ISSN 2207-001X – May 2025
Derek Nannup, a talented artist and cultural advisor brought his Noongar stories to life for members of the community at the Wanneroo library with the help of hand-crafted Dreamtime Mats adorned with unique local Aboriginal symbols created with traditional rug making techniques by the Wanneroo Rugmakers.
Each year since 2014 the Wanneroo Rugmakers have worked on a new community project. COVID19 put a stop to that with Western Australia being shut down; isolated from the rest of the country and the world for almost 2 years. When our meetings resumed at the library in mid-2022 there wasn’t enough time for a project to be planned and completed by the end of the year.
During 2022 there was much discussion across the country about cultural issues; this was the catalyst
for my idea of story mats incorporating aboriginal symbols of animal tracks, people and places, to be used as storytelling mats in the children’s section at the library, enhancing the community awareness of traditional culture and language through an engaging activity.
At the start of this project Peta Korb, a member of the group and I met with Derek and a representative from the library to discuss our idea for the creation of the mats and their use in library. Derek provided us with a page of symbols commonly used by aboriginal peoples when drawing their stories on the ground or painting them on tree bark or rocks.
As Derek explained during his presentation, stories depicted in paintings on whatever surface are not to be copied by anyone, because they are the personal stories of the person who drew them. However, he was happy for the page of symbols he gave us to be used for our project.
This project was also a chance to introduce a traditional textile craft to children who were included in the mat making. Proggy or Proddy is a simple old mat making technique that does not require the expensive or hard to find tools and frames used for rug hooking. Anyone from 4 to 94 can learn in a very short time. Open house sessions were held during school holidays. Short pieces of pe-loved T-shirts in the “Kimberley” colours of the northwest of Western Australia were used for the background, with the symbols traditionally hooked with black T-shirt yarn so that they were easy to see.
After being presented by an indigenous storyteller we envisioned the mats having multiple uses, the children could use the mats to tell their own stories, a learning opportunity for them as labels on the storage box show the page of the symbols in English and traditional Noongar language with an image of the corresponding finished mats alongside.
Besides storytelling, the mats could be hung on the wall as a Gallery display, arranged on floor leading into gallery to tell a story as you walk through, or loaned out for use in local schools. The pile of finished mats was reduced in size by half once the shaggy sides were “shorn” to make the black symbols easier to see. By whipping the edges instead of stitching on a backing as originally planned, allows the mats to be viewed from either side.
The backs with the tight tension of the shaggy prodded pieces looked very much like the recognizable aboriginal dot paintings.
The pieces used to prod were at least 2 inchs long before being shaved almost flush and sculpted in to the sides of the symbols.
This satisfied all the makers in the group because they were divided about which side would be the best to show. It also means without a backing the mats can be easily repaired if necessary.
A black and white rug was braided by Kath from donated T-shirts and can be seen in the featured image on this page, it has become pride of
place for the storyteller to sit.
In the video below learn more aboutDerek Nannup shown here with group members, Tricia, Jo, Kath and Michael.