Menindee Memorial Loop as part of Sydney Craft Week

As part of Sydney Craft Week artist Julie Paterson is inviting anyone and everyone to collaborate with her in making an artwork in memory of the mass fish kills on the Baaka-Darling River.

The artwork, called the Menindee Memorial Loop, is a long loop of fabric covered in thousands of tiny hand-stitched crosses. These stitched crosses represent the millions of fish killed due to too much water taken from the river system, under a mismanaged Murray Darling Basin Authority that puts Big Agriculture before people and the environment.

Image: Julie Paterson, Menindee, landscape.

Paterson conceived of the collaborative project as a way to build community around shared feelings about the River. Slow-stitching to make this artwork is partly a ritual to process grief. Mindfully stitching each cross allows participants to mourn the devastation already inflicted on the river.

Equally, this artwork is about creating hope. Participating in this project is a way to call for the recovery and protection of the river ecosystems and their biodiversity, and express support for communities and First Nations custodians on Country.

These thousands and thousands of tiny crosses, stitched by many hands around the world, serve as a metaphor for how people can come together to create change.

‘I’m having to tell people with really strong stitching skills to put them aside,’ says Paterson. ‘I want the stitches to be kind of basic - a bit wonky even - because the project derives so much of its meaning from the notion of visible mending.’

The Menindee Memorial Loop will tell the story of all the participants who want to help repair the damaged river system. It’s a democratic artwork that comes from the grassroots.

‘Our stitches, our repair should be bold, heartfelt and proudly imperfect,’ Paterson explains. ‘All those tiny crosses - made by kids and teachers and people in aged care and prisoners and scientists... people of all stripes and circumstances. They represent not just the millions of fish that died, but how much my collaborators care. That’s what makes the Menindee Memorial Loop a powerful call to government and stakeholders to do what’s needed to restore the Baaka-Darling to health.’

To encourage people across Australia and all over the world to respond to her call to get involved, Paterson has made it both free and simple to take part in the project. All that’s required is a postcard-sized scrap of cotton, a needle and thick, cotton thread.

Image: Julie Paterson, Menindee, Stitching in situ. 

‘Ideally, use something you have kicking around the house rather than buying it new,’ says Paterson. ‘And it does have to be cotton. The materials draw attention to the damage to the health of the river system by the cotton industry, which takes incredible amounts of water from the Baaka.’

Participants need to hand-stitch one hundred small crosses on the cotton fabric in just one colour, and in a rough-and-ready way (nothing too tidy), to represent a shoal of fish. Then, they post these to Paterson to be stitched onto the Menindee Memorial Loop.

‘I think it's going to be very healing to watch the looped river of fabric fill with shoals of little fish,’ says Paterson.

‘There are so many people speaking up for the Baaka - people like Baakantji elder
and artist Uncle Badger Bates, environmentalist Kate McBride, and writer and lawyer Richard Beasley. For me and everyone who takes part in the project, adding our collective voices to call for the restoration of the River is going to feel good.’

The Menindee Memorial Loop will be hung unfinished as part of the exhibition, Baaka Ngamaka’Inana: The River, Our Mother, in Gallery 76 at the NSW Embroiderers Guild, Concord West, August 31 - October 21. Throughout the exhibition, the cross-filled scraps will continue to be stitched onto the fabric loop, helping it grow over time.

Sydney Craft Week is on show 11 - 20 October 2024. 

Find out more:
www.juliepaterson.com.au/exhibition