Margaret is currently Ernabella’s only practicing batik artist. She learnt the technique after some Ernabella ladies travelled to Indonesia to study there in the early 1970s and came back and introduced the skills to the women at Ernabella, including Margaret. Margaret is also an accomplished punu (wood) artist.
Margaret now creates beautiful batik at home in Ernabella in her spare time. Her batiks are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
“I was born just southwest of Ernabella as the fourth child. My parents came from out west, they lived here in Ernabella all their lives. That’s where I grew up and spent my first school years here in Ernabella.
Later I went to work in the craftroom (after working as housekeeper in Fregon) where I started to paint small cards in watercolours and moccasins with designs in oils. Other women would sew the moccasins, which were cut out of kangaroo skins. I learned all the crafts from the other women and I still do many of them as a hobby. Winifred Hilliard was the manager and teacher of the craftroom. Now I live just outside of Ernabella, where my house has a room just for craft.”
Margaret Dagg in Don’t Ask for Stories: The Women from Ernabella and their art 1999
