Ellen Trevorrow's episode for Everything Is Connected was shot in 2016 over two days. She was already working on the massive collaborative woven sculpture of Kondoli the Whale, with members of her family and wider Ngarrindjeri community.
Ngarrindjeri weavers making Kondoli the Whale, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist
Kondoli is over 4m long and at the tail 1.4m high and features in the 2017 exhibition. It was initially developed as a collaborative work for the Pacific Encounters project, with Flinders University and Le Havre's Museum for Natural History.
Latoya Carter and friends weaving on Kondoli, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist
Bessie Rigney (right) and Cheyenne Carter weaving Kondoli, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist
Ellen Trevorrow's son, Bruce, build the metal frame of Kondoli. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Ellen Trevorrow and her team took us out on country near Narrung to collect rushes. The weavers, traditionally both women and men, now have to travel over 100 kilometers, as far as Strathalbyn on the other side of the Lower Lakes, to find suitable rushes, due to environmental degradation.
Ellen Trevorrow and her team of weavers collecting rushes at Narrung. Photo Carl Kuddell, January 2016