Fay Muir was the lead artist in the making of the Wemba Wemba cloak, which she wore at the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Aunty Fay worked under the cultural guidance of Boonwurrung Elder, Carolyn Briggs.

Wemba Wemba country is in Mallee and Riverina, in north-western Victorian. They are river people.

Click here to watch Interview: Wemba Wemba Elder Fay Muir.

Further Information

Fay Muir explains the designs on the Wemba Wemba cloak she made and wore at the Games:

The design that's on the back of the Wemba Wemba cloak, the orange here depicts the sun. The red tailed black cockatoo is our totem, the Wemba Wemba totem. This area right around here this brown area it depicts Lake Boga, which is in the middle of Wemba country. These here, these designs here are for men sitting around a campfire and these here are the boomerangs, these areas here. The blue that's right around at the cloak depicts the Murray River, which is also a very big part of the Wemba country, as well. These little dots are the stars of the Milky Way.

Now this was painted with paint and also had ochre put with the paint. Ochre was used to paint designs on the back of cloaks in out ancestors' days, but now we're using modern day paint that we can buy at the shops.

Also, these little bits that are also on here, it's very hard to see but these were burnt on with a hot iron. So were those ones, those ones.