Foxy fashion by Anne Hanning

Foxy fashion by Anne Hanning

But before Kooey’s models take to the catwalk there is something not normally done in Sydney - a welcome to country and acknowledgement to the traditional owners of the region. That’s the Territory touch Hanning brings with her as an Indigenous woman conscious of cultural etiquette. The welcome got the crowd’s attention followed by the sounds of thunder and flashes of wet season lightning on the big screen. Then underwater images of sea turtles and the imposing form of a whale shark slide by. The Ningaloo swimwear collection is introduced, designed by Hanning and inspired by Indigenous art and the remote West Australian Marine Park.

The girls took to the catwalk. Indigenous models Emily Cattermole, the face of the Kooey range, and Queensland’s Samantha Harris brought the fabric designs to life. The Ningaloo Collection was different: contemporary, bright and breezy. The fashion heavyweights in the first row of the audience all started writing at once. “It was the biggest show we’ve ever done and the first one where Anne’s work has been showcased,” recounts Kooey owner Nikki Silverthorne. “We had lot of media attention afterwards, and so many people came up to us and said how much they liked it.”

Following the Fashion Week launch, Kooey’s Ningaloo Collection is now on sale in selected shops in the USA as they slip into summer and in northern Australia enjoying their dry season. In the capitals of southern Australia the line will be on the shelves at the end of July for the southern summer season. For Hanning it has been over a year of collaboration and hard work, with the upcoming sales figures to mark the true test of the popularity of her designs. “It’s been exciting but it’s a waiting game as well,” she says. “It’s putting a lot of time and effort in, and just waiting for the results.”

For Hanning, notoriety as a fashion designer is newly acquired. She has always enjoyed art as a pastime, in her off duty hours from her day job as a senior researcher in child health at Darwin’s Menzies School of Health Research. She even used her artistic talent to produce an Indigenous Engagement Tool - a painting used to encourage discussion on child development among Aboriginal parents.

While studying at Perth’s Curtin University, Hanning decided there was a gap in the fashion market when it came to contemporary Indigenous designs. “Most of the Indigenous art is related to tourism or actual fine art and if there was anything that was done in fashion it was ties and scarves - the low end,” she observes. “So when I finished university I decided to put myself out there and see what happened. Then came Kooey.”

Hanning contacted Silverthorne, whose Kooey label had already used Indigenous inspired designs, and began to collaborate. Kooey swimwear for men and women is manufactured in Perth, the swimsuits made from Lycra imported from Spain (because none is manufactured in Australia) and the original designs printed in Brisbane. “The other swimwear brands buy their prints,” states Silverthorne. “They’re not designed specifically for them like ours are. When you wear one of ours you’re wearing a piece of art, not just a print.”

The product of the initial collaboration was a single Hanning design for Kooey’s Kimberley Collection, but that was magnified when she produced a range of designs and jewellery for this year’s Ningaloo Collection. To market that collection a decision was made to send an entire production crew to the Ningaloo Marine Park to photograph the range and document the shoot on video.

A crew of 15 photographers, lighting and make-up specialists and assistants, models and directors made their way north. “It was 5 o’clock wake-up, then make-up, then pack the gear,” recalls Hanning. “On location we put the sets together and the theme for that day. Seven o’clock finish, and come back. It was an exhausting four days.”

It did, however, produce splendid results and introduced a new Indigenous designer to the industry. The Ningaloo Collection has since been launched at the Miami Swim Show, the Cannes event of the international swimwear industry. Hanning had also designed swimwear worn by Miss Universe Australia Rachael Finch, plus the Miss Universe jewellery gift from Australia that Finch took to the Bahamas to be auctioned off for the Jamaican AIDS Foundation. Her $5000 creation consisting of white gold and pink argyle diamonds was auctioned for $58 000.

It appears that Anne Hanning’s new career is just beginning.

The Indigenous Music Awards go national

Mauboy was followed by another Territory phenomenon, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. The blind singer-songwriter had swept the awards in 2008 with his internationally successful Gurrumul album, and this year he took away the Fred Hollows Foundation Act of the Year plus the artwork and design award for that same CD. Singing in his Gumatj language, he filled the Gardens Amphitheatre with his distinctive sweet, soaring voice, the crowd thrilled to see his daughter joining him on stage. “The highlight for me was being in the pit and listening to all the children singing along to Gurrumul at the top of their voices,” recalled Helen Page, late of APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association), who has attended every year. “And I put this down to no alcohol. I think the kids were a lot safer this year and it was beautiful to see and hear.”

But that was 2009, and soon the Indigenous Music Awards will light up the Darwin Festival for the seventh time, celebrating the achievements of the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal musical performers during the 2010 Festival’s final week. “Over the last four years the national media interest in the event has been huge,” observes Mark Smith, manager of MusicNT, the event’s organiser. “The success of Jessica and Gurrumul has brought people in and had them realise that there is something happening here - something that is of a national and international standard.”

Indeed, the 2009 event attracted journalists from the Weekend Australian and Rolling Stone, the bible of contemporary music, reflecting the growing interest in Indigenous music and artists. That interest extends to the awards’ reputation for identifying emerging artists. A $10 000 touring award was given last year to Pott Street, supported by Artback NT, Newmont Mining and HWE Mining.

The Territory mining sector continues to support the awards in 2010. Energy Resources of Australia and ConocoPhillips both contribute $10 000 each with ERA sponsoring the Album of the Year award and ConocoPhillips the DVD Filmclip of the Year.

“The highlight for me was being in the pit and listening to all the children singing along to Gurrumul at the top of their voices.”

The sponsors also recognise the event’s increasing national profile. “We are proud to support local festivals in Darwin and West Arnhem Land where established and emerging bands develop their skills,” ERA Chief Executive Rob Atkinson said. “It’s great that the NT Indigenous Music Awards provide an opportunity for so many talented performers to tell their stories and share their experiences through music.”

As a result of that national awareness, MusicNT will soon extend the awards outside the Territory borders. “We’re looking at a two year program to try to take the awards national in 2011,” explains Smith. “So this year will run through as it has as the Northern Territory Awards, then next year we’re working towards bringing two of the key awards, like Best Act or Song of the Year, and make them national awards. We’ll slowly make that change until they become totally national awards.”

As the awards nomination forms are sent out to industry representatives and remote communities, much of the attention this year is on the much anticipated third album by the Saltwater Band from Elcho Island in East Arnhem Land. Infused with reggae and ska, with songs written by singers Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Manuel Dhurrkay, Saltwater is the band that could take away the 2010 Indigenous Music gongs. But they may be challenged by the Garangali Band from Yilpara, or Djupi, the sons of the Warumpi Band from Papunya.

More than anything, the Indigenous Music Awards provide young musicians, often from remote communities, a recognition of excellence from the greater Australian community, that their work is exceptional and a valuable addition to the greater Australian culture. “It’s the recognition,” states Smith. “That’s why we made the theme for this year’s 2010 awards all about families. That’s been a consistent thing all through the year. People have been recognised by receiving awards but it’s all about the families that supported them. The awards validate what their families always knew.”