Twelve First Nations fashion and textile designers and organisations are being supported to further their creative endeavour, create new collections, build and scale sustainable businesses and reach new, emerging markets through grant funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. 

Flourish II: First Nations Textile Design & Fashion Innovation Fund provides up to $50,000 that can be used to support innovation, production, capacity building, marketing, professional development, seed funding and increasing digital visibility in the First Nations textile design and fashion sector. 

This year, the Australia Council for the Arts has announced 12 recipients of the Flourish fund, including Julie Shaw, founder and creative director of luxury resortwear label Maara Collective, to enable her to market her brand internationally.

Ms Shaw said: “The planned activity would allow me to attend some of the USA’s key fashion trade fairs and conduct market research whilst in the USA in further key locations (New York, Los Angeles and Miami). Attendance at trade fairs will provide professional development opportunities in forming strategic partnerships with key retailers and showrooms within the USA.” 

_{Image: Gammin Threads, David Jones Indigenous Fashion Projects Runway, Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2023, Photo by Katherine Azzopardi Citigraphica Media}

Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, in the Northern Territory, will use the funding to train young women (daughters and granddaughters of the artists) to screen print, pattern make and sew and create a collection. The artists will work with industry experts to conceptualise and make the one-off collection. 

“The hope is that the resulting collection ‘Nurna kutatha mpaarama!’ (We are always making!) will show on the runway in Darwin 2024 as part of Country to Couture,” Yarrenyty Arltere Artists said.

Kieren Karritpul, an artist with the Merrepen Arts Culture & Language Aboriginal Corporation in the Northern Territory, is a recipient of Flourish II funding and recognises the positive impact it will have on every artist at the organisation: 

“We see Merrepen Arts are going from strength to strength. We have achieved a lot in the last couple of years and hope this continues. Our artists are enthusiastic to keep learning new skills and developing their art. This funding inspires all our artists to keep going forward,” he said. 

Mr Karritpul, who is looking forward to using the funding to visit and learn from the Nagula Jardu Arts Centre in Broome, said: “I am looking forward to seeing the Western Australian coast and the colour of the ocean. It will help us in lots of ways. We have always admired the work from Broome so I will be able to learn from them. When I return, I will teach the other artists at Merrepen what I have learnt and seen.”