Spinning a Yarn for Community: Noongar women and CAN WA’s doll-making project

Research Report

Dave Palmer’s 2013 essay takes a deep dive into a doll-making project that was facilitated by CAN in Narrogin. He discusses the context in Narrogin – the suicides of 6 Aboriginal youth that had led to community grief but also conflict – and the multi-layered community arts projects that CAN facilitated in the town to help bring about healing. One of these projects was Yarns of the Heart, which sought to reintroduce the idea of a doll-making group that had previously existed in the 1990s.

Palmer discusses the history of doll-making more broadly and amongst First Nations communities, and talks about the many benefits of the project in terms of emotional, psychological and even physical health of individuals and communities. The dolls become a metaphor – just as they are stitched, knitted and woven together, so too are social, emotional and physical connections, both within and between individuals and communities.

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Read the full essay
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