Women of the Wheel: Margaret Rarru

Womanica

Acast Creative Studios

History, Society & Culture, Education

4.3 • 920 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Margaret Rarru (1940-Present) is an indigenous Australian master weaver. She is most known for her conical baskets and creation of “mol,” a black dye which she alone can give permission to use.

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This month, we’re talking about Women of the Wheel – icons who turned motion into momentum and spun their legacies on spokes, skates and potter’s wheels. These women harnessed the power of the axle, pushing their crafts and professions forward through their works and lives.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
0:06.1	This month we're talking about women of the wheel, icons who turned motion into momentum
0:10.1	and spun their legacies on spokes, skates, and potter's wheels.
0:14.4	These women harness the power of the axle, pushing their crafts and professions forward
0:19.2	through their works and lives.
0:21.5	Today's story begins with sharp-edged leaves and honors the legacy of a woman who turned ancient weaving into radical innovation.
0:28.9	She's a master artist, a keeper of secrets, and one of the only people in her field allowed to weave in true black.
0:35.7	Please welcome Margaret Raru.
0:40.4	Margaret was born in 1940 on Elko Island, off the coast of what is now Northern Territory,
0:45.3	Australia.
0:47.1	She and her sister grew up steeped in ancient Aboriginal tradition.
0:51.0	They learned the creation narratives from their father, which were enshrined on sheets of bark and wooden memorial poles.
0:57.8	Along with painting, weaving played a huge role in their community.
1:01.9	The art was passed from one generation to the next.
1:05.8	From a young age, Margaret learned how to gather and prepare pandanas, a plant used for weaving.
1:12.5	The leaves are long and sharp-edged, and they had to be softened, stripped, and dyed before weaving could begin. At just
1:18.5	eight or nine years old, Margaret would watch on as her mother and grandmother wove bags and baskets.
1:24.0	The work was careful, detailed, and deeply tied to the land. Margaret was just a teenager when she
1:30.3	began weaving herself. To learn the proper techniques, she would spend hours watching her
1:35.2	aunties as they worked. At first, Margaret only attempted to make plain baskets. But as she grew
1:41.5	more confident in her abilities, she started adding color and testing out new shapes.
1:47.0	For many years, weavers in her community used colors like yellow or orange that could be found organically in nature.
	...

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