WELCOME BACK TO SERIES 5 - WARDROBE CRISIS SHARE THE PODCAST MIC. OUR GUEST HOST THIS WEEK IS YATU WIDDERS-HUNT. SHE’S IN CONVERSATION WITH FIRST NATIONS CURATOR SHONAE HOBSON & DESIGNERS JULIE SHAW AND TEAGAN COWLISHAW. PROUDLY PRESENTED BY BENDIGO ART GALLERY.
Piinpi at Bendigo Art Gallery featuring work by Grace Lillian Lee and artists from Mornington Island.
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ABOUT YOUR GUEST HOST: YATU WIDDERS-HUNT
Yatu is a member of the Dunghutti and Anaiwan peoples of the Northern Tablelands of NSW. A journalist, speaker and advocate for the Indigenous fashion sector, she is currently a director at Indigenous social change agency Cox Inall Ridgeway, and is on the board of directors of the First Nations Fashion & Design council.
Follow her on Instagram, @ausindiegenousfashion
Yatu-Widders Hunt photographed for Country Road last year.
EPISODE 132 FEATURES:
SHONAE HOBSON is a Southern Kaantju woman from Coen, Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland. She is the inaugural First Nations Curator at Bendigo Art Gallery.
Curator Shonae Hobson
JULIE SHAW is a Yuwaalaraay woman and the founder of Maara Collective, an Indigenous an Australian luxury resortwear brand embracing a collaborative approach to design. They work closely with Indigenous artists and creatives, drawing inspiration from Country to present within the context of contemporary fashion. Find their website here, and Instagram here.
Julie Shaw of Maara Collective
TEAGAN COWLISHAW is the designer behind Aarli - a first nations brand that specialises in producing custom made sustainable and ethical streetwear from deadstock materials. She is also co-founder of First Nations Fashion & Design (which we’ll hear about next episode). Teagan’s family kinship lies with Nyikina people and paternal connections are with Bardi and Nyul Nyul people on the Dampier Peninsular, WA. Follow Aarli on Instagram.
PIINPI
Created exclusively for and by Bendigo Art Gallery, Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion shines a light on Australia’s leading First Nations fashion creatives. Featuring the work of Indigenous artists and designers from the inner city to remote desert art centres, the exhibition highlights the strength and diversity of the rapidly expanding Indigenous fashion and textile industry. Book your ticket here.
The word piinpi is “commonly used across regions of East Coast Cape York Peninsula, refers to Indigenous 'seasonal changes' and the regeneration of Country. For centuries, Indigenous knowledge and connection to the land has played a pivotal role in art and culture for Australia's First Peoples. Seasonal changes signify the availability of mayi (bush foods), when to travel, and when to collect traditional materials for ceremony and malkari (traditional dance). Across the landscape of Indigenous fashion today designers and artists are sharing their stories through beautifully crafted fabrics and wearable art.” Read the rest here.
NOTES
60,000 YEARS “Weaving is the act of putting two fibres together and rubbing them on our legs. It has been happening for centuries, over 60,000 years. And this is the core essence of everything we’re wearing today. The act of weaving is so simple, but so difficult as well, because it’s arduous and it’s repetitive and it’s long. Maybe it’s a bit like life – but then you can create this beautiful thing.” - Grace Lillian Lee, via Guardian Australia. Read the rest here.
FIRST NATIONS CURATORS aren’t as common as they should be, but there are several brilliant women currently shining in these roles in Australia. As Shonae says, historically galleries have been very Western-focused. She mentions Genevieve Grieves, Lead Curator for the Bunjilaka project at Melbourne Museum, where she led a series of important community consultations for the First Peoples exhibition. Grieves curated the landmark AWAKEN exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. Also, Kimberly Moulton, who is Senior Curator South Eastern Aboriginal Collections at Museums Victoria.
At Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Clothilde Bullen, a Wardandi (Nyoongar) Aboriginal woman with English/French heritage, is Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections and Exhibitions. Independent curator Emily McDaniel is also making waves. Meanwhile, the first Indigenous man to lead the Biennale of Sydney, Brook Andrew, was appointed in 2019.
“FOR SO LONG, OUR STORIES AND OUR HISTORIES HAVE BEEN TOLD THROUGH A WESTERN LENS. IT’S ONLY WHEN WE MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE FIRST NATIONS REPRESENTATION IN THESE SPACES THAT OUR HISTORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH OUR LENS.” - SHONAE HOBSON
MOB is a colloquial term identifying a group of Aboriginal people associated with a particular place or country. It is used to connect and identify who an Aboriginal person is and where they are from. Mob can represent a family group, clan group or wider Aboriginal community group. More here.
