Ancestors
The theme for Issue 39 of Garland is Ancestors. This will be the second of our Storylines series.
Stories may feature:
- Giving ancestral techniques new life today
- Honouring past individuals or generations
- Recovering and reviving a lost story
- Hoping to be ancestors for the future
- Traditions such as the “hungry ghost” festival
This issue will be published on 1 June 2025. You can find guidelines for submitting a story here. The deadline for stories is 1 May 2025. Please let us know in advance of your idea here.
Here are some related stories from previous issues of Garland:
Snake Talk: A yarn with story-makers across the globe - Tyson Yunkaporta reflects on the fluid connections made by serpent beings between peoples and nature.
The flow of spirits: Tales and crafts of Shandur Lake - For Adil Iqbal, Chitrali Shu weaving preserves the wonderful and tragic stories set in a lake in the Hindu Kush
The people fished from the sacred Eware river - Kuenan Tikuna's work tells how her Magü'ta people were fished from the river by the gold Yo'i.
Elysha Rei ✿ A fish out of water - In the lead-up to the Lunar New Year of the Snake, Elysha Rei speaks with writer Pamela See about her exhibition of papercuts: Yohaku no bi (the beauty of empty space).
From My Dingo Soul to Your Hearts - While there are moves to revoke its protection, Aunty Dingo shares two poems in defence of Australia's apex land predator.
Temple - Visit the temple to step outside the everyday world and contemplate works made as offerings to the ancestors.
Two rivers meet in the gallery: A connection journey - Garland collaborated with Paemanu in sharing their story of the river journey that led to the participation in the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial.
Messages in rice: From table to grave - Angela Sim explains the significance of the Teochew ritual of rice drawing that is still practised in Singapore temples.
How ancestors guide our journeys - Tiffany Singh writes about her installations and performance that draw on spiritual and collective energies.
The Andes as temple - Keka Ruiz Tagle evokes the wisdom of her ancestors contained in vessels of light.
Sahlah Davids: Amatie - Jessica Hemmings reviews an exhibition about the material culture of the Cape Malay.
Kultura Collectiva - Dias Prabu writes about his Yogyakarta art collective that seeks to reconnect with the disappearing cultures of Indonesia.
Ciocârlia: A thread that binds generations - Diana Roșca writes about a community in Moldova that come together to keep alive their ancient embroidery tradition
Angie Faye Martin ✿ At home on Country - Guest editor Angie Martin finds resonance with the stories in The Land: Caring Through Making
Toro Atua: Sentinels for living well on the land - Inspired by ancestral rock art, Areta Wilkinson's public art installation recognises the Māori spirits that guard whenua.
The world at our feet: Shoemakers of Dehradun - LOkesh Ghai honours the shoemakers of his neighbour and argues for the continuing value.
Mike Crawford ✿ Facing South - Lucy Hammonds recounts her journey to the southern islands with glass artist Mike Crawford and what it revealed of a whenua (land) remote from human control.
Nation Building practices in an on-going colonial era - Jules and Jayne Christian share their journey to bring Dharug people together as mob on Country to help contest ongoing colonisation.
Bonyi ✿ A seasonal gathering of weavers on Country - Freja Carmichael reflects on a gathering of weavers at Munimba-ja to celebrate the bonyi nut harvest.
The Dreamhome paradox - Inga Walton reviews the exhibition Dreamhome in the context of a local and global housing crisis.
Creative Conservation: Art for nature - Chrissy Wickes and Sonia Frimmel share their journey gathering artists across NZ Aotearoa whose creativity is focused on care and appreciation of land.
Wayne Martin Maranganji ✿ Painting culture, painting country - Angie Faye Martin writes about a cattleman painter, who connects to their shared Country through his art and commissions.
Long dance to home - Dominic White continues the dance of his forebears with a material art that rediscovers Country. 
Ten Thousand Suns spotlights the technologies of First Nations peoples through craft - Pamela See reflects on the craft works in the 24th Sydney Biennale.
Healing Country & the five senses - Francesca Bussey writes about listening and talking about mosaics, middens, and that which is bigger than all of us.
Er Pavilion: On Country at the beach - Melissa Cameron writes about the making of the pavilion for the Fremantle Biennale, adorned with bangles of crowd-sourced beach debris, conveying a message of sustainability and reconciliation.
Weaving Sumba’s history into the fabric of the world - Paul v Walters tells the inspiring story of MANAMU, a studio for woven steel jewellery on a remote Indonesian island.
Sensorium recipe ✿ In praise of insects - To conclude the Sensorium series, we offer you a recipe for a poly-sensory ceremony that acknowledges creatures whose value is seriously underestimated.
Whiria: Twisting together - Karl Chitham bears witness to intricately woven works by Tyrone Te Waa that honour the Māori tradition of elevating the ancestors.
Tactile stations at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art - General Director of SeMoCA, Soo Jeong Kim, about the story of this iconic new craft museum and how it teaches by touch as well as sight.
Stevei Houkāmau ✿ Clay as whakapapa - Zoe Black tracks the journey of Stevei Houkāmau in finding whakapapa connections through ceramics.
