Dreaming Big Empowerment by Design
It’s easy to tell that Hermy and Tamara Munnich are mother and daughter with their flashing smiles and tendency to finish each other’s sentences. Seileshia Calma-Goodrem has a serenity about her that belies her youth – quietly observing all that’s happening around her. June Mills arrives slightly late with a tumble of exquisitely painted clothing, which we exclaim over.
June’s fingers are long and tapered, as befits a musician (one of the Mills Sisters’ singers and composers), as well as a textile artist. Sarina Jan, steady and confident, is busy in the background, preparing for an event. Later she joins us, adding her perspective as a business woman. Lenore Dembski is the mother of the group – Paperbark Women is her shop – and she spruiks the talent of each of the women around the table while fuelling us with food.
The women are preparing for the inaugural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fashion and Textile Awards. I’m captivated by the clothes, particularly one of June’s hand-painted skirts depicting a sea scene.
The artists are part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) Women’s Fund, the first Indigenous women’s fund established in the Asia-Pacific region. One of its areas of focus is economically empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander textile artists.
June: It’s cultural maintenance, cultural knowledge. You know, we’re in a dominant culture, which suppresses our cultural business, so there was a definite need for me to make clothing that is representative of our culture, our tribal people. That skirt of mine that I made, that you fell in love with, is the major Dreaming for the Larrakia people…
And you’ll see the sea eagle, another major Dreaming. The sea eagle flying over Casuarina Beach. So that, to me
