As told by the artist:

"This is a Makassan dhomala* (sail). Yolŋu people were watching, over time… Then they started to make them.

Makassan people were weaving their dhomala for Makassan people. Then Yolŋu learned, then they were making it.

My father picked up the skill as well.  He used to make them, Makassan dhomala.

I was watching my father making these dhomala. He was making them, and I was watching. I was learning, you know? I was learning. I was watching. Then I started making them. I thought about how he made them, my father, and I started remembering. And now I’m making these.

First I just tried to make one. I started. And then I made more, with black. And they’re still asking me for more of the same. I might make them. Not maybe. I love dhomala.

I remembered it from that time. My father was making them, I was watching. After a while I knew it really well –  how to make dhomala. I was making them here. Recently I made another one with black. Really big. And they still ah…. bring more for me to make.

I learned everything. My father taught me. And like I know everything: mats, just mats, and baskets, dillybags and this ah, dhomala, I learned it all. They both taught me, my mother and my father. My father taught me how to do these, dhomala.  And so I make these. That’s how it is.

I watched the old people. They were making these. That’s how it is. I was learning. And this work is for everyone, not just only for women. Men also can make these dhomala.

If you know how to spin string, you can make one. Men, and women –  women can learn. Not only I should learn. Young women you can learn and make them, and you boys, this is men’s work.

Nowadays we women are doing it. Men were making it before. They watched the Makassans. Then they started making it.  They’d remembered. They saw them at Milingimbi.  Makassans came here. They sailed here with these dhomala. Then people watched them, and then learned.

My father also learned, and I obviously learned it. And we people here, men and women, can learn all of it. All of this work. This is not only women’s work but also men’s. That’s how it is. When we feel like it, we women, we can make one. Not only one of us can learn, not just one can make them, no. If we are good at making string, we can make them. That’s all. Just a short story, not long."