numbulwar Numburindi Arts is an Aboriginal-owned, predominantly female art centre based in South East Arnhem Land. Numbulwar is the place, Numburindi are the people. We are master fibre artists who incorporate natural materials such as pandanus, natural dyes and bark with contemporary found materials such as ghost nets, or discarded ropes from commercial fishing vessels that wash up on Numbulwar's shores. We make traditional objects such as baskets, dilly bags, bulpu and adornments, and sometimes we make new objects, like our three-metre long crocodile trap that was collected by Artbank.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Wilfred family in a weaving circle on the beach. Photo: Pouria Zoughi.
Courtesy of Numbulwar Numburindi Arts.
Rose Wilfred
Language: Yolngu, Rhitarrngu
I was born in Katherine hospital. I’m from Ngukurr but I live in Numbulwar now. I come here from Ngukurr when I was 10 years old. My grandmother taught me how to make a weaving basket with pandanus. When I was 10 years old, I grow up at Walker River outstation with my grandmother and aunties. I was always sitting beside my grandmother. She taught me well to make baskets with pandanus. And she said you will make a basket with pandanus for your future when you grow up. Every time when I sleep I see my grandmother’s spirit. She here with me and speaking in my dreams. And that’s my story.
Rose Wilfred is an artist, arts worker and weaving facilitator from Wuyagiba country. Although originally from Ngukkur, Rose has lived in Numbulwar for most of her life and was adopted by the Wilfred family. Rose’s artistic practice is heavily influenced by her grandmother, who she watched weaving from early childhood and who taught her the many skills and knowledges of weaving, bush tucker and bush medicine. Rose marries traditional practices and materiality with the innovative use of ghost nets in her art.
In 2021, Rose graduated from the Arts Worker Extension Program (AWEP) delivered by Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists (ANKA). She subsequently gave presentations to industry leaders and the World Craft Council – Australia board, sharing the creative practices and significant achievements at Numbulwar Numburindi Arts. Today, Rose plays an integral role in the everyday running of the art centre and teaches weaving at Numbulwar School to ensure traditional knowledges and practices are carried on.
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Rena Guyula
Language: Rhitarrngu
Rena is from the Wagilak clan. She speaks Rhitarrngu. She arrived in Numbulwar a few years ago with her family and has since become known as a master weaver. Her weaving is exceptionally tight and refined. In recent years, Rena has been creating striking dilly bags from ghost nets, which she both weaves and paints. She draws inspiration from Country, using the rich colours of the earth throughout her work.
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Nicola Wilfred
Language: Yolngu, Rhitarrngu
Nicola Wilfred is a master weaver and painter from the Wagilag clan, whose Country is Ngilipitji. Her practice is rooted in the knowledge of her ancestors yet speaks powerfully to the present. Known for her bold use of colour, she creates striking dilly bags and sculptural forms that weave together pandanus with ghost nets - a material she has made her own. By transforming abandoned fishing nets, which threaten marine life, into works of beauty and meaning, Nicola turns an environmental danger into a story of cultural strength and renewal.
While weaving remains her central practice, Nicola also paints, extending her creative voice across forms and mediums. Her innovation and artistry were recently recongised when her intricately woven tiny crocodile trap Lharagula Ngididin was selected by the Hornsby Council for the Reimagine Art Prize in 2025.
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Megan Wilfred
Language: Yolngu, Rhitarrngu
Megan Wilfred is a Ritharrngu artist from Walker River in South-East Arnhem Land. Megan learnt weaving the traditional way, from her grandmothers, aunties and mothers at a young age.
She lives and works in Numbulwar with her sisters and niece, and is renowned for her large, painted dilly bags made from reclaimed ghost nets.
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Joy Wilfred
Language: Yolngu, Rhitarrngu
Ngilipitji is my Country, that's where I grew up. From Ngilipitji we went to Walker River, walking on foot. My language is Yolngu Matha. My clan is Wagilak on my father's side, Ritharrngu on my mother's side. My totems are wild honey and black crow.
Joy Wilfred is a Ritharrngu artist who lives and works with her sisters and niece in Numbulwar. Joy’s artistic practice is heavily influenced by her grandmother, who took her out bush to harvest and peel pandanus for wulbung (basket) weaving, and to dig and prepare dye materials to colour the pandanus. Joy is renowned for her tireless work ethic, weaving at all hours of the day and through the night.
Primarily using traditional pandanus techniques for her wulbung (baskets), epic pandanus mats and dilly bags (which Joy remembers her family using to hold wild honey), Joy is also known to experiment with ghost nets and shade cloth for another form of bag known as yir, using acrylics to paint culturally significant designs.
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Jocelyn Wilfred
Language: Yolngu, Rhitarrngu
Jocelyn Wilfred is a Ritharrngu artist who lives and works with her sisters and niece in Numbulwar. Over four decades, she has honed her own individual style, predominately working with naturally-dyed pandanus and ghost nets.
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Virginia Wilfred
Language: Yolngu, Rhitarrngu
Virginia Wilfred is a master weaver who tirelessly experiments with natural and found, man-made materials, including seeds, shells, metal and ocean debris.
I really like to do my weaving, always. I won’t give up. I’m still here.
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May Wilfred
Language: Rhitarrngu
May Wilfred is a Rhitarrngu artist who lives and works with her sisters and niece in Numbulwar. Taught by her mother to hunt, collect natural dyeing materials and harvest and weave pandanus, May now passes on these skills and traditions to the children at Roper. May’s artistic practice today extends to both natural fibres and ghost nets, weaving together locally-harvested pandanus with abandoned fishing line in a modern act of caring for Country.
