I'm Katie West.
I'm an artist and an Yindjibarndi woman of the Pilbara tablelands
with a strong sense of home
in Noongar Yued and Noongar Whadjuk country.
Currently living on Wurundjeri country.
Living in Melbourne,
there's still some quite bushy parts along the rivers,
so I'll walk along the Yarra.
Through the area where the bat colony is is actually great.
There's a few bigger trees and you do at moments feel like
you're not in the city anymore.
I've been experimenting with natural dyeing since 2015.
It became important to my practice
when I was thinking about how we might go about
cultivating a sense of connection to the places we live in Australia.
So the natural dyeing process I use is bundle dyeing technique
and I use native Australian plants.
I go for a walk and collect leaves and bark
that have already fallen onto the ground.
So the day after a windy day is pretty good.
So it is totally up to chance what happens to be on the ground.
Some of the plants that I look for eucalyptus.
You can get a nice gold colour from that
and it can turn grey or purple
when you have iron and vinegar added to the mix.
Also wattles as well.
Sometimes you can get nice purples from wattles.
And then you eucalyptus bark,
because you get a really nice orangey or red kind of dye with that.
So I've laid out all of the plants that I want to get some colour from.
I fold the fabric in layers,
and when you fold over the plants a couple of times,
you start to get mirroring effects as well.
And now I'm rolling it all up together.
The same way you would roll up a tent or a sleeping bag,
and then wrapping it really tightly.
So when it's really tight,
you can get impressions of leaves and the bark on the fabric.
A few years ago, I made a work called Decolonist,
which was thinking about meditation practice
as a way to address transgenerational trauma.
So there were naturally-dyed pieces in it
and also a video work that was like a guided meditation,
thinking about our history and also the difficult parts of that history,
but how we might find ways to create a space of calm
so we can discuss our history
and also think about what we want our shared culture to be
going into the future.
So, in making that work, I was starting to do natural dying
because I felt like the work
needed to have place infused into it somehow.
And as I was doing that process,
I was walking and collecting plant materials
and then finding that process in itself was really calming
and meditative,
and also a way to become familiar with the place
you're actually living in.
You start to notice the birds and animals
that live close to your home and the plants that surround you.
The cool season is called Muhlu in Yindjibarndi language.
So when the weather's cool and it is alright to have a fire,
I'll do you hot dyeing process.
So that involves boiling up a pot of boiling water on a hot plate
or if I'm lucky, outside on a fire,
and get the pot boiling and leave it in there for an hour or longer
to get the colours.
I put rusty objects into the pot for the iron
and that causes a reaction as well.
I've started experimenting with the water from previous dyes,
so I have some that already has some vinegar and rust in it
and also eucalyptus.
And it's a much darker colour.
It creates kind of purples and blacks occasionally.
And I'm gonna add it to this bundle here
and kind of let it seep in a little bit.
And hopefully that makes some of the colours a little more intense.
In Yindjibarndi language, the hot season is called Garrwarn.
When the weather's hot and it's too hot to have a fire,
I will do solar dyeing.
Solar dyeing involves the same collecting process,
but I will bundle up smaller pieces of fabric and put it into a jar,
put in the water and then leave the jar in the sun.
So the dying process happens over a few weeks or a month.
A much slower process.
It's much subtler,
and I'm not adding vinegar or iron,
so I'm really just letting the sun and water and plants do the work.
So the fabrics that I'll dye with, I'll use calico.
Calico has become important
because there's a Yindjibarndi word for calico
or cotton, and that's yirrarla.
I also use silks
because it is a little bit easier to get colour into silks
because of the proteins in the fibre.
So I'll do a bit of both.
Calico is great because I do make pieces
that people are actually going to be interacting with, like the cushions,
so it's a bit sturdier.
A couple of years ago, I was invited to do a residency in Roebourne,
which is the town where my mum and grandmother are from.
So I was working with Juluwarlu Aboriginal Corporation
and I was invited to share my natural dyeing practice.
So it was really nice to be able to connect up with Yindjibarndi mob
and go walking and collecting the materials
and try dyeing with plants that I had never tried before.
So mulla mulla and Sturt's desert pea,
different kinds of acacias,
and we did a few experiments with these plants
from a hot, dry climate
instead of this cold climate that I'm used to.
So going on this residency was the first time
I got to go back to Roebourne and meet people as an adult,
and it was a really incredible experience
to make that connection again,
and it's something that will grow for the rest of my life.
But the other part to it was I've had the experience
of driving through that area and looking out the window
and feeling like I know nothing about this place
and feeling a heaviness and a sadness with that,
but being able to walk and learn about different plants
and their names and how they're important to Yindjibarndi,
that weight lifted.
So I really think there's so much to be gained in plant knowledge
in connecting to place.