Arilla Paper is an Indigenous owned women's business based in Mount Isa. Their inaugural exhibition, Arilla paper: women of place will be held at Craft Queensland from 1 October to 13 November 2004. This is an extract from the catalogue essay.

Conversations at Arilla

Tell me what it means for you to be here.

Being here, being in this situation - it's for women, and you know it's hard, but it's my way of doing art. It's nobody else's art and I like it. We all have different ways, you know, but when we come to Arilla we're all one, you know. There are five tribes and the ladies come from different tribes. And they're not just all from Mount Isa. But here, everybody owns it, no one person owns it. Everyone can do what they want to do. There's no disagreement with the ladies. We all work together. You do your work; nobody's watching everyone do their work. We all know what we have to do. When we make a mess, we all clean up our own mess. I really like it. And you're doing something different all the time. You're not doing the same thing. When we do something big - like a picture, we all have a hand in it. And no one is saying, "This is what I've done". It's Arilla's, you know. Arilla ladies done this! It's good.

We saw this on TV and we thought it would be a good idea if we done this with the ladies. And while we're working with our hands, we can easily talk and that. It's healing us and giving us pride in ourselves, in what we're doing. And we don't know where it will take us. For us, it makes us feel good, we can make the paper and we can see it finished. Look at the paper now. It was nothing once - just a bit of spinifex - by the time you cook it and make it and see the piece of paper - it makes you feel good inside, and we're really proud. So I guess that's the sort of thing we want people to feel when they come here. If they come here really sad, I hope that when they leave, they leave like the piece of paper - they're like that piece of paper. I hope we can put their mind and their soul together like that when they leave. It's a healing sort of thing.

And with all the spinifex and stuff brings me back to natural life. It brings me back to when I was a young girl. You walked alone - you gathered this, you gathered that - it brings everybody back, everybody who comes here.

It's interesting how the 'hand' came about.

We were at Toowoomba when the 'hand' came about. Our friend poured the pulp over her hand, and this left a shape of her hand on the paper. So when we lost her and we couldn't find a logo for our paper, so to have a piece of her with us all the time, we used that 'hand' as our symbol. So even though she wasn't here, her hand was still with us. It was a way of keeping her with us. For me, every time I use the 'hand' I feel her helping me to do the artwork. You need your hands to do things. I mean, I can study, but I still have to use my hands to do it. So much of what we learn, we learn by using our hands. It's part of us. She's always there and won't be forgotten.

How do you find the process?

Well, first I didn't think I could do it. But when you see it as art. If you go and do it you love it. I can do it all day. When you do one lot, you put another lot on. Once you get to do it and know how to do it, it's really good. And a lot of people don't realise what actually goes on. People don't realise that women actually make the paper.

We try to keep our art as natural as possible. Like when you look out the window you can see the yellows and greens and red and brown - we try to make the colours fit in. There are seven stages, from the time you collect the plants, and boil it, wash it and blend it, and dry it. Everything we do is from the land.

I could come in every day and help people. Do the blending for them while they do the paper. And that's what I want to see later on when we get enough people here. Keep people producing the paper so we can do the art. Once everyone knows what to do - it takes about six months, so everyone's got their own bit to do. At the end of the year, everyone can say they can do it all - nobody can say they can't do this or they can't do that. We're all skilled in the same way.

The catalogue esaay was taped by the curator, Corrie Wright, and involves conversations with a number of women from Arilla Paper.

October, 2004