This is a fundraising pattern for my late brother, Mino (1971-2004).

This design was born because my friend Aiko loved rice stitch after knitting two of my other designs, “Japarta Journey” and “Eternal Japarta”, both of which include rice stitch. She asked me to design a hat using that stitch. The fact that she was patiently waiting motivated me to complete the hat.

“Right Way – Hat 2014” has three “Dreaming tracks” knitted in Rice stitch. What is the “Right Way”?

Skills required: k, k2tog, ktbl, p

Gauge: Knitting in the round
10 sts and 14 rows = 2”/5cm in (k4, p2) rib, with US6, unstretched
6 sts and 8 rows = 1”/2.5cm in rice stitch pattern with US 8, spray blocked

Finished size (spray blocked, unstretched, laid flat):
9”/22cm high x 5.5”/14cm at CO edge.

My brother, Mino, wrote:

Old Jimmy often said to me, “You must follow the right way.” Naturally, whenever I had a chance to talk with him, I focused on knowing what the “right way” was.

“You look round. Sun go down that way (west), sun gets up that way (east), this is the right way.”

He also drew three straight lines from the west to the east on the ground. This represents the Dreaming tracks of the Gurindji people and their neighbour’s cultural geography.

I would like to emphasise that wherever he sat and whichever direction he faced, Old Jimmy drew a line from the west to east, then told me this was the “right way”.

Captain Cook came to Darwin and started to invade Aboriginal land. Captain Cook arrived in Darwin harbor and proceeded towards the south. In his advance, Captain Cook cut across the Jurntakal Dreaming track. Captain Cook came from the wrong direction and moved in the wrong direction, and in doing so, he broke the “right way” or the earth law.

These paragraphs are excerpts from The Call of the Living Earth, Photographs of Indigenous Australians by Minoru Hokari, 2010, 38-43

All the proceeds of this pattern will be donated to the Minoru Hokari Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Australian National University. My late brother, Minoru Hokari (“Mino” 1971-2004) died of cancer at the age of 32. The scholarship fund supports young scholars who study Indigenous Australians through fieldwork. We are trying to fully fund it to achieve its perpetuity. Please help.

Please visit Being Connected with HOKARI MINORU to meet Mino.