'Hidden and radical' power of First Nations women unlocked in big hART's Punkaliyarra project

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

For Ashweeni Mason and her family, cleaning abalone on the beach at Mystery Bay on the NSW South Coast is an act of cultural affirmation — and political resistance.
The practice of preparing abalone at the water's edge has been handed down by her Walbunja and Djiringanj ancestors for millennia, as evidenced in local middens.
But in recent decades, it was banned under NSW fisheries management regulations.
Sitting on the sand with Ms Mason are women from the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi communities in Roebourne (Iremugadu), in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
They have travelled thousands of kilometres to Yuin country on the NSW far south coast as part of a cultural exchange project run by the arts and social change organisation, Big hART.
The Punkaliyarra project aims to achieve greater recognition and support for First Nations women's leadership.
"The Punkaliyarra story is really focused on the hidden and radical power structures that exist within the Aboriginal matriarchy," Big hART's national creative producer, Genevieve Dugard, said.
Ms Mason said sharing her ancestral traditions with other First Nations women was empowering.
"On the NSW east coast, we had a lot of our culture taken from us, and it has been a struggle to maintain that while still living in a modern world," Ms Mason said.
Interim measures are now in place to decriminalise Aboriginal cultural fishing practices in NSW after legislation was passed in 2009.
But 14 years on, the legislation has still not come into effect and cultural fishers still face prosecution.
Yindjibarndi woman Michelle Adams, co-creator of Punkaliyarra, said the initiative was about women embracing their power.
"That's what the Galharra (kinship system) is — more than one parent, more than one sister, more than one brother, and you're honouring those relationships."
The Punkaliyarra project grew out of a collaboration between Big hART and senior women elders from the Roebourne community.
The collaboration, which began in 2010, has included trips out on country, digital content creation, live performance, and political advocacy.
In 2024, the project expanded from Roebourne to Yuin country on the NSW South Coast to connect the two communities of women.
"We could see the value of bringing women together to collectively mobilise. To understand the common fights and their common strengths," Ms Dugard said.
Ms Dugard says the strength of women's leadership is not in any doubt. What's missing is recognition and resources.
Yindjibarndi woman Cherine Wally says the Punkaliyarra project enables women to learn from each other, and find the 'courage to talk up'.
"My grandmothers, they had a lot to talk about but they couldn't say anything, because of the way society was back then," she said.
She points to the importance of seeing other strong women as role models.
"Being a woman and being connected to country is really strong and powerful, and we have to, as women, come together," Ms wally said.
Ms Mason said the gathering was a chance for the women from opposite sides of the country to "strengthen each other".
"To be able to connect with women, whose second or third language is English, is really special," she said.
"They teach us things that we might have lost and we teach them.
"I feel like we're reigniting those old pathways … and continuing what our old people did thousands of years ago."
Ngarluma woman Sam Walker, a community leader, performer and activist, has been working with Big hART in Roebourne since 2022.
Ms Walker believes in the power of women's kinship to support positive change in the face of enormous challenges.
"They were put in chains, massacred, our sacred sites destroyed."
She recognises the "bloodline of strong women" who came before her to fight for justice and inclusion, and improvements in health and education.