In the spirit of storytelling, Adelaide Festival Centre is presenting First Nations art exhibition OUR MOB alongside its OUR WORDS and OUR STORIES events.

Showcasing in September at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Artspace Gallery, OUR MOB will feature three parts. OUR MOB presents art by South Australian Aboriginal artists, OUR YOUNG MOB sees art by Aboriginal artists 18 and under, along with a solo exhibition by Ngarrindjeri, Narrungga and Ngadjuri artist Sonya Rankine.

Recipient of the 2019 Don Dunstan Foundation Emerging Artist Award, Rankine is a talented weaver, running her own weaving business Lakun Mara.

Rankine said the exhibition was “exciting” and a chance for her to pull together both traditional and contemporary styles of weaving.

“I wanted to do pieces that showed a variety of … weaving styles … [I’m] branching into using different materials. It’s become a bit out of the box in regards to traditional weaving but there is still that connection,” she said.

Rankine learnt weaving from Ngarrindjeri Elder Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, a world-renowned artist and cultural weaver.

“About 25 years ago at a community event, Aunty Ellen Trevorrow was doing a workshop, so I sat down with her and did my first piece which I still have,” she said.

“It was about, for me, connecting with my culture which is also about my identity as a person who was fostered and raised in a non-Aboriginal family. I was put into the system at seven-months-old.

“It was about learning that tradition and being able to connect with it. I’ve just kept connecting with it since.”

Rankine still takes part in Aunty Ellen’s workshops.

“I still do the workshops that Aunty Ellen does, it’s the chance to sit with her, my family, and learn something more. Even though, I know how to weave, I will always learn more,” she said.

“That opportunity to spend time with her as a master weaver and an Elder is really special.”

Rankine describes her connection to weaving as “meditative”. She often forgets what’s going on around her.

(NIT, 2021)