Kune artist, Lennie Goya-Airra, was born in 1954. She is an accomplished sewing-machinist and contributor to the development of Bábbarra’s clothing and homewares product lines, taught to sew by her grandmother. Lennie is from the Buluhkaduru homeland, one-hour’s drive south-west of Maningrida, and worked for many years managing the Buluhkaduru outstation Women’s Centre. There she supervised women sewing and printing daily on the outdoor deck of the women’s centre.
In a video, made by the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics in association with Bábbarra Women’s Centre and The Batchelor Institute, Lennie spoke of her art making process. She stated, “I work at Bábbarra Women’s Centre. I’m always making bags, sewing them and I make cushion covers. I make table cloths and skirts too. I’ve been working at the centre a long time, I started at Buluhkaduru, my homeland. I sew all kinds of things, I make dresses, bags and skirts. When I make them, I get the material and the pattern, I put the paper down and pin it up and cut it out with scissors and make the skirt. I make lots of tops for ladies when they model the skirts and tops. We had one here and we had one at Adelaide and one in Darwin.”
Lenni has also featured as one of the emerging artistsin a group exhibition, Báb-barra: Women’s Printing Culture at The Cross Art Projects (2017) [http://www.crossart.com.au/current-show].
Reference List:
Bábbarra Women’s Centre. “Lennie Goya-Airra.” Bábbarra Women’s Centre. Last modified 2017. https://babbarra.com/artist/lennie-goya-airra/.
CALL Centre for Australian Languages and Linguisitcs. “Kunred Lennie Goya-Airra.” Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics. Last modified 2017. https://call.batchelor.edu.au/film/kunred-lennie-goya-airra/.
McCarthy, Malarndirri. “Arnhem Land Quilters stitching their way to fashion fame.” SBS News. Last modified 2014. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/04/11/arnhem-land-quilters-stitching-their-way-fashion-fame.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2017
- Last updated:
- 2017
