A Filipino woman, who was the target of racism when she migrated to Australia 21 years ago, found friendship and connection with Aboriginal elders and their art in South Australia's Coorong.

The artist and designer quickly discovered cultural similarities between Filipino and Aboriginal basket weaving and is now helping restore and promote the ancient Ngarrindjeri craft, which is being sought after by galleries around the world.

Jelina Haines said she felt lost and out of place in Australia when she migrated from the Philippines with her husband and young son in 1997.

"You get named different things as well … you get told you're taking our jobs, go back to your own country so I got racism all the way through," Ms Haines said.

"I was looking for a connection and I found that connection through Aunty Ellen."

She met Ngarrindjeri Elder Ellen Trevorrow at a basket weaving workshop and soon discovered a familiar culture in a foreign land.

"My culture is similar to Ngarrindjeri culture in the views, the beliefs, the traditions, the respect and the trust of the elders," Ms Haines said.

"So I started trying to learn the Ngarrindjeri weaving.

"You find that it's peaceful and if I think about the weaving it brings me back to my home, sitting next to my grandmother."

Ngarrindjeri Elder Ellen Trevorrow wants to continue teaching children to weave at the now closed Camp Coorong. ( ABC News: Claire Campbell )

Teaching to ensure the 'survival of the art'

The lower Murray River, Lower Lakes and Coorong region are home to Ngarrindjeri people, which was once one of the most densely populated areas of Australia.

For thousands of years their weaving, which uses freshwater rushes from the Coorong that have been dried, has been used to create baskets, fishing nets and hunting and gathering utensils.

Mrs Trevorrow, who lives just outside of Meningie, said she made it her "main aim in life" to teach Ngarrindjeri weaving and culture to children and interested adults like Ms Haines, to ensure the survival of the art.

"I'm a fringe dweller from the one mile, three mile and seven mile camps out of the township," Mrs Trevorrow said.

"[Basket weaving] was around me as a child up until the age of 11 … my grandmother did a lot of it but it was more on survival, she'd make for money, for food, for clothing and that's how we survived back in those days.

"To have this revived again I thought 'well I'm keeping this going'."

A collection of Ngarrindjeri baskets and other items woven by elder Ellen Trevorrow. ( ABC News: Claire Campbell )

She has taught thousands of children and adults to weave through her work at a cultural education and awareness centre, Camp Coorong.

The camp opened in the late 1980s to give non-Aboriginal people a better understanding of Ngarrindjeri traditions and their relationship to the environment and country, and it was where Mrs Trevorrow and Ms Haines' friendship has grown over the past 18 years.

But the closure of the camp and museum last year due to a funding withdrawal has left the women disappointed and worried the traditional art and ancient stories of the Coorong could be lost.

"The elders that were all around us are gone and we need to keep it going … because they left so much behind in stories," Mrs Trevorrow said.

"Weaving is about reconciliation, it's about working together, it's very important."

Two women fighting to re-open Camp Coorong

Ngarrindjeri Elder Ellen Trevorrow and her friend Jelina Haines pick rushes around the Lower Lakes and Coorong for their weaving. ( ABC News: Claire Campbell )

With the deaths of several Ngarrindjeri elders in recent years, the fight to re-open Camp Coorong has fallen to these two women.

They have had to cancel dozens of school education camps this year as they desperately apply for funding, and fear reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people will take a backwards step without cultural centres like Camp Coorong.

"Camp Coorong is really the centre of the culture … and it's how the elders passed their knowledge to me and that was a great opportunity for me," Ms Haines said.

"I feel sad because 18 years of my life has been at Camp Coorong, I hope it will open again."