The women from Wotje (Wōjjā) Atoll in the Marshall Islands first experimented with creating woven flowers in the 1980s. Using reclaimed copper wire to shape the petals of the blossoms, they would then weave into the petals with fine Teneriffe needlework.

The reclaimed wire was from electrical cabling that was buried underground during the 1930s, when the atoll was used by Japanese military personnel and Korean forced labourers as a major seaplane base. Many Marshallese, and most of those deployed from Japan, were killed in a World War Two Allied bombardment in 1943, which destroyed the base.

Today, the resourceful women of Wotje continue the tradition to demilitarise their atoll by excavating and repurposing the cabling into colourful flower petals. In the process, they transform this symbol of colonial militarism into motifs of beauty and love.

In 2021, seven of Wotje’s most experienced weavers — Leindrik Jacob, Keju Alvin, Ketty Boktok, Naer Kiotak, Buoj Hax, Janice Gold and Almitha Lanwi — collaborated to tell their story as part of ‘The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT10) at QAGOMA. The flowers were exhibited as if blooming from a mass of knotted cables, referencing the ways in which Marshallese culture has become entangled with the histories of other nations and peoples. For the ‘sis’ exhibition, the same installation snakes through the exhibition space, highlighting the sustained resourcefulness of these Marshallese women, who continue to transform the detritus of a devastating war into an expression of beauty, ingenuity and resilience.