Contemporary Craft

Yamatji man Roy Merritt began his journey into textile art as a 12-year-old growing up in the bush in Mullewa. One day, some Yamatji women elders visited the tiny Mullewa school to teach the art of weaving. So enamoured did he become with the art that he continued producing textile art and even today continues to make scarves and knotted bags on a loom in his Geraldton home. Growing up in a family of 16 children with “no running water, no gas, no electricity”, he could never have imagined his art would one day feature in Vogue Australia magazine and on the catwalks of European fashion weeks. Merritt says he’s “loved his life” and remembers his childhood fondly: “When the wildflowers came out Mullewa was beautiful, and when we were kids, we always went camping at the river.”