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Aboriginal textile designers produce designs for all of the focus areas in the syllabus:

• apparel
• furnishings
• costume
• textile arts
• non-apparel.
  

For each focus area identify an Aboriginal textile designer working in the focus area.
Select one focus area and discuss the influence of Aboriginal people on contemporary design in that area.

Robyn Caughlan has designed a number of national costumes for the Miss Australia representative in the Miss Universe pageant. The Aboriginal wedding dress is one of Robyn's designs which has a powerful statement to make about Aboriginal people being wedded to the land.

Sketch the design and suggest both construction and design feature labels.

Aboriginal wedding dress by Robyn Caughlan. Modelled by Aleria French. Photo: Christopher Toh. Courtesy: Robyn Caughlan.

Discuss the statement below using examples from the case study.

Textiles are a medium for self-expression and communication between people.

Select one Aboriginal textile design group and identify the cultural influences on their designs. Include:

• geographic location
• technological development
• resources available
• religious practices
• workers' skills
• status.

10. Many Aboriginal textile designers are successful contemporary designers. Select one designer and analyse how the following factors may affect or have affected the success or failure of designers:

Prepare a forum with other class members to examine the following statement:

Aboriginal design in recent times has been influenced by the effects of tourism.

As with all designers, marketing can impact significantly on success or failure. The Internet is just one aspect of marketing. Compare the web sites of two of the following Aboriginal textile designers:

• Tobwabba
• Ernabella Arts Inc
• Tiwi designs

Examine the marketing strategies of at least two of the following Aboriginal design groups:

• Tobwabba
• Tiwi Design
• Utopia
• Ernabella.

The following design has been provided to you by an Aboriginal designer for use as furnishing fabric. A description of the design, background to the designer and the dreamtime story have been given to you. Create a label from the information provided that would be suitable for attachment to furniture.

Textile length, Jurrukuni (Owl), black screen-print on rust-red cotton, designed as a border pattern by Giovanni Tipungwuti in 1973, re-developed as an all-over design by Osmond Kantilla 1993. Printed at Tiwi Design, Bathurst Island, Northern Territory in 1996. 96/303/1. Powerhouse Museum Collection.

Description
Textile length of rust-red cotton, with all-over repeating design in black ink. Double vertical lines are repeated across the fabric, and in between, an abstract repeat design of an owl, based around two joined double circles across, and various small sections of hatched lines.

Design
Designed by Giovanni Tipungwuti (1953-1993) as a border design, based on the Tiwi story of the owl-man, in 1973. Giovanni Tipungwuti worked as a textile designer and printer at Tiwi Design from about 1969-1984. It was expanded without change as an all-over pattern by Osmond Kantilla (darkroom technician) in 1993.

Story from the dreamtime
During creation times when all the animals and birds were still men and women, Purutjikini, a boo-book owl man and his wife Pintoma, a barn-owl woman, held the first kurlama ceremony on the south-west of Bathurst Island. They invited people including Jirikati (white-headed sea eagle) and Tupatupini, the small owl and the Nigauis, who are small spirit people still inhabiting the mangrove swamps of the area. (Tiwi Design, 1983)

Original Owl design can be seen at: http://www.tiwiart.com/tiwi/textile/design/tiwi_design20.htm