Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names of people who have died.In gathering natural fibres, making string, yarning and weaving, knowledge becomes visible, tactile and learned through practice.Our project, Stories Behind the Fishing Net: Sitting with the Aunties, renewed traditional net-making practices on Widjabal Wia-bal Country in northern New South Wales. It sought to strengthen cultural continuity, reconnect generations and create opportunities to learn from Elders through hands-on practice and storytelling.Held while the Northern Rivers was still recovering from catastrophic floods of 2022, the project grew from a much longer movement to revitalise weaving practices disrupted by colonisation.In a region where waterways, communities and cultural systems have experienced profound disruption, the project created space to reconnect with Country, culture and each other.The net-making process came from Country and carried responsibility back to Country. Fibre, story, memory and care were woven together, giving voice to the principle of taking only what is needed.Starting the projectNearly two decades ago, Yolŋu Elder, educator, master weaver and knowledge holder Merrkiyawuy “Merrki” Ganambarr-Stubbs began sharing weaving knowledge with Bundjalung women from Cabbage Tree Island. Merrki’s connections to the Northern Rivers through her husband’s family enabled knowledge to be shared across Nations through reciprocity, respect and collective responsibility.The late Aunty Gwen Williams, a respected Bundjalung Elder and knowledge holder, learned this weaving practice from Merrki. She later developed the fishing-net project with a co-author of this article, Kylie Day, envisioning a net made from locally gathered fibres that would bring community together.Aunty Gwen passed before the workshops were implemented, but her vision remained central. Her sister Aunty Jacqui Williams, and other Elders, family and community members helped carry the work forward.Bundjalung Nyangbal knowledge holder Uncle Marcus Ferguson guided us in identifying and carefully collecting native fibres. His teaching reinforced harvesting is governed by responsibility: knowing what to take, when to take it and what must be left for Country.Embracing cultural practiceWe were making a fishing net. But the net was never the only point. Sitting with Aunties, listening, learning and weaving stories together made the process powerful.Women led the preparation and weaving of fibres into string. The string was then passed to the men, who shaped the net through knots, adding their own knowledge, stories and responsibilities.These were culturally guided and connected roles, rather than a simple or universal gender divide. Respecting these roles recognised women’s leadership, supported men’s cultural knowledge and wellbeing, protected cultural authority and created safe spaces for learning across generations.Men of different generations worked together to construct the net. It was taken apart and remade several times so techniques could be practised and refined.Net-making also drew on skills recognised in contemporary education: observation, testing, pattern recognition, design, adjustment and problem-solving. Yet these skills were taught through Country, culture and relationships, alongside knowledge of plants, waterways, sustainable harvesting and care for local ecosystems.Holding knowledgeSome knowledge is best understood by doing. It is held in the hands, shared through relationships and practised on Country.Growing efforts to digitise Indigenous cultural heritage can support preservation, but they also raise important questions about cultural authority, consent and Indigenous Cultural and intellectual property. Who has the right to record knowledge? Who decides how it is used? What must remain protected? Digitisation and artificial intelligence can record or reproduce aspects of a practice, but they cannot replace the feeling of fibre between your fingers, the moment an Aunty corrects your hands, or the cultural protocols governing what can be shared, by whom and when.As one Aunty reminded us:We learn off one another and we follow through with it […] I believe we’ve all got some gift.Elders and Aunties were not simply research participants. They were knowledge holders who guided the process and determined what could be shared.Our participants described experiencing culturally safe spaces, strengthened relationships, renewed connections to Country and opportunities to learn across generations. The finished net mattered, but so did the relationships formed while making it.The work will continue. The project has been invited to explore different native fibres, compare their strength and durability, investigate traditional preservation methods and deepen the men’s knowledge and wellbeing dimensions that emerged through net-making.Like the fishing net itself, community is made strong through connection: thread by thread, story by story, across generations.The authors would like to acknowledge the Elders, knowledge holders and community members who generously shared their knowledge, time and care. We pay deep respect to the late Aunty Gwen Williams, her family and the vision she entrusted to this work.This project was undertaken through Southern Cross University, with Bundjalung Elders, community knowledge holders and partner organisations. The broader fishing-net project was unfunded.The Living Lab Northern Rivers and Namabunda Farm workshops were supported through Jagun Alliance and Guung Butherun (water stories), run in collaboration with the NSW Environment Protection Authority. These workshops were funded through the joint Commonwealth and NSW Government’s Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, 2024. The authors declare no conflicts of interest..