Student Name: Chen Xiaoyan

Student No: 27596907

An often-forgotten trend is an indigenous design in Australia. In the past, non-indigenous designers have been reluctant to acknowledge the value of the indigenous perspective. This is rooted in traditional design education, which only regards designs stemming from North America and Europe as artistic. The world of “manmade” design constituted as recovered history, not only places and marginalizes women, but also places all people in this position. Expect a few nations such as the intellectual culture of Eurocentric rationality has a history of domination.

Not many Australians know a single Aboriginal designer although most have “one in their wallet”. Aboriginal artist Malangi from the North Territory, whose bark painting was the most well-known painters from Arnhem Land. His work was reproduced and used in the Australia $1 note which is not acknowledged or honored.(Fig 1) The Australian Government decided to convert to decimal currency and asked seven designers to submit preliminary sketches. A suggestion that one note might embody an Aboriginal theme’ was one of the guidelines for the artists. Kupka share his travel photographs to those designers for inspiration, among them was Malangi’s painting. Gordon Andrews’s designs were selected which incorporated Malangi’s basic pattern.

One of the teachers who had introduced Karel Kupka to Malangi, recognized myth design should be the Matangi ‘property’. To solve the copyright concerning the design, the Governor of the Reserve Bank made an arrangement for him to receive both a fee and some symbolic acknow- ledgement of his contribution to the design. Coombs’s explanation for this circumstance is that ” he and other bank officers, and presum- ably Gordon Andrews, had assumed ‘that the designs were the work of some traditional Aboriginal artist long dead’.

Malangi’s contribution to the dollar note depicts in part the mourning rites. The unjust treatment for design honor may due to racial discrimination by state and federal governments. In the 2002–03 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, about 18% of the Indigenous adults felt treated badly in different fields because they were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Similar data shows in the 2001–02 Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey.

This has begun to change as design education starts to normalize the indigenous perspective. Communication designer can help build cross-cultural understanding and break down barriers of ignorance within the wider community. Many designers fear of offending indigenous people due to the history of inapropriate representation and cooperation. The Australian Indigenous Design Charter protects the Indigenous designer by honor cultural internship and intellectual property right. Promoting a rational attitude, encourage designers to work on Indigenous projects only with well-prepared and respect appropriate practice.

Nowadays, we can embrace the indigenous perspective publicly. One example is the Aboriginal Flag (Fig 2) designed by Harold Thomas in 1971. The flag is divided horizontally into half. The top half is black represents the Aboriginal people of Australia, and the lower half red ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal peoples’ spiritual relation to the land. The connection between people and land is emphasized.  At the center of the flag is the yellow sun, which is the giver of life. An aboriginal community experienced forced a removal of their culture in the twentieth century, and people came to mourn their past and reinforce their identity through the use of fabrics.  Harold Bowen produced natural dye scarves made with silk and linen. There is a distinctive Australian feature to the design, showing the resilience of the aboriginal culture. The natural materials used connect fashion with indigenous communities.

Australian Indigenous culture should not be underestimated. The beauty of handmade design steeped in experience. The Indigenous design represents complexity, celebrates memory and place. The Memory means that indigenous design exists since antiquity. Before the White people came to Australia, indigenous people designed artifacts. The ancient stories are passed down through design. Indigenous design showcases story, as well as the connections to country and place.

Bibliography

1. AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS DESIGN CHARTER – Communication Design. Protocols for sharing Indigenous knowledge in communication design practice.

2.  David H. Bennett, Malangi: The Man Who Was Forgotten Before He Was Remembered [online]. Aboriginal History, Vol. 4, 1980: 43-48.

3. Fry Tony, A Geography of Power: Design History and Marginality, Vol. 6, No. 1, Design in Asia and Australia (Autumn, 1989), pp. 15-30.

4.  Gallois, Mathieu. The ‘Aboriginal flag’ as art
. Australian Aboriginal Studies, No. 2, 2016: 46-60. Availability:<https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=520864522777320;res=IELIND> ISSN: 0729-4352. [cited 09 Apr 19].

