Reclaim the Void was born from a community gathering in Leonora, Western Australia, where an elder expressed pain and grief at ‘those gaping mining holes left all over our country’. The vision is to create a huge artwork to lay on land affected by mining. Created from over 4,000 hand-woven rugs made from discarded fabric by people from around Australia and beyond, the finished artwork will express the story of sacred country.

Country is alive with story, song, dance, law, tjukurrpa. When we wound country, we wound ourselves, and end up with a scarred physical and cultural landscape.

Reclaim the Void sits at the meeting place of land art, contemporary textiles, community, story and culture. It expresses a shared desire for conciliation and is the collaborative recognition of country as alive, vulnerable and sacred.

We now have over 4,000 rugs - modest, small-scale acts of hope, that acknowledge, apologise and express hope for a better future in relation to damage done to country and its custodians. Rugs have been contributed from people aged 2 to 96, and from every state and territory in Australia, as well as the Philippines, Japan, USA and Aoteoroa/NZ.

Reclaim the Void is about stories. We have almost completed the development an interactive digital ‘rugalogue’ of the final artwork: a ‘makers’ map’ which will include the tapestry of stories of all the people who have contributed; and will be a story in its own right, of our collective love, respect, and wish to care for country.

It’s the story and acknowledgement of careless over-consumption, that is central to Reclaim the Void. We are having a conversation about caring for country, and honouring its custodians.