Home

It's been an amazing month. DAAF (Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair) was fantastic - the three days were like a whirlwind. So many enthusiastic, interested customers, partners and visitors to our stall. Happy to report we made record sales!! Interest in hand-printed Indigenous designed fabrics is really peaking. The Get it on! Awards Night on 12th August was booked out (180 tickets) and was a fantastic night. The exhibition at Aboriginal Bush Traders looks beautiful and big thanks to the team especially Liz and Bec. They really did a great job. So many people came up to us on the night to congratulate us and told us that it was a truly inclusive and participatory event with a great ambience. Even Timor Leste managed to get a last minute entry into the event that was stunning! Ironbark (the parent body of ABT) is already talking to us about 'next year'. BIG congratulations to ALL participants. You did good! We'll post the list of Award winners soon. The exhibition has been extended until mid September. Meanwhile, the art centre in Gunbalanya is still buzzing with dry season visitors. Lots of internationals come through in August. Staff are back at work with beautiful fabric prints coming out of the workshop, paintings, baskets, all sorts of fabulousness. We have temporarily removed fabrics from our Etsy store - they'll be back in September. We nearly sold out in Darwin. We still have lots of bags, clothing and pandanus mats there, so take a peak.

A quick summary of major events in coming months that we are involved in:

• 28 June - 23 July, Exhibition: Working Together at Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina NSW. An exhibition of textiles and fibre works by Bundjalung Wake Up Time and Kunwinjku Women. Includes hand-printed fabrics, pandanus baskets and mats.
• 28 June - 29 July, Exhibition: Mayhmayh: Different Birds at Nomad Arts, Darwin. Opening 8th July. An exhibition of artworks by Graham Badari, Gabriel Maralngurra, Joe Guymala and Thompson Nganjmirra. The feature paintings are from a forthcoming book of the same name by Graham Badari.
• 31 July - 27 August, Exhibition: Get it on! Aboriginal Bush Traders, Darwin NT. Awards night 12th August. A collaborative exhibition of clothing and items made from Injalak Arts designed and handprinted fabrics. More than 40 participants from around Australia and the US, India and Italy.
• 11 - 13 August, Event: Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Convention Centre Darwin. 40+ art centres from around Australia selling direct for three glorious and very busy days.
• 13 - 15 October, Event: Tarnanthi Art Fair, Adelaide. Three days of art centres selling direct in Adelaide.
• 3 November - 9 December, Exhibition: Injalak Fabric Addressed at Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts & Culture Centre, Katherine NT. This exhibition is a curated selection of 20 garments from the Get On It program.        
• EVERY Thursday and Sunday afternoon in dry season (only): Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, Darwin. Fresh stock sent into Darwin weekly featuring fabrics, bags, cushion covers, scarves, baskets, cards and more.

It's the first of June and our visitors are enjoying the drive across the river, the magnificent views and the countryside is still green. It's Yekke (early dry season) with breezes and cool nights. We are getting back into the rhythm of having visitors after being cut off from the world since December. Our ladies are demonstrating weaving onsite again and making some gorgeous creations. We are putting some in our online Etsy shop. The men are onsite painting year round only now they have an audience. The print workshop is very busy as the demand for our exquisite hand-printed fabrics is growing.  We are putting the finishing touches to Mayhmayh. Different Birds an exhibition at Nomad Art in Darwin featuring paintings of birds of West Arnhem Land. The exhibition starts on 29th June. The feature paintings are from a forthcoming book by Graham Badari and they are BEAUTIFUL. At the same time the gorgeous creations for Get it on! are starting to arrive at the art centre. Forty participants from around Australia and beyond have made or are putting the finishing touches to their contributions and we've nearly finished negotiating a venue in Darwin to show them off. We are looking at dates around 5  - 26 August. Will update as soon as confirmed. You can follow the progress of many participants on Facebook and Instagram by using #getiton2017 ... and don't forget if you're at Darwin we're at Mindil Beach Markets EVERY Thursday and Sunday.