Putting the ‘social’ in ‘social enterprise’ - how an arts studio educates and connects women in need
February 21, 2023 • 24 mins
Social enterprises operate first and foremost to provide opportunities to those in need.
One way they can do so is in the name itself: by providing social connection.
The Social Studio in Collingwood does exactly that by providing education and teaching opportunities to refugee women from a wide range of backgrounds. CEO Dewi Cooke details how the Studio’s free fashion school not only provides refugee women a path to a meaningful and satisfying career, but also fosters social connections for its students and teachers.
Teacher and student Muhubo Sulieman shares her experience since joining the studio, including her first exhibition at a gallery, showcasing work inspired by her early life in Somalia.
Hear how Dewi, Muhubo and the Social Studio connect diverse communities in the latest episode of Getting it Right with Craig Foster.
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Getting it Right is a Jobsbank podcast, produced by Deadset Studios, hosted by Craig Foster.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dewi Cooke (00:01):
The point of what the Social Studio does is to
really create those connections between people celebrate culture, celebrate diversity,
of opinion of ability. And so at the moment, I
think are student group is from 10 different countries,
Craig Foster (00:20):
Social enterprise space is a complex and exciting one, there's
a whole lot of moving parts and each one needs
to work just right if you want to truly make
an impact. But one big part that often goes overlooked
is in the name itself, the social component. So what
social and communal needs should an enterprise aim to fulfill.
And how do you actually pull it off?
(00:43):
I'm Craig Foster and this is Getting it Right. The
show about hiring, buying and working with purpose.
Dewi Cooke (00:54):
My name is Dewi Cooke . I'm the ceo of the social
studio in Collingwood.
Craig Foster (00:58):
You recently became the Ceo of Social Studio, but it
has a very long history as I understand. Can you
take us back to how it started, please.
Dewi Cooke (01:06):
The social studio has been around since 2009 and it
was really the brainchild of a group of creative community
workers and academics who had been
involved, I suppose, in aspects of kind of refugee advocacy
and community work within the refugee community, um and who
(01:28):
felt very strongly that there was opportunity, particularly using the
arts as a vehicle for social connection and engagement. Um so,
you know, at the time, 2009, there was probably a
fairly kind of negative discourse around
refugee intake and settlement. Um and our founderGrace McQuilten , who
(01:51):
was really the driving force, I suppose behind the Social
Studio uh had a lot of personal connections with newly
arrived communities. And could really see I think not only
the potential for um
extending support and help to them but the potential for
(02:11):
the broader community to um
to benefit from the skills and the abilities and knowledge
of newly arrived refugee communities to Australia.
Craig Foster (02:24):
And so if we fast forward to today, what are
the main programs and the core business of Social Studio?
Dewi Cooke (02:31):
Yeah. So not much has changed in some ways and
lots of change in others. So the core business, I
guess really the heart of what we do since 2009
has been our school. So we run a free fashion
school delivering a Certificate III in clothing and textiles production.
Um And we do that with our education partner RMIT .
And that's a long standing relationship that we've had with
our RMIT . Um for you know obviously more than
(02:53):
a decade
and that program continues to be the reason, you know
why we exist in many ways. And we also have
pre accredited training or sort of social sewing which happens
every week both in our Collingwood site and a satellite
site in Heidelberg West. And the idea I suppose is
to really connect
(03:14):
the skills of the students and what they're learning in
that accredited course into our manufacturing operations. So we have
a bigger than ever manufacturing team actually it's still small,
we're still boutique, but um we now do most of
our workers for third party clients, um galleries, institutions, a
little bit of government.
Um and then um we provide pathways from the school
(03:39):
into manufacturing for students as well as um we hire
externally um looking obviously within the refugee and new migrant communities
as well.
Um And then we've also got retail, so our retail
operations now are slightly broader. Remit. We stock work from
designers and makers from black, Indigenous and culturally diverse backgrounds.
(04:00):
We have relationships with a number of um remote Indigenous
art centers, which is a wonderful kind of new aspect
of the work that we're doing
both across retail and manufacturing. Um And we're really trying
to kind of create now connections and relationships between First
Nations creatives and our students. Um as you know, new
(04:21):
Australians really to understand, I guess, um you know, the
Land that they walk on and the culture that comes
kind of before them and that they exist within as well.
Um So we're a complex beast, I think it's fair
to say, but we've managed to kind of
stick around for the last 13 years, which has been
a wonderful thing.
