Babbarra Women's Centre shares experiences

Story by Ingrid Johanson

Phyllis Dungundja, Janet Marawarr, Belinda Kernan and Ingrid Johanson from Babbarra Women’s Centre travelled to Desert Mob in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) this month, as guest presenters from the top end at the 2017 Desert Mob Symposium. 
Desert Mob is a coming together of remote art centres across the centre of Australia, and although Babbarra Women’s Centre lies outside of this desert catchment, they were invited as guest presenters to share their experience with textile art from the north. 
Belinda and Phyllis talked about daily life at Babbarra, and Janet blew the audience away when she sung the story of Mongerrh. Janet said, “I felt really good and proud when I was singing on stage. I was happy, talking to that big mob of people and smiling, laughing. I was feeling too good afterwards too.”
Desert Mob coincided with the launch of our first ever Mparntwe exhibition titled, ‘Big Mob Daluk’ (Daluk meaning ‘women’ in Kuninjku, a language which is commonly spoken at the women’s centre). Big Mob Daluk is at the Araluen Arts Precinct gallery at Central Craft, and is open until the end of September. All the artists spoke at the busy opening, and the lengths of fabrics were flying out the door. 
The artists got a chance to visit Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) to see family who live there and see the Keringke Arts Centre.  Janet said, “going to the desert was really kamak (good). Sharing our story there and walking around seeing the desert people and places was really interesting. I was learning every day.”