the MENINDEE MEMORIAL LOOP
AN ONGOING AND EVER-GROWING COLLABORATIVE ART PROJECT for everyone
In 2024 I took part in a group show at the NSW Embroiderers Guild called Baaka Ngamaka’Inana: The River, Our Mother. The show was
all about the cultural and ecological damage inflicted on the Baaka-Darling River by neglect and maladministration.
​
As part of this show, I started a project called the Menindee Memorial Loop that anyone and everyone is invited to contribute to. This beautiful project has grown and grown, section by section, in smaller loops that will ultimately make the completed loop. (When it's finsished it will be nigh on 100 metres long.)
A 14 metre section of the Loop is touring NSW as part of the 2025 Dobell Drawing Prize, and right now, a 28 metre Loop is part of a group show called Holding Ground at S.H.Ervin Gallery in Sydney.
​
Listed as critically endangered this January, the Baaka-Darling River is in a sorry state. For years now, too much water has been taken from the river for irrigation.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority has always put Big Ag before people and the environment.​ The cotton industry is one of the biggest offenders.
There's no clearer or more shocking example of the damage than the terrible fish kills at Menindee, that took place in 2018-19 and 2023.
The independent review commissioned by the NSW government found that reduced flows, high temperatures and poor water quality combined to lower the levels of oxygen in the water, which is what caused the shocking mass fish kills that made news all around the world.
Yabbies crawled out of the river en masse. Fish in their millions suffocated and floated to the surface - 20 - 30 million fish in mid-March 2023!
The numbers are mind-blowing. The images are heart-breaking.
Photo: Graeme McCrabb
I want to acknowledge that some progress has been made with the ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ amendment to the Water Act in 2023. All credit to those who worked together to make this happen.
Scientists will tell you that our governments still allow too much water to be taken, though. The ghosts of those 20 - 30 million Menindee fish haunt us all, and remind us that unless the River is managed responsibly, there will be more fish kills, and further degradation.
The Menindee Memorial Loop is a response to these tragedies. It is a huge loop of fabric, covered in scraps of cotton that people just like you have hand-stitched with 100 small crosses, representing the millions of fish that died. The choice of cotton is specific and deliberate - the cotton industry is sucking the River dry.
​
As the project has matured, I've become more ambitious about creating something that will reflect the scale of the tragedy and the urgency to manage future risk. That's why my goal has been to have 1 million crosses on the Loop.​
It's been so heartening to receive stitched scrap contributions from people who responded to my call out.
The project has now progressed to the point where we don't need more stitched scraps - but we do need collaborators to help stitch the scraps onto the Loop panels.
​​My crack Stitch Squad have been hard at it, bless them. And now anyone can join in by coming along to a Stitch-in, where we gather together to collaborate on making this heartfelt work.
​
There will be two Sunday Stitch-ins at S.H.Ervin Gallery, right next to the 28 metre loop showing as part of Holding Ground. They are on April 12 and May 3 from 2 - 4pm.
​
It's free to attend and places are limited. To book your spot for either day, click on the link below.
For everyone who takes part, slow-stitching these tiny crosses is a way to process grief for the fish kills, as well as a way to show how much we care. It’s a creative, generative act.
The Baakantji people see the River as their mother. They care for her and she cares for them.
This is what the Loop represents - a cycle of care that generates health and well-being. If we care for the environment, she will provide for us.
In January 2026, under Australia's nature laws (the EPBC act 1999) the Murray-Darling River was listed as critically endangered.
There's no more serious listing. The River's survival depends upon serious action - right now, by every one of us who is able.
Luckily, there's an easy and impactful way to take action right now. Until May 1, the Australian Government is calling for public submissions regarding the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review, which will inform policy for the next 10 years. This is a chance for all of us to call for an ambitious and regulated plan that can restore the River system for the survival of threatened species, the health of Ramsar listed wetlands, the wellbeing of First Nations people and for the future prosperity of all Basin communities.
​
I'm encouraging you to make a submission. The simplest way is to click on the link below. It will take a couple of minutes, but it will mean the world.
​
Submissions close 5.00 pm (AEST) Friday 1 May 2026.
​
​Go, you good things. And thank you.
Acknowledgement of Country
I acknowledge the Dharug and the Gundungurra people, the Traditional Owners of the land where I created this work, and the Wangal people of Eora, the Traditional Owners of the land where this exhibition is shown.
I recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community.
I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.