Add Category“They’re things that people like and gravitate to,” Turner told Inside Retail. “Having that in your house is nice; it’s a good feeling.”
Each piece in the collection has a name in both English and the Bundjalung-Yugambeh language of Turner’s ancestors, and product tags include information about Turner and his background.
“This kind of national recognition for Indigenous artwork is a good thing for inclusion moving forward,” he said.
From his dining room table to a national retail chain
Turner’s first experience making art was as a young child, painting with his grandfather. But it wasn’t until two years ago, when his daughter was learning about Indigenous art in school that he decided to take it up again.
“We just came home [from her school] one day and sat around the dining room table and painted, and it all started from there,” he said.
Word soon spread to friends and family that Turner was taking commissions, and with his wife’s help, he launched an e-commerce site, where he started selling prints, and built a presence on social media.
About a year ago, a representative from Adairs got in touch to see if he’d be interested in designing a range of bedding and homewares for the retail chain.
“It was actually one of our goals for this year, but I didn’t think it would ever happen because it was a big goal,” he said.
When it came to collaborating with Adairs’ design team, Turner created the artwork and the retailer was responsible for translating it onto textiles, such as bedding, cushions, baby swaddles and rugs, and home decor items, such as wooden trays.
“They were very inclusive, so they were always going back-and-forth to make sure that [the way the design was translated] wasn’t affecting how the art was painted, and making sure that it was to my liking and how I envisioned it,” Turner said.
Turner also shared the stories and meanings behind each of his artworks with the team throughout the design process.
“They were really respectful in that way,” he said.
Uptick in collaborations
There has been a noticeable uptick in non-Indigenous brands collaborating with Indigenous artists and designers over the past year and a half, since the Black Lives Matter movement forced businesses around the world to examine their role in perpetuating racial inequality, even if it was simply through a lack of action.
Earlier this year, Melbourne-based jeans brand Nobody Denim launched a capsule collection with Bima Wear, a women’s manufacturing collective in the Tiwi Islands, and reusable coffee cup brand Frank Green released a range of products featuring designs and slogans from Indigenous-led social enterprise Clothing the Gaps.
But while these partnerships are often held up as positive signs of change, some have pointed out that collaborations don’t always give Indigenous artists and designers the recognition and commercial benefits they deserve.
Some organisations, such as First Nations Fashion + Design, a nonprofit for Indigenous creatives, and Welcome to Country, an online marketplace for Indigenous brands, are focusing on empowering Indigenous people to grow their own businesses, rather than needing to rely on bigger brands to approach them.
While other organisations, such as Indigenous Fashion Projects, an arm of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation, are embracing a co-design model, where both parties benefit equally from collaboration.
For Turner, however, the collaboration with Adairs was “a dream come true”.
“I’m just super grateful to share this artwork across the country,” he said.