Craig Foster (04:43):
And in that time and today, can you give us
a sense of the scale, how many students are you
working with?
Dewi Cooke (04:51):
We've got at the moment, 16 students across the two
year program and that's across all semesters. And so we're
constantly enrolling in that program, we enroll every six months
and um which is why, you know, some students will
be starting in july and some will be starting in
January and teachers kind of have to be adaptable to
that and understanding of shifting student needs. Um and so sorry,
(05:13):
the broader impact of the organization. So there's we've got
16 students in our Certificate III. We've we see between
about 15 and 20 in our weekly social sewing program,
the organization. Overall, we've got just over 20 staff including
casuals and 70% of us are from culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds
Craig Foster (05:34):
and as a social enterprise, you know, that can bring
its own challenges in terms of sustainability and funding and
the like, how do you manage that?
Dewi Cooke (05:44):
Yes, So we are not for profit social enterprise, which
means that we've got um DRG status, so we are
eligible for philanthropic grants and philanthropy is a really big
part of our model that kind of hybridity between having self
generated revenue streams and philanthropy is really important to the
(06:06):
nature of the work we do. So we aim for
retail and manufacturing, we aim for them to break even
or better,
but something like the school, which is delivered entirely for
free and we fund, you know, the teaching staff there,
we fund support staff and obviously all materials and everything
else that isn't a money making enterprise, that is really
(06:27):
something that in a way we want to keep pure,
I suppose if you like, because you know, it's community
development work and it's
it's not something that we ever want to charge our
students for the whole point of it is to really
break down the barriers for students to participate. And let's
face it, finances is a really is a really massive
(06:47):
barrier for a lot of people in education, but particularly
for new arrivals or people from refugee and migrant communities,
you know, it's hard to get work, it's hard to
um or they can be hard to get work um
and it can be hard to make that money that
you need to have kind of success within education. So
we really try to strip all of those barriers away
(07:09):
to make it as accessible as possible and being able
to rely on philanthropy for that sort of work is
essential for us.
Craig Foster (07:17):
And how important are the social connections between your students
and bringing people together and also their opportunity to express
their own culture through their creative arts.
Dewi Cooke (07:27):
It's everything really, it's the point of what the social
studio does is to really create those connections between people
celebrate culture, celebrate diversity of opinion of ability. And so
at the moment, you know, I think our student group is
from 10 different countries um and some of them are
from within the same community. So some of them know
(07:49):
each other from the Somali community or the Eritrean community,
but then we have students from Afghanistan from Iran from
China from South Sudan. And um and seeing that group
of people being able to come together
and enjoy their time together and really find connection with
each other um beyond the kind of um you know
(08:09):
perceived boundary lines of community is a really special thing
and there are some incredible relationships actually amongst the graduating
cohort that will be graduating and
um the end of this year we're very sad to
see them go because they're the first cohort of students
to graduate since the pandemic. So they've been through a
lot together and there's this beautiful friendship between a 22
(08:32):
year old Congolese young woman and um a she won't
give me her exact age or she wouldn't want me
to say her exact age, but a 50 plus year
old chinese woman, you know they're they're best friends um
and that's only because they've been brought together um you
know within a space like the social studio
Craig Foster (08:49):
and that social component is clearly no accident. Can you
tell us how you've built that into the enterprise?
Dewi Cooke (08:55):
So we run a social sewing program in both Collingwood
and in our satellite site in Heidelberg West which is
called actually the Social Fabric and it's a bit of
a joint venture between us and a couple of other
community organizations in the area
and on Sundays we have a group of Somali Australian
women who have been coming now for a couple of
(09:16):
months um their self organized which is a really um
great things so they didn't have a teacher, they were
just a group of women who wanted to learn how
to sew and a few of them knew how to
sew and they've had a couple of sewing machines.
Um and then once we got involved we have a
community worker from the community out there as well. Um
(09:36):
she sort of connected them with one of our teachers
make you bow and now the women the group has
gone from six or something to now 14 and it's
a really um special group um rather really special
gathering. So the women come on Sundays for a few
hours and it is both a social event, you know
(10:00):
they get food, they have snacks, they have tea as
well as a way for them to up skill. And
in some cases they've really found that having access to
a community worker. So I mentioned are community workers from
the Somali community Sehgal.
Um and Sehgal you know can speak Somali and what she's
(10:20):
noticed that the women are um I think just really
excited to have somebody that understands them.
