Amanda Hayman (Wakka Wakka/Kalkadoon), Owner and Creative Director of Magpie Goose, was on location during the video campaign for the NAIDOC 2024 launch.
Can you tell us about the collaboration and how it aims to benefit the economy of artists and fire practitioners?
As an Aboriginal-owned social enterprise, we are very conscious of the fashion industry's environmental impact on this planet, so we’re exploring more ways to care for Country through clothing. The Magpie Goose x Firesticks Alliance collaborative t-shirt range aims to shine a light on Firesticks Alliance and its important work in supporting communities to heal and protect Country through cultural fire practices.
We invited three artists to design a T-shirt that reflected their personal interpretations of cultural burning. The collaboration benefits artists by paying them a commission to create original designs and royalties from sales.
The Magpie Goose community is conscious consumers; they care about ethical purchases, knowing that people who make the clothes are being paid appropriately, have good working conditions, and care about the environment and sustainability. They are also amazing allies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people! They believe in equality and social justice. We hope our amazing customer base, with our shared values, will be introduced to Firesticks and become their supporters.
Magpie Goose and Firesticks Alliance share the profits from all t-shirt sales. They will support us in continuing our work and creating social impact for Aboriginal communities across Australia, including artists and fire practitioners.
In what ways has this collaboration helped preserve and promote Indigenous art forms and traditional knowledge while contributing to the economic empowerment of the artists?
By collaborating, our organisations have shared knowledge amongst our combined audiences. By launching a capsule range of t-shirts, the Magpie Goose audience has learned about the cultural significance and practical benefits of traditional land management practices that they may have yet to learn about. And Firesticks Alliance audiences can see how storytelling through art is a powerful way to preserve and share knowledge about fire and that choosing responsibly made clothing is a way to care for Country too.
Can you share any success stories or examples of individuals or communities that have benefited from the collaboration between industry and artists?
We partner with remote and regional communities to share Aboriginal stories with the broader Australian community. Artists receive licensing fees for their artwork and exposure by releasing one print at a time over 13 months. We champion each artist and showcase their art. Featuring artwork on clothing can create new career pathways and lead to further opportunities in the fashion and design industry, like artists designing for further brands or future collaborations or creating fashion themselves. Ikuntji Artists are a great example of this. We partnered with them in 2020; since then, they have thrived in the fashion industry!
What challenges are currently faced in promoting economic empowerment for artists and fire practitioners within Australia, and how are these challenges addressed through collaboration?
For artists in regional and remote communities, industry opportunities can be hard to come by, and damaging art procurement practices like ‘carpetbagging’ are still an issue. For fire practitioners, widespread misunderstandings remain about the role and application of fire in managing landscapes and ecosystems.
Partnering with Firesticks offers us a unique opportunity to build awareness about both the power of Aboriginal art and cultural burning – by bringing these together in a tangible way through bright, bold t-shirt designs, we hope more people value this unique knowledge and practice caring for Country at a time when they’re deeply needed.
How do you measure the impact of the collaboration on the economic well-being of artists, and what are the key indicators of success?
Every year, we report on metrics that speak to our key impact areas: economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, reconciliation and storytelling, and consciously made fashion. We capture metrics like artist fees paid to Aboriginal artists, art centres, and community organisations, engagement of community-based Indigenous service providers and creative talent, and textile waste saved from landfills (by creating accessories from offcuts, like scrunchies from the t-shirt manufacturing process of this collaboration!).
Economic well-being is very personal and individual; we learn unique stories from conversations with artists. Still, we don’t necessarily capture them in metrics or share them widely. One memorable conversation was with an artist who said that she used her artist fee to buy a washing machine and a refrigerator; she had never had both of these white goods working at the same time. Having clean clothes and food is essential for health and well-being, not to mention all the social, emotional and mental benefits. Economic opportunities often have a ripple effect; they can significantly improve people's lives.
To learn more, visit Our Impact.
