Inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage register in 2019 and featuring ruins of ancient stone villages built alongside the world’s oldest aquaculture system, the Budj Bim cultural landscape, of the Gundiitjmara people of Western Victoria is a place seeped in history and culture older than the pyramids.

Over the last two months the Gatherer team was fortunate to spend a number of days with Gunditjmara elder and artist Sandra Aitken documenting the master weaver as she gathered Poonyart grass from her ‘special spot’ at the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), weaving sessions at her studio, and demonstrations of eel harvesting in channels the Gunditjmara people constructed over 6,600 years ago.

Importantly Sandra also invited us to the site of the former Lake Condah Mission, where the knowledge to weave eel baskets miraculously survived, acquired in secret by the late Constance Hart (Aunty Connie Hart), Sandra’s aunty, who secretly observed elders weaving objects that were sold to raise money for the mission, at a time when practicing culture and passing on knowledge were otherwise forbidden by government policy.

Commissioned as part of the Koorie Heritage Trust’s 40th Anniversary celebrations, Sandra's 15-minute documentary is on display as part of Sandra Aitken: Gilgar Gunditj Eel Basket, and compliments Connie Hart: One Stitch at a Time a landmark exhibition that celebrates the contribution of artist Aunty Connie Hart who singlehandedly helped revive the ancient weaving traditions of the Gunditjmara people.