Um But you know from a language point of view
but culturally as well um so she's found that they're
asking questions and have needs that are beyond I guess sewing.
You know they want to know how to do like
(10:40):
basic email skills and um and a bit of IT
literacy and then um you know when we were in
lockdown at the end of last year saga was sending
information about
obviously health care information but then also just kind of
being available to them to sort of just like translate
(11:01):
the world a little bit. And I think that that
um has been a really interesting I guess revelation to
me that the idea of like settlement actually isn't over
in the period of time that you know, services are
funded to deal with it. You know, these women, some
of whom have been here for a decade or maybe more,
Actually still need quite a lot of assistance or at
(11:21):
least someone that they can trust to ask for that
help and once they have it they take off, you know,
their horizons broadened and that's a wonderful thing and that's
something that we would always try to hope to do.
Craig Foster (11:35):
Can you give us a sense of the broader manufacturing
and production industry, how that's been shaped in the last
13 years from when social studio began.
Dewi Cooke (11:45):
Yeah, it's funny when I talk with with our founder Grace,
who's still on our board and very involved. She would
say she was like, you know, you couldn't have said
13 years ago that manufacturing was a clear employment pathway
for students in a way they chose fashion and you know,
and clothing, manufacturing is the vehicle for connection and the
(12:08):
vehicle to kind of help students set goals, but they
weren't jobs as much as
they are now and what we've really found, I think
in the last couple of years, in particular, in a
way for us anyway, because of the pandemic, there's been
an added increase in interest in local manufacturing, partly because
of supply chain issues that occurred very early on with,
(12:32):
you know, just things not being able to get off
the docks or leave countries at all. Um, and a
real kind of,
um, I suppose exposure of how reliant we have become
on being able to import goods and have them at
our beck and call quite easily and when those things
stopped being so easily available, people started looking inwards more. Um,
(12:53):
and that's across the manufacturing, I would say the government
industry across Australia, it's not just our experience that most
manufacturers we know are all really busy
and anybody who kind of has anything to do with
government manufacturing in Australia will know that that a lot
of the primary communities who have been working in recent
years in manufacturing of Vietnamese, Chinese, kind of Southern Europeans,
(13:17):
postwar migrants in some cases, and many of those people
are in their fifties, sixties and sometimes seventies, you know,
still working, but there aren't enough people kind of coming
through
into the workforce right now. So we're really seeing that
the skills that our students have been learning are increasingly
high demand.
Craig Foster (13:36):
and recently we've had the jobs summit in Australia at
the national level, and there's been a big push for
apprenticeships and trade training, including in fashion industries. How important
is that trend to the future of Social Studio?
Dewi Cooke (13:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think we definitely would support the
position of bodies like the Australian Fashion Council, that there
needs to be recognized apprenticeships within the garment industry, because
while organizations like ours and institutions like RMIT or Homesglen or other TAFES offering industry
(14:12):
level training within government, manufacturing, that's a very different thing
to being able to replace workers with 20 to 30
years experience on the manufacturing floor, you know, people for
whom their whole livelihoods have been around garment construction. And
so
it's not a zero sum where you can just say, okay, well,
we've got this number of graduates coming in and some
(14:34):
of them will go into the industry, what you really
need is to kind of see investment, I suppose, and
a way to support employers through that training as well,
because it will take time for people to get up
to up to speed. Um, and to sort of asking
organizations like ours to, I guess, you know, subsidize the
cost of that effectively
by conducting that training on our own is a really,
(14:56):
really difficult thing and it may be different for a
big manufacturer, but the truth is, there aren't that many
big manufacturers around right now, And I think you want
to encourage more and more work within the manufacturing industry
and more people to manufacture locally. I think the customer
or the market needs to have confidence that those skills
are out there.
Craig Foster (15:19):
That's Dewi Cooke CEO of the Social Studio and this is my Muhubo Sulieman.
Both a student and a teacher at the studio.
Muhubo Sulieman (15:27):
My name is Muhubo Sulieman. I'm coming from Somalia East Africa
with I was young five years old,
Learn how to weave or the finger weaving because I
born countryside. I didn't see any city or anything until
I'm 13 years old. My first time I go the
(15:50):
city I saw that the car or building or every electronic.
I'm 15 years old and I'm very surprised.
Um After I grew up, my sister sponsored me in
Egypt and then Egypt three years and then I'm coming
(16:11):
in here 2003.
