Ganbuy Nanja: Stories Rewoven at Blak Dot Gallery
Our Artists Rose Wilfred, Megan Wilfred, and Nicola Wilfred opened the exhibition Ganbuy Nanja: Stories Rewoven at Blak Dot Gallery in November. In Rhitarrngu, ganbuy means animal traps and nanja means ghost nets.
The exhibition 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 spoke through dualities. Women gathered pandanus in the heat of the day, peeling and dyeing its fibres to weave wulbung (baskets) and bulpu (dilly bags). while rangers dragged ghost nets from saltwater Country, where they suffocated marine life and mangroves.
Freshwater billabongs surrounded by pandanus trees contrasted with the open sea, and natural fibres met industrial waste. The nets were brought back to Numbulwar, still entangled with the remains of sea creatures. The women soaked, scrubbed, and unravelled the fibres, reworking what was once discarded . In the bush, they collected old animal traps and rusted wires, merging them with pandanus and ghost nets, reconnecting inland and sea Country in 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 converged, ensuring that ancestral knowledge endures and adapts in a living cultural continuum.
