Exhibition
Batik Rifa'iyah: Be Immersed
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Opening Night, Tuesday 18 August • 5pm
Exhibiting Wednesday 19 - Wednesday 26 August • 10am-4pm
This exhibition brings together exquisitely detailed batik works from Batang, Indonesia, revealing a rich visual world shaped by lush tropical botanicals, Sufi beliefs and enduring cultural practices. Each work has been hand-drawn in wax resist over several months, in an artistic practice that involves incredible patience, creative skill and attention to detail. Motifs reflect the women artists’ deep connection to their environment and their intimate botanical knowledge. The works embody many layers of meaning: lessons, hopes and prayers inspired by Sufi mysticism and Javanese philosophy.
Exhibition
Wearable Art Preview
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Opening Night, Tuesday 18 August • 5pm
Exhibiting Open, Wednesday 19 - Wednesday 26 August • 10am-4pm
Rise Adorned, the Rifaiyah wearable art collection, is a collaboration between batik tulis artists from Batang, Sahul & Sunda curator, Sarah Rennie & East Timor born Darwin-based fashion designer, Yam Li Jong. The inspiration behind this collection is Rifaiyah batik as sacred cloth – a material imbued with a spiritual essence that embraces the person clothed within.
The collection’s designs adopt classic styles that preserve the essence of batik motifs—decorative panels, borders, and sacred symbols—in highly tailored forms, reflecting the elegance and sophistication inherent in this art form.
Officially launching Wet Season 26/27, this sneak peak preview is showing in tandem with our Darwin Festival 2026 Rifa'iyah batik exhibition.
Documentary
Relawati: An Immersion in Rifa'iyah Batik Art
The Galleries at MAGNT
Film Screening, Thursday 20 August • 5:30pm
This short documentary screening and Q & A invites audiences to encounter Rifa’iyah batik, an increasingly rare tradition of hand-made batik from Batang, Central Java (Indonesia). The film examines Rifa'iyah art through the lens of the women artists, exploring their work as both a cultural expression and a living botanical archive. It reflects on their resilience and skill, and the ways they sustain Rifa’iyah traditions and knowledge through attentive, manual creative practice in an age shaped by automation and digital distractions.
The Q&A features Sarah Rennie (documentary director), Ibu Trihandayani Mulyati and Ibu Nandiroh (batik artists), and Emily Collins, Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture at MAGNT.
Performance
Pencelupan: Immersion
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Live Performance, Friday 21 - Sunday 23 August • 5:30pm
What does it mean to sustain a slow art form in an age of impatience? How does it feel to be truly immersed to lose oneself in creative practice?
Pencelupan celebrates the rare art of Rifa’iyah batik and the women who sustain it as a humble yet powerful act of resistance to global cultural homogenisation.
Choreographed and performed by Australian-Indonesian dancer Alfira O’Sullivan, with original live music by Javanese composer Cahwati Sugiarto, Pencelupan invites audiences to step away from the rhythms of everyday life and into an enchanting botanical world. The performance also features Darwin-based Sahul & Sunda community dancers, Sydney’s Suara Dance, and batik artists from Batang, Indonesia.
Workshop
Botanical Batik Workshop
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Artist Workshop, Thursday 20 - Tuesday 25 August • 10am
This workshop series invites participants to learn the rare artform of batik tulis and create your own botanical-inspired motif with Rifa’iyah artists, Ibu Trihandayani Mulyati and Ibu Nandiroh.
Visiting artists will share their intimate knowledge of the Rifa’iyah batik, including some of the hidden meanings embedded in the intricate tropical flora and fauna designs.
Participants will also contribute to a community batik piece as part of a cross-cultural creative collaboration with Rifa’iyah artists in Java.
Workshop
Botanical Batik: A Living Motif Walk
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Free Guided Walk, Friday 21 - Monday 24 August • 10am
Join Javanese batik artists, Ibu Trihandayani Mulyati and Ibu Nandiroh, alongside local botanists for a guided walk through tropical rainforest gardens.
Encounter “living motifs”, the plant species that have inspired Rifa’iyah batik. Artists and guides will share stories of these plants along the way, including ceremonial, cultural and medicinal significance in Java and our region. The bespoke Living Motifs map features beautiful botanical artwork by Darwin-based artist Tisha Tejaya.
This bilingual experience connects Darwin with our Southeast Asian neighbours through shared tropical ecologies and long-standing traditions of cultural and botanical exchange initiated by First Nations peoples.