And in Sydney, me at that time I have one daughter,
my daughter is 10 months now. I have three kids,
a mother for the three.
After I moved in 2005 in Melbourne, I would like
(16:33):
Melbourne because always I would like the arts and craft
and then I saw a lot of craft in Melbourne.
Um after 2008 I started a school Collinwood Malbin Polytechnic.
I think that the name of that time is they called TAFE
(16:55):
in Collinwood. Then next to social studio
my teacher um ask if a teacher everyone if I
see them. I'm asking I say, oh I wanted a
fashion design, I wanna do so in the grass with you.
And everyone I asked for that. I say in Australia
have a lot of grass, can I get it? And
then that teacher that she say okay, I know the
(17:18):
Socialist studio in smith Street.
I learned a lot of different things for the fashion design.
Now I'm happy really. I saw my clothes if I
wanted and were my friend. And then
I we've uh bags, hearing jewelry, rug, a lot of
(17:40):
different wave for the finger wave and for the material
I used to um wool,
a lot of different material or something. And then I
and then I decided how to combine close and we've
been together. That's what I love it. That my, my
(18:00):
dream for the textile and fashion design one day. Well
maybe I have been at the gallery,
that's my dream,
Craig Foster (18:10):
wow. Amazing. You have so much skill to pass on
and to teach to others. You recently created an amazing
Somali hut for your exhibition. Tell us about that. And
how long did it take to create
Muhubo Sulieman (18:23):
My craft in Melbourne? I'm using for five years
because every small bit, everyone I see them for the,
you know the grass because I don't have the farm
for the grass. I don't have the three branches. And
then I saw the city of Melbourne for the cutting
the season for the cutting for the branch tree, for
(18:46):
the under the tree for the shoot? And then I'm
asking everyone I saw that and then I grabbed it
and small things and then I weaved it again for
the hard skeleton for the insight for the three branches.
And first time I started um Siri and then a
serious one day I so I feasted for me and
(19:09):
my kids. And then I started the cutting for the grass.
And then I'm asking, I said oh can I use
this grass? And then everyone father loved me. They say,
well you have cow, this one is not a cow
for that for this one that I said no, I
wanted weaver.
Craig Foster (19:25):
How important is it to you to be able to
express your Somali history and your culture and parts of
your childhood through your weaving.
Muhubo Sulieman (19:34):
It's very important because to me I I burned that
house for that heart it's called. And then there's
I think it was a sharing for the, you know,
the community sharing is skilled sharing um the cultural sharing
everything very important to me I think. And then um
(19:56):
as well, because now I'm in the city, my first
time I live in the city,
the city has opportunity but can't decide they have grass,
three branches, a lot of things for the, you know,
the natural resources, the city have material machine, a lot
(20:16):
of different things. And then if together the conveyor
to me I think it's a very very good for
the sharing.
Craig Foster (20:25):
You have social sewing classes in Heidelberg West. Can you
tell us what the women and your students, what they
enjoy about that program? Yeah.
Muhubo Sulieman (20:33):
Yeah very very enjoyed. Very lucky. I have 14 students
And then that 14 student it's uh
I have know how to sew and then have I
teach them how to the soul the machine there's still
the learning.
Yeah. And then
(20:53):
for students and ask me for the Socialist Studio next year.
Wanted the same. Please ask me the Socialist Studio if
I got and I said yeah why not go the
study if you like it for that. You know the
certificate or business. A lot of people have they enjoyed
and then ask me a lot of questions for the
(21:13):
Socialist Studios. Do you want it? And then I planning
um
one day for the Socialist studio I would like to
visit my student for the the community there.
Craig Foster (21:29):
How important are the social connections that everyone gains by
coming together you know to learn and to weave or two.
So you know people all of these community members spending
time together and and connecting, learning from each other.
Muhubo Sulieman (21:44):
I think it's very important to further learn to use
skill because if I
learn so in uh design. If you wanted the on
shop you can go and then make your own tree
Tyler
or if you learned the sewing skills design, um, your family, friend,
(22:11):
your kids, you yourself, you make your own your own
dress and then yes, a very important I think to me,
but for me I would like um teach them the
people for the, I tell them for the come at
social studio even if you didn't want it, uh
(22:35):
the retailer or the shop, you help me, your family
or your friends or you the skill you yeah, I
think it's very important for the,
the connectors for the social studio.
Craig Foster (22:50):
Thanks, Muhubo and just finally what does the future hold for you?
