How Indigenous artists reclaim colonial objects and celebrate culture through clothing

A few years ago I started collecting vintage Australian tourist scarves depicting Aboriginal people as primitive caricatures or noble savages. I currently own over a dozen scarves with images ranging from Western Indigenous art and objects to tokenistic scenes of Indigenous depictions.

Collecting such tourist items is nothing new. Kitschy items are often collected and salvaged by indigenous peoples, artists, designers, and academics.

My kitschy scarf fascination includes wearing scarves as costumes, which I recently did at the Darwin Country to Couture runway show.

I did this as a creative response to academic research on Indigenous fashion, art, and style, and to address Indigenous clothing practices, the use of clothing and accessories as art. did.

Aboriginalia and Koli Kitsch

Artists such as Destiny Deacon and Tony Albert have used several names to describe items that depict Western depictions of Indigenous people, art, and objects, such as Koori Kitsch and Aboriginal people.

These depictions can be seen on souvenirs and small gifts in the form of tea towels, tablecloths, postcards, ashtrays, dolls, scarves, badges, patches, etc.

Destiny Deacon (KuKu/Erub/Mer) has been using Koori Kitsch objects for decades. In a piece titled Border Patrol (2006), Deacon photographs white figures on tea towels depicting Australian landmarks, plants, animals and hunting Aboriginal people.

Vintage souvenir ashtrays and textiles often feature in Tony Albert’s (Giramay/Idinji/Kuku Yalanji) art. Albert is credited with coining the term ‘Aboriginalia’ to describe Western stereotypes about Indigenous people and culture in kitschy items.

Kait James (Wadawurrung) decolonizes vintage souvenir towels with embroidered embellishments, highlighting problematic designs and repurposing them as Indigenous art. James recently disrupted Barbie by creating a custom Aboriginal flag dress and a banner that read “Faboriginal Barbie.”

In Kayla Dickens’ (Wiradjuri) 2022 exhibition ‘Return to Sender’, the collage background features a superimposed and enlarged array of images, symbols and text that interrogate colonization and colonial sexual exploitation. Vintage postcards were used.

indigenous clothing

Indigenous peoples also use Aboriginalia in their fashion. Paul McCann (Maritiel) embellished his haute couture outfits with vintage textiles depicting indigenous peoples, animals and plants.

One of McCann’s designs at Australian Fashion Week 2022, the Blind Out Warrior, subverted Aboriginal men’s kitsch by placing it front and center on flashy tops. This form of work, called “garment,” focuses on contemporary artists’ use of clothing within their work.

While Aboriginal and Koli kitsch are commonly used terms, Indigenous clothing is a recent definition and not yet in mainstream use. This is a new trend being adopted by many Indigenous artists whose work is concerned with confronting or reconstructing history, focusing on the present world, or imagining new futures.

This may look like creating modern versions of traditional works, or critiquing and retelling the colonial dress that was forced on Indigenous peoples. Some artists create pieces that reflect contemporary protest wear, while others create futuristic pieces that depict fantasies or anticipate trends.

Peter Waples-Crow’s (Ngarigo) Queen Ngarigo – Cloak of Queer Visibility (2018) is made of possum skin reworked in iridescent colors to reference his dual identities as Aboriginal and queer. Features a cloak and a train.

Kelly Koumalatsos (Wergaia/Wemba Wemba) uses possum fur as stamps to create cultural textiles. His important works use these fabrics to form colonial and Western costumes that look back at colonization.

When Koumaratsos displays clothing in his gallery, he also includes old family portraits to further contextualize colonial clothing.

Kyra Mancktelow (Quandamooka) specializes in creating clothing in the form of sculptures and prints to explore colonial histories of Western clothing enforcement and the removal of cultural clothing. The items she recreates range from compulsory military jackets to costumes worn on duty to contemporary forms that reference the history of the movement.

Kali Tarkari Dodd’s (Kauruna/Narunga/Ngarrindjeri) exhibition ‘Royal Jewels’ (2022) showcased indigenous versions of jewelery owned by the British Royal Family. By using cultural textile techniques to replicate the British monarch’s jewelry collection, Dodd turns the tables and confronts colonization by telling the truth about this country’s history.

Artist Coffinbirth (Charlotte Allingham, Wiradjuri/Ngiyampa) creates designs featuring indigenous people in unique costumes throughout the ages. Coffinbirth specifically reimages or recreates Indigenous cultures and issues through pop culture graphics and comic book style art.

Dennis Golding (Kamilaroi/Gamilarai) creates hand-painted superhero capes to celebrate the power of Indigenous identity. He often works with indigenous youth to develop his own versions.

Destruction, exploitation, and indigenization

Many indigenous peoples have an inherent need to banish harmful histories and creatively communicate cultural practices.

This may be through artists exhibiting their work, fashion designers telling their stories, or everyday Indigenous people who prefer to practice their culture through costume. When Indigenous artists use colonial souvenirs and clothing, they can disrupt colonization and celebrate their culture.

Wearing a kitschy scarf means that I join a distinguished group of Indigenous artists who use these objects and clothing in their work and creative expression.

Read more: A quick look back at Australia’s long history of indigenous fashion design