5. Kennedy, R. (20015). Designing with Indigenous Knowledge: Policy and protocols for respectful and authentic cross-cultural representation in communication design practice. Phd dissertation, Swinburne University.

Student Name: Chen Xiaoyan

Student No: 27596907

Designing Women presents in National Gallery Victoria of International important holdings of female designers as a dynamic and critical force in shaping contemporary design practice and culture.Men dominate the design industry due to the influence of patriarchal, while the exhibition reveals that female designers are recognized by producing sophisticated, iconic and thought-provoking work.  From1970s onwards, the percentage of female designer have comprised over 50 percent. The developments to be reflected in gender equality and feminism, while it is difficult to know the reality of the situation. 

With 60 pieces of work on show, the La La (Fig 1) lamp is one of the incredible works Which is designed by Helen Kundalini and manufactured by Kundalini in 2004. The lamp formed by duplicating the two cones shape such that lower cone acts as a reflector. The lamp is also a piece of decorative furniture, highly elegant floor lamp that can be placed anywhere around the home. There is an undeniable modernism design classic that radiates class to the La La Lamp. Traditional lamps are embellished with pattern or decoration and usually rounded. While the La La lamp has a smooth surface made from plastic and fabric, has no embellishment that diverts the attention of viewers.The flowing clean lines, pure and unfussy are the key components that capturing design philosophy – “less is more” by Mies Van Der Rohe. The lamp performs its basic functionality well, namely to illuminate the room with radiates warm and comfortable lighting. In addition, it adds sculptural beauty to the room.

Other standouts include Lee Darroch, Yorta Yorta, Mutti Mutti, Boon Wurrung artist, has designed a 25 possum-skin cloaks (Fig 2). Four of them embarked upon a reproduction project as the originals are fragility in 1999. The incredible craftsmanship of her works is an important cultural value for south-eastern Aboriginal Community as a lack of information regarding the creation and commercial used of design practice.Few cloaks made by the Indigenous people in the nineteenth century have survived to the present day, around a hundred of cloaksheld in communities and used for welcome to country and important ceremonies.The cloaks made from a mass of sutured possum skins were protection against inclement weather. Burnedand painted with ochre on the cloak mapped the identity of the owner and their family, telling stories of clan and Country. In 2008, the government made an apology to Aboriginal for Colonisation and identified the determination for re-adjusting the Australian history and culture. Taking part in reproduction the Aboriginal cultural practice has a powerful therapeutic effect on many communities in south-east Australia.

Design has been broken up into gender roles. Women are under-presented in product and furniture design and over-presented in fashion and jewellery. The value of female designers is being omission within a patriarchal society.The exhibition is meaningful andputting a spotlight on female artistsby crossing multi-disciplinary creative fields, and achievements of their design. Few women are included in the literature of design, their works either defined as feminine products or putting those design under the name of their family or husband. Designing Women is enhanced by the creativity and abundance of woman talent, from fashion design and contemporary jewellery to product design and architecture design. Women design is no longer considered to be naturally suited to certain areas of design production, namely, the so-called decorative arts.The exhibition reveals offer fresh perspectives and profession of female designers. 

References:

1. Cheryl Buckley, “Made in Patriarchy: Toward a Feminist Analysis of Women and Design”.

2. Helen Gibbins, “Possum Skins Cloaks: tradition, continuity and change”, from No.85 (May 2010) page 125.

3. Jane Connory, “Plotting the Historical Pipeline of Women in Graphic Design”.

4. LeAmon, Simon. “Designing Women”. National Gallery Victoria of International https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/designing-women/accessed 27 Sep 18.

5. Reynolds, Amanda Jane (ed.), 2005, Wrapped in a possum skin cloak, the Toolyn Koortakay Collection in the National Museum of Australia, National Museum of Australia. 

6. Russell Kennedy and Meghan Kelly, AUSTRALIAN INDIGEBOUS DESIGN CHARTER-Communication.

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