(soft guitar music)
- [Woman] Seems like if you're at Euraba first thing
in the morning
I got my own key now, so I open up,
put on my gear,
my boots and my apron. Make a cuppa then I'm on my way.
I'm on a roll then til lunch.
- I heard about the mill, about, in 1998, when I was living
in Tamworth, and I was so happy that it started.
Because this area is my father's people.
- This is the start of the paper-making. Cutting a rag up.
- [May Hinch] Euraba Paper Company was established in 1998.
We was a group of Goomeroi women
who started a small business
to support both communities,
Toomelah and Boggabilla.
- There's so much things you can do just out of rag.
All the different artworks, products. It's pretty good.
And just seeing all the elders up and about
doing what they like with their artworks and their stories.
- [Marlene Hinch] Nine of us Indigenous ladies,
when we started here,
each of us had our own jobs everyday.
(soft guitar music)
- We work in the cold conditions,
we work in the hot conditions. It's over 40 degrees
in the shed in the summertime, but we're still here.
Because you love what you do.
- I'm Aunty May Hinch.
I'm one of the founding artists at Euraba.
I've been here since day one. We did a fine arts course
at Boggabilla TAFE and we just wanted to do something
at the end when we finished the course
and we said to our art teacher that we want to do something
that could benefit our community and help the young people.
And he held up a sheet of paper and he said,
"How would you like to make paper?"
And we all laughed. We thought it was a big joke.
And he said, "No, I'm serious."
And we said, "We're serious too. If it's making paper,
we're going to have a go."
And we're still here today, doing the same thing,
making paper and artworks.
Paul West, he was our art teacher.
He won the Churchill scholarship
After we finished that course, a fine arts course at TAFE.
He went overseas to look at other paper mills
and by the time he came, back we was in full swing.
We did 5,000 sheets of paper for ATSIC.
When he came back, he couldn't believe it.
He's come back with all the skills, but we already had them.
We learned ourself. (laughs)
- Hi, I'm Lola Binge. I work at
Euraba Paper Company in Boggabilla.
I would just like to show you around the place.
There's a special room for beating paper up into pulp.
Once the pulp is done, it comes into this room,
and it goes in a big vat.
- [Deborah Knox] And you take it from the back
and you bring it underneath,
up, and to and fro. Shake it to and fro,
and let it drain for a couple of minutes.
- [Lola Binge] Once the paper is made,
it comes out under this big press.
And all the water get's pressed out of it.
And once it's pressed out, we take into our drying room.
(soft guitar music)
- We're just doing, I'm just doing a panel
for our exhibition in Sydney.
This is a fish and that's turtle tracks.
And the feet, walking, looking for the yurrandaali.
Good tucker. We live on the river, and we go fishing
a lot and the river is a big part of our culture.
(gentle guitar music)
- I love drawing the leaves and all the bush food
because there are things
that were a part of our life growing up
and it's mostly that I can remember.
They couldn't teach us our language. Probably I only know,
probably three words that I've grown up with.
- This is one of my pictures of fish.
We did a lot of fishing, did a lot with my parents.
Now all my kids are grown up and they got kids of their own.
And they take theirs fishing too and the kids love it.
- So at the moment, I'm pounding paper to a cast.
If you can see, I'll just pull back some of the paper
and you'll see the effect that it brings out.
- [Aunty May] Not only I work close,
but we've got to carry out that name
which is Euraba and that means "place of healing."
And when people come together here,
there's a really good atmosphere in the place.
- [Aunty Marlene] Yeah, it's been running for 14 years
and we'd like to see the young people carry on
after what we've done and learn to ...
- I get real passionate when I talk about Euraba
because you know, it's a part of me.
One time here,
we had all these young boys.
They came in to work.
I just cried
because I saw my vision
come true, and that's what I wanted was young people here.
- [Deborah] Even ones that say, "Nah, I can't do anything.
I can't do art." Once they get in there, they're getting
good designs out of everything.
So they don't know what's in them.
It surprises them when they realise that it is in them.
- [Aunty May] So we've got to work extra hard now,
work overtime to get them back in here.
I'm sorry for crying,
it's just me.
- It'll be good to get them back and the next generation
that's coming up, they way they're talking about it,
we'll get them in, I think.
- [Aunty May] Heaps of trucks go past and cars.
They don't know what goes on in here.
And the road is very busy at times
and maybe if we stand out there and invite them in,
they'd come in and see what goes on here. (laughter)
(soft guitar music)