Reclaim the Void camp

Vivienne Robertson and Kado Muir on country during a Reclaim the Void camp

For the last couple of years I’ve been involved with an ambitious arts project called Reclaim the Void. It’s a bold cross-cultural project, born from Ngalia elders in Leonora, Western Australia, expressing their pain and grief at ‘those gaping mining holes left all over our country’. The idea was conceived to symbolically ‘seal’ one of the holes with an artwork expressing the story of country, and to raise awareness of its importance in Aboriginal culture in both its physical and spiritual dimensions. 

This ‘dot’ artwork will be made up of thousands of handmade circular rag-rugs woven from discarded fabric by people from all walks of life and backgrounds. These handmade rugs are now being woven all over the world, and the WA Museum is on board with an exhibition of the project to be held there next year.

Reclaim the Void is led by Ngalia traditional owner and cultural custodian Kado Muir and project director/retreat guide Vivienne Robertson, along with other project artists. Kado is Chair of the National Native Title Council with traditional territorial ties in the Western Deserts of Western Australia, an anthropologist, archaeologist, Indigenous rights activist, and artist.

A handful of rug-making camps have been held in the northern Goldfields, with the next camp (and possibly the last for the project) being held at the end of September. If the idea of weaving rugs amongst the breakaways, yarning around campfires, eating delicious food, enjoying the starry night skies and revelling in the silence sounds appealing, hop on over to the Reclaim The Void website for more information. Bookings close soon.