1. Art, Aboriginal Australian
2. Basket making
3. Bilingual books
4. Birds
5. Country
6. Culture
7. Endpapers
8. Family
9. Glossaries and vocabularies
10. Grandmothers
11. Hand weaving
12. Indigenous knowledge
13. Indigenous languages
14. Nature
15. Visual literacy
16. Weaving
17. Wurundjeri people (S36) (Vic SJ55-05)

When Gugung (grandmother) collects djirra (reeds) she is watched by her granddaughter, Walert who hears the rhythmic whispering the grasses make. Gugung arranges the grasses to be dried by the wind (murnmut) knowing that patience and time is needed. Checking the djirra, Gugung sees a flash of blue and a flutter of wings and finds a tiny nest amongst the reeds. Whispering she tells Walert ‘Boroin (blue wren), they are boroin.’ Inside the nest are three speckled eggs. The weaving must now wait. Each day they watch and wait as the boroin go about hatching, feeding and raising their babies until one day they all leave the nest, the boron singing a song of thanks.

Now the reeds are ready. Gugung soaks them in water to soften them and tells Walert to sit with her and learn not just how to weave but how to listen, how to watch and how to walk gently on Country. These are the same important things Gugung was taught by her own grandmother. Together they weave and Walert learns to create her first binak (basket) and to understand the important role sun, water, wind and land play in understanding who we are and how we live on Country.

Ashleigh Pugh’s artwork was created using her own distinctive style of blending traditional wood-burning techniques with acrylic paint. Whilst the colour palette is dark, it shows a strong love of the importance of Country and pays homage to the beautiful resources Country provides. These are seen particularly in the rich colours of the grasses featured on the book’s endpapers.

A glossary of Woi-wurrung words used, and cultural notes are provided at the end of the book. The cultural traditional and weaving skills of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people have been passed down through generations of women as they learn to make baskets, bags and eel traps for capturing and carrying food and babies. Aunty Kim Wandin is a master weaver using plants, mainly grasses, collected on Country to make baskets, bags and eel traps. These are skills taught to her by her own grandmother, Nana Ollie.

Aunty Kim Wandin is a Wurundjeri elder and master weaver whose artworks are held in state and private collections. Chris Joy is a storyteller who has worked with Aunty Kim Wandin on public artworks across Melbourne.

Award-winning Illustrator Ashleigh Pugh is a descendant of the Noongar people from Whadjuk Ballardong country on the south-west of Western Australia.

Series title: If applicable, add as the last item to your Annotation a Series title and series number if the book is part of a series.

1. Walker Books Teacher Notes by Emily Barrow (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria) for ‘Weaving Country’ by Chris Joy and Aunty Kim Wandin https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/wp-content/uploads/resource/PAGES_Weaving-Country-Teaching-Notes.pdf
2. ReadPlus 17 September 2025. Barbara Braxton reviews ‘Weaving Country’ https://www.readplus.com.au/reviews/weaving-country
3. Good Reading Magazine review of ‘Weaving Country’ by Chris Joy and Aunty Kim Wandin illustrated by Ashleigh Pugh https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/titlepage/weaving-country/
4. National Gallery of Victoria Triennial ‘Aunty Kim Wandin’ https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/triennial/artists-designers/kim-wandin/
5. Victoria’s Big Build ‘Aunty Kim Wandin and Chris Joy: Murrup Biik’ https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/projects/metro-tunnel/community/art/legacy-artwork/tunnel-entrance-artworks/aunty-kim-wandin-chris-joy-murrup-biik
6. Nets Victoria ‘Kim Wandin’ https://netsvictoria.org.au/artist/kim-wandin/
7. ABC Australia ‘We can, we do: Eileen Alberts – Passing on the craft’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orgTp4Sljbc