Annabell Amagula

Annabell Amagula and other Anindilyakwa artists are part of a growing movement of First Nations artists using fashion to transmit their artistic and cultural voices across Australian and globally.

In 2015 the artists of Anindilyakwa Arts, on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia, established a successful ‘bush dyeing’ project, bringing together traditional knowledge of natural plant dyes and basket-making. This venture proved to be highly successful and in 2017 Anindilyakwa Arts launched its first collection of bush-dyed textiles and garments, as well as woven accessories created from reclaimed ghost nets and dyed textiles. The collection was shown that year at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair’s (DAAF) annual Country to Couture fashion presentation, following which Anindilyakwa artists Annabell Amagula and Maicy Lalara won an Asialink artist residency in Jakarta – continuing more than 400 years of cross-cultural exchange between Indonesia and the Anindilyakwa people.

For their 2020 collection, Anindilyakwa artists expanded their practice in textile and fashion design. This collection, titled ‘Yirradarringka-Langwa Akarwadiwada – Women’s Work’, was made in partnership with Darwin- based textile artist Anna Reynolds. Reynolds worked closely with the artists, providing ongoing training and upskilling, and assisted them with the creation of digitally printed textiles, which incorporated imagery from the Anindilyakwa artists’ own practice.

This striking and inventive ensemble combines traditional craft with contemporary fashion design practice. In this outfit, senior Anindilyakwa artist Annabell Amagula has used the repeated image of one of her woven ghost-net crab sculptures to create an original textile. The artist has made the textile into a simple shift-style dress and bound the edge with strips from a discarded ‘high-vis’ miner’s uniform. The same uniform fabric has also been used in combination with reclaimed ‘ghost nets’ to weave the matching circular bag. The image of the work shows the artist wearing her own designs.

Annabell Amagula’s Ghost-net bag and dress was shown as part of the 2020 Anindilyakwa fashion collection. As the artist describes, ‘When we at the art fair [DAAF] and I see everyone going crazy for our T-shirts and scarf, I feel happy and proud. It comes from our Country, I like wearing it and it’s good they like wearing it too’. The 2020 Anindilyakwa collection was a finalist in the Environmental and Social Contribution category of the inaugural National Indigenous Fashion Awards.

Text written by Rebecca Evans, featured in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom Volume 2.

Why do you think Amagula has repurposed high-vis miner uniforms in this work? What statement is the artist making with the use of this material combined with the other elements?

  • Ghost nets are discarded fishing nets that drift with the ocean currents and tides, continuing to catch fish, trapping and killing marine fauna in the process. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rangers, who care for their Country in Northern Australia, clean up the nets and rescue entangled wildlife. Artists then sometimes use the retrieved nets to create works of art, bringing to light the irreparable harm that discarded nets cause to local marine life. Northern Australia is a ghost-net hot spot, with the nets found along shorelines from Broome to Cairns. Directly to the north of Australia is the Arafura Sea, from where ninety per cent of the nets originate.
  • Locate this area on a map and begin to brainstorm why Northern Australia, particularly the Gulf of Carpentaria, is prone to marine debris.

Identify an environmental problem in your community or school. Investigate your issue and list some questions you may have. Share these with your class. Collaborating with another student and using recycled materials, design and make a wearable work of art that responds to this issue. In your artist statement, propose some innovative ways in which we can reduce this problem. Take it further: Experiment with various items to dye the recycled fabrics you are using to create your work.

Student Examples & Related Resources