One of Australia’s most remote textile-producing Indigenous arts collectives,
Bábbarra Women’s Centre in Maningrida, Arnhem Land, has teamed up with
Kip&Co on a contemporary textile & homewares collection.
Originally established as a women’s refuge, Bábbarra is governed by women for women as advocates for better learning and economic opportunities for Indigenous females and their families. The artists at the centre design and hand-print textiles that are sold in Australia and internationally. Each length of fabric is unique and tells the ancestral stories of Arnhem Land country and cultures.
According to Jessica Phillips, the first local Indigenous manager of Bábbarra Women’s Centre, art and design are one of the key ways remote Aboriginal communities engage with the mainstream economy.
“We know that when women are financially empowered, the flow-on effects for children and families are significant,” she says.
