It was in 2021, when the world was still under the grip of COVID-19, and the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair of Australia was being virtually held, that the Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell first learnt about the indigenous art of aboriginal women. Farell immediately commissioned a gold and green-coloured Nehru jacket for himself, in the colours of Australia. This jacket, along with a powerful ensemble of indigenous Australian textile art, has now come to India for the first time. On display at the ARTISANS’ art gallery and shop in Kala Ghoda, Jarracharra, meaning dry season wind, showcases screen-printed textiles created by 17 female First Nation artistes from one of the most remote art centres in the world, the Bábbarra Women’s Centre. Established as a women’s refuge in 1987, the centre in Maningrida, Arnhem Land in Australia’s northern territory, supports more than 30 women artistes.

Jarracharra is a metaphor for the way the Bábbarra Women’s Centre brings different aboriginal cultures and stories together, just as Jarracharra winds have brought these people together for ceremony, dance and ritual for over thousand years.