AUNTY ELLEN TREVORROW

Language: Ngarrindjeri

Community: Coorong

Stitch by stitch, circle by circle, weaving is like the creation of life, all things are connected.

Aunty Ellen Trevorrow.

Respected Ngarrindjeri Elder, Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, is renowned for her leadership in keeping alive the practice of Ngarrindjeri weaving, a tradition centred around cultural knowledge sharing and storytelling. Living on Country, she has for many years drawn attention to the plight of our natural waterways, as she witnesses the depletion of the very rushes around her beloved Coorong that had sustained this vital cultural practice for centuries. Trevorrow’s work, Interconnected stories is an assemblage of weavings made by children who attended workshops at Camp Coorong: the woven outline of her own hands gesture her bringing them together. Trevorrow’s practice is one of generosity, care and hope. Her well-known mantra, “Stitch by stitch, circle by circle, everything is connected”, reminds us that our every action – or inaction – has a fundamental resonance beyond our own backyard: and that to care for Country (and therefore each other), we must necessarily pay attention to its songs and its cries.