how First Nations people express their cultural stories through fashion

Once positioned 250 meters east of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the massive Beaux Arts-style Jubilee Exhibition Building was constructed to deal with the 1887 Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition and rejoice the fiftieth anniversary of South Australian settlement.

The exhibition, which hosted each national and international participants, showcased various items including machinery, art, textiles and products.

In the South Australian area, the Protector of Aborigines is liable for the control of Aborigines in South Australia and the Northern Territory. issued cultural devices and artifacts.

These items included bags and wallets comprised of “native hemp” from the Northern Territory.

This colonial depiction of forced and unpaid First Nations fashion labor was a practice that had begun a long time earlier.

In 1866 the Central Board for the Protection of the Aborigines issued baskets, bags and bonnets Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia.

In the Queensland Court of the 1888 Melbourne Centennial ExhibitionPearl jewelry from the Torres Strait Islands was exhibited.

By the mid-Twentieth century, these goods were not featured in Native American exhibitions more autonomy of their craft production. This rise of self-determination led to the primary wave of First Nations fashion design, contemporary clothing manufacturers and textile designers.

A marketplace for design

First Nations women in Coffs Harbor within the mid-Sixties made clothes for tourists at Big Banana. Although the clothes didn’t feature their very own designs, the ladies earned income from making the dresses and sarongs.

In the late Sixties, textiles from the Tiwi Islands appeared and were later demonstrated small fashion shows.

Soon other craft centers joined the textile movement and there was an explosion of designs available in the market.

By the Eighties, First Nations fashion design had established itself as a movement.

This was the time when individual designers presented and presented their designs alongside the established craft centers on international catwalks.

Their designs and silhouettes were latest: they told contemporary stories about colonization, community, family and culture.

Self-determination

Today they’re First Nations artists and designers self-determining ownership of their cultural histories and corresponding fashion, gallery, library and museum practices.

Many First Nations artists and designers present in quite a lot of media, ensuring their designs and practices are culturally, environmentally and economically sustainable.

The First Nations pieces featured within the exhibition Radical textiles Traverse art and fashion design by taking the item off the body and placing it on a mannequin or frame. These artworks have the common denominator of honoring and celebrating tradition, ancestors, family, community and country.

The pieces embody wearable art from a purely experimental or industrial approach.

Dilly Bags Everywhere (2021) contains a modern, vibrant bag and an attention grabbing, eye-catching dress print with women and animal motifs.

Sustainable and recycled materials, including used wool blankets, discarded metal and plant-dyed cotton, are on the forefront of this work.

Trudy Inkamala was a respected elder and knowledge keeper who created fiber art and painted by hand artwork depicting and depicting people and wildlife. Her younger relative, Sheree Inkamala, is an aspiring textile and print artist.

Her designs embody the type of Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, an Aboriginal-run art center in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) known for its colourful and playful soft sculptures, works on paper, textiles and film.

Annabell Amagula's (Anindilyakwa people) (b. 1965) representation of land, culture and sustainability in her Ghost Net Bag and Dress (2020) highlights technical skill and complex details in multiple layers of expertise.

Amagula's dress and bag are comprised of fair trade silk, a hand-woven ghost net and recycled miners' high-visibility uniforms.

The silk pattern features an existing image of Amagula's ghost net crab sculpture, which has been repeatedly and digitally printed. A recycled miner's uniform is used to hem the dress and together with the ghost net to construct and form the bag.

Amagula is an experienced artist from Groote Eylandt within the Northern Territory and a member of Anindilyakwa Arts, whose family has been instrumental in supporting her within the art of painting and bag making.

Always has been, all the time will likely be

Clothing The Gaps' iconic power t-shirt boldly echoes the colours of the Aboriginal flag and bears the historically significant message “Always Was, Always Will Be”, a robust recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals are the are the rightful guardians of this land and sovereignty has never been relinquished.

Clothing The Gaps is a majority Aboriginal-owned social enterprise based in Victoria, co-founded by Laura Thompson (Gunditjmara people) and Sarah Sheridan. The organization designs wearable clothing for First Nations peoples and allies and uses colours and slogans to spotlight the critically vital issues affecting First Nations people.

Their clothing is ethically made in Australia in Wurundjeri Country, Victoria and embodies wearable activism that demands and influences social change.

Paul McCann's (Marrithiyel people) (*1984) Sovereignty Never Ceded Gown and Suit (2023) speaks of the trauma and resilience of First Nations and the importance of sovereignty and self-determination.

A commissioned set for the 2023 Melbourne Fashion Festival, McCann's dress features cream satin, blue organza and painted by hand gold patterns. The black vintage suit is decorated with hand-painted motifs in blue and gold.

A fashion design graduate, McCann was inspired by his grandmother's vintage outfits and his family's cultural stories and art. His design ethos is one in all culture and glamour, and he often adds hand-painted art and embellishments to garments and jewellery that tell stories of tradition and country.

These 4 artworks and fashion have diverse interwoven messages, themes and artistic practices. Some are wildly colourful while others are muted. Some represent contemporary graphics, others traditional art. Some speak openly about sovereignty, while others are subtle of their message.

Their commonality advocates and showcases culture, craftsmanship, sustainability and the will to inform the reality.