Hansard debates

Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (09:53:37): Today I am wearing, in the form of this jacket, a piece of Aboriginal art produced through the collaboration of local Aboriginal artists, who have screen-printed the fabric and had it, along with many other pieces, made into very fashionable garments with the assistance of other talented members of our community. The Shepparton district is home to the largest Indigenous population outside of metropolitan Melbourne. Much has been achieved in recent years through the development of local Aboriginal arts, and a blossoming encouragement of this process of Aboriginal art is very much attributable to the work of Kaiela Arts in High Street, Shepparton. Recently a fashion show to celebrate Kaiela Arts’ 2018 collection of wearable art garments and accessories was held at The Connection between Mooroopna and Shepparton, surrounded by the magnificent landscape of the river flats, the inspiration for the fabric itself. The first fashion collection was featured at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and Jakarta Fashion Week and in Vogue online 'Fashion trends’ in 2018. The fabric and designs are wearable art pieces which are bold, contemporary references to country, people and Aboriginal culture in Yorta Yorta country. The future vision for this work is that there will be the opportunity to purchase more fabric and inks and facilitate artists to travel to the Space Craft Studio in Melbourne to print the fabric for the Kaiela Arts 2019 collection.