SHEREE FORD – NAGULA JARNDU
Small Business + Community
Broome, WA
Nagula Jarndu (Saltwater Woman) is a social enterprise for First Nations women, with a focus on handprinted textiles. We are on Yawuru country in Broome. The women draw on their cultural knowledge to produce imagery that is transformed into handprinted textiles.
Yawuru Jarndu first started operating in 1987 when it was established as an Indigenous women’s resource centre by Yawuru women, with the aim of recording oral history and preserving Yawuru language and culture. A retail outlet was established in 1998 called Nagula Jarndu Designs which proved a successful venture. Now, with a more focused and strategic view towards social enterprise and a more self-sustainable business model, the organisation has given Aboriginal women the opportunity to produce distinctive hand-crafted textiles and textile products with motifs and colours sourced from the unique Broome landscape.
The women are supported to engage with the broader Aboriginal Arts community and participate in valuable opportunities including the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Revealed (Perth), and many other exhibitions both in regional areas and capital cities throughout Australia.
This clothing collection was designed around the theme of Buru, the Yawuru word for Country. Six artists each designed two prints that spoke of their connections to country and important cultural connections to particular land, animals or plants. These designs were screen and digitally printed onto linen and cottons and sewn into garments that the artists had also designed. The garments have simple silhouettes to let the stories on the fabrics be the focus.