The Krolevets towel: A new focus on Urkainian weaving - Anna Kovbasiuk reflects on her Ukrainian roots and the key role of weaving in the continuing struggle for identity.
A bush alembic: To distil the scent of the land - Forest Keegel distils plant hydrosols as a way of being on Country.
Cardamom is forever: Jewellery for the Sri Lankan diaspora - Through the process of electroforming, Inoka Samarasekara has been able to embody the smell of Sri Lanka into her jewellery. 
The scent of Korean contemporary craft - Hyeyoung CHO identifies the distinct aroma of Korean culture that imbues its authentic craft.
Nanamu as Tongan sense of smelling: A tāvāist philosophical critique - Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina, Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai and Tavakefai‘ana, Sēmisi Fetokai Kulīha‘apai Moahehengiovava‘ulahi Potauaine share the profound meaning of smell in Tongan culture. 
The scented city: Incense making in Kathmandu - Gary Wornell travels to the source of the pungent smells that orchestrate his daily life in Nepal.
Scent in 2023 Cheongju Craft Biennale - Artistic Director, KANG Jaeyoung, explicates the concept of "objet" that frames the extraordinary works of the Cheongju Craft Biennale.
Ka rongo au: In response to senses - Rangimarie Sophie Jolley (Waikato-Tainui) and Sian Montgomery-Neutze (Muaūpoko, Ngai Tara) introduce the ways we sense Māori art.
Prita Tina Yeganeh ✿ The Sanctum of Qanāt - Our July laurel has adapted the traditional Iranian Abrī printing technique to works on silk involving micro-lattice patterns.
Poi: The mesmerising sound of living taonga - For Isaac Te Awa, poi is not only an accessory for dazzling performances, it is also a traditional Māori instrument used for practical and cultural reasons in itself.
Rongoāoro: The healing sounds of Taonga Pūoro - Karen Leef explains the profound meaning of the Māori wind instrument she plays, the kōauau.
Voicing the winds: Kōea O Tāwhirimātea – Weather Choir - Phil Dadson writes about the method of constructing aeolian harps that he developed for wind recordings across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa as part of the World Weather Network
Manchay P’uytu del Mapocho: A proposal to decolonise listening - Francisca Gili explores the musical legend of a bone flute played inside a ceramic vessel. How was it made and what did it mean?
Sensing resonance: Interview with Marikuku Wirrpanda yiḏaki maker - Marikuku Wirrpanda and János Kerekes introduce the yiḏaki (didgeridoo) of Northeast Arnhem Land and give us insight into the skills and knowledge involved in the creation of this important Australian Aboriginal instrument.
“I feel as if I’ve dropped into a secret cave”: The power of clay in recent Indian fiction - D Wood reviews two recent novels by Indian writers that evoke the allure of ceramics.
Hmong spirits sojourn on their way back home - Pamela See writes about Queensland artist Vanghoua Anthony Vue, whose work offers an insight into the epic cultural journey of the Hmong.
UYalezo – New Traditions - Andile Dyalvane's ceremonial ceramic works embody traditional knowledge about nature transmitted by ancestors.
Pine water jug: Imbibing the Taurus mountains - Songül ARAL writes about the traditional pine jug that captures the bracing air of the Taurus mountains. 
Rēwena bread: A nourishing food with its own whakapapa - Keri-Mei Zagrobelna shares her love of Māori bread and its starter bug that is passed down through generations.
Mann-o-Salwaa: Savouring the food of the heavens - Sahr Bashir evokes the rich culinary history of her Pakistani homeland, kept alive in the silversmithing that adorns it. 
Taste and rongoā Māori: The art of experience - Arihia Latham describes the importance of taste as a life energy in rongoā, Māori medicine.
Foraging among the ruins of satoyama in rural Japan - Daniela Kato writes about the foraging practices that she shares with a village community under the mountain's shadow.
A gaiwan for my father - Mia Riley revisits her father's tea cabinet and resolved to use her ceramic skills to make him special traditional tea cups.
Jayanto Tan ✿ Delights for every palette - Pamela See interviews Jayanto Tan about the role of brightly coloured food in his installations.
Transforming the landscape into colour: India’s natural dyes - MAP Academy detail the development of India's iconic natural dyes: madder, indigo and lac.
Luleå Protocols for Knowledge Exchange – 2022 - As part of Sweden's Luleå Biennial, Garland facilitated a pilot knowledge exchange to develop a reciprocal platform for global knowledge sharing.
Artifice as allegory: Sylvia Nakachi investigates evolving Indigeneity in the Torres Strait - Pamela See writes about Torres Strait artist Sylvia Nakachi, whose fibre works recover a pre-contact history.
Devoted: Adding weight to weaving - Ana Petidis draws on her Greek heritage to revive the spiritual value of weaving.
Peach Garden ✿ Stories from China - The Peach Garden is a mythical realm where gods gather each year to eat the sacred peaches of immortality. You can visit and enjoy the vibrant craft cultures in China today.