Each August CAIRNS INDIGENOUS ART FAIR is focused on offering an ethical art market place, attracting national and international collectors and curators, commissioning new work and providing pathways for emerging visual and performance artists. Find out here. Shonae mentions the fashion performances worked on by Grace Lillian Lee, including Wandan in 2017 - below.
DARWIN ABORIGINAL ART FAIR (DAAF) also happens in August and has a strong fashion focus - they’ve run the Country to Couture annual showcase of Indigenous textiles and fashion design since 2016, supported by the Northern Territory Government and, now, high street brand Country Road. More here.
The NATIONAL INDIGENOUS FASHION AWARDS (NIFA) launched in 2020 - read all about it.
Yatu mentions that VOGUE AUSTRALIA’s “Hope”-themed September 2020 issue cover featured an Aboriginal artwork - it was by Anangu/Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara woman Betty Muffler. See it here.
LINDA JACKSON is a pioneering Australian fashion designer who worked with Aboriginal artists at UTOPIA STATION in the 1980s. Listen to Linda on Episode 14 here.
RAIN BIRD The Pacific koel (Eudynamys orientalis), also known as the eastern koel, is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. In Australia, it is colloquially known as the rainbird or stormbird, as its call is usually more prevalent before or during stormy weather.
CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS FASHION “I really wanted to give audiences a snapshot of the work that’s happening today,” says Shonae. “There are so many indigenous designers and artist out there.” She reminds us that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is continuous, evolving and diverse. “As much as it is about the product, it’s also really about the process,” she adds.
Grace Rosendale, Seed Pods, 2019. Silk organza. Courtesy of the artist, Hopevale Arts and Cultural Centre and Queensland University of Technology Model: Magnolia Maymuru. Photographer: Bronwyn Kidd.
HOPE VALE ART & CULTURE CENTRE celebrates and maintains stories and traditions of Queensland’s Guugu-Ymithirr culture. Read about the artists, including Grace Rosendale whose work is pictured above, here.
BULA’BULA ARTS X MAARA COLLECTIVE This collaboration between Julie Shaw’s Sydney-based Indigenous fashion brand and the master weavers of Bula’bula in Arnhem Land won the the Community Collaboration Award at the inaugural NIFAs.
Model Charlee Fraser wears woven hat by Margaret Malibirr and woven bag by Margaret Bambalarra, from Bula’bula Arts x MAARA Collective collection. Photographed by Georges Antoni.
MAARA COLLECTIVE The name maara refers to 'hands' in the Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay language groups.
PANDANUS Pandanus tectorius is a species of Pandanus that is native to Malesia, eastern Australia, and the Pacific Islands. It grows in the coastal lowlands typically near the edge of the ocean. Common names in English include thatch screwpine, Tahitian screwpine, hala tree, pandanus, and pu hala in Hawaiian. When harvesting the Pandanus plant for basketry, weavers cut away young leaves, strip away the edge and middle sections, and place cuttings outside for drying. Once dry, the weaver can select and cut sections of the harvest to the specific size and shape necessary.
A master weaver at Bula’bula
AARLI means fish in in Bardi language.
Teagan mentions the STOLEN GENERATION - “Between 1910 and the 1970s*, many First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of various government policies. The generations of children removed under these policies became known as the Stolen Generations. The policies of child removal left a legacy of trauma and loss that continues to affect Indigenous communities, families and individuals today.” (*Policies of forced removals were in place from 1910 – 1969, but there are many stories of forced removals prior to and after these dates.) Via Australians Together
MIMMIN designer Mim Cole is a Larrakia, Wardaman, Karajarri and mixed-race, multitalented artist from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Find her work here.
At her PAPERBARK WOMAN store in Darwin, Lenore Dembski has sold her own designs and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fashion and fabrics since the 1990s.
RON GIDGUP was a high-end Perth-based Aboriginal fashion designer. Very little appears about him on the web, so if you have any leads - we’d love to know more!
Left, Aarli’s “Deadly” jumpsuit as seen at Piinpi
“WE HAVE INFLUENCED, AND BEEN AN INSPIRATION, FOR MANY [NON-INDIGENOUS] DESIGNERS IN AUSTRALIA FOR YEARS…IT’S FINALLY TIME FOR US TO CONTINUE OUR OWN STORYLINES, HAVE OUR OWN PLATFORMS, HAVE OUR MOB CONTINUE CULTURE THROUGH FASHION. IT IS A PART, I WOULD SAY, OF RECONCILIATION.” - TEAGAN COWLISHAW
MUSIC is by Montaigne, who sang this special acoustic version of “Because I love You” from her album Glorious Heights, just for us.Can you help us grow? Tell your friends about Wardrobe Crisis, or leave a review in your favourite podcast app.
Clare & the Wardrobe Crisis team x