What does the next five years look
Muhubo Sulieman (22:56):
like? I think I'm
maybe I'm textile and fashion designer.
I like, I make my own design compare within an
sewing for the clothes
and, and then I would like in the future for
the turbine retailer for my on studio on shop and
(23:23):
then I teach them my skill for the community, all,
all in Australia. For me I would like sharing everything.
My skill.
Craig Foster (23:37):
Thanks so much for listening to the final episode of
this season of Getting it right. If you've missed any
of the previous episodes, make sure you scroll back in
your podcast feed and check them out. There's so many
incredible people doing fantastic work in the social enterprise space
and you don't want to miss out on what they
have to say.
Getting it right is a jobs bank podcast produced by
(23:58):
Deadset Studios and hosted by, Craig Foster.
The point of what the Social Studio does is to
really create those connections between people celebrate culture, celebrate diversity,
of opinion of ability. And so at the moment, I
think are student group is from 10 different countries,
Craig Foster (00:20):
Social enterprise space is a complex and exciting one, there's
a whole lot of moving parts and each one needs
to work just right if you want to truly make
an impact. But one big part that often goes overlooked
is in the name itself, the social component. So what
social and communal needs should an enterprise aim to fulfill.
And how do you actually pull it off?
(00:43):
I'm Craig Foster and this is Getting it Right. The
show about hiring, buying and working with purpose.
Dewi Cooke (00:54):
My name is Dewi Cooke . I'm the ceo of the social
studio in Collingwood.
Craig Foster (00:58):
You recently became the Ceo of Social Studio, but it
has a very long history as I understand. Can you
take us back to how it started, please.
Dewi Cooke (01:06):
The social studio has been around since 2009 and it
was really the brainchild of a group of creative community
workers and academics who had been
involved, I suppose, in aspects of kind of refugee advocacy
and community work within the refugee community, um and who
(01:28):
felt very strongly that there was opportunity, particularly using the
arts as a vehicle for social connection and engagement. Um so,
you know, at the time, 2009, there was probably a
fairly kind of negative discourse around
refugee intake and settlement. Um and our founderGrace McQuilten , who
(01:51):
was really the driving force, I suppose behind the Social
Studio uh had a lot of personal connections with newly
arrived communities. And could really see I think not only
the potential for um
extending support and help to them but the potential for
(02:11):
the broader community to um
to benefit from the skills and the abilities and knowledge
of newly arrived refugee communities to Australia.
Craig Foster (02:24):
And so if we fast forward to today, what are
the main programs and the core business of Social Studio?
Dewi Cooke (02:31):
Yeah. So not much has changed in some ways and
lots of change in others. So the core business, I
guess really the heart of what we do since 2009
has been our school. So we run a free fashion
school delivering a Certificate III in clothing and textiles production.
Um And we do that with our education partner RMIT .
And that's a long standing relationship that we've had with
our RMIT . Um for you know obviously more than
(02:53):
a decade
and that program continues to be the reason, you know
why we exist in many ways. And we also have
pre accredited training or sort of social sewing which happens
every week both in our Collingwood site and a satellite
site in Heidelberg West. And the idea I suppose is
to really connect
(03:14):
the skills of the students and what they're learning in
that accredited course into our manufacturing operations. So we have
a bigger than ever manufacturing team actually it's still small,
we're still boutique, but um we now do most of
our workers for third party clients, um galleries, institutions, a
little bit of government.
Um and then um we provide pathways from the school
(03:39):
into manufacturing for students as well as um we hire
externally um looking obviously within the refugee and new migrant communities
as well.
Um And then we've also got retail, so our retail
operations now are slightly broader. Remit. We stock work from
designers and makers from black, Indigenous and culturally diverse backgrounds.
(04:00):
We have relationships with a number of um remote Indigenous
art centers, which is a wonderful kind of new aspect
of the work that we're doing
both across retail and manufacturing. Um And we're really trying
to kind of create now connections and relationships between First
Nations creatives and our students. Um as you know, new
(04:21):
Australians really to understand, I guess, um you know, the
Land that they walk on and the culture that comes
kind of before them and that they exist within as well.
Um So we're a complex beast, I think it's fair
to say, but we've managed to kind of
stick around for the last 13 years, which has been
a wonderful thing.
Craig Foster (04:43):
And in that time and today, can you give us
a sense of the scale, how many students are you
working with?
Dewi Cooke (04:51):
We've got at the moment, 16 students across the two
year program and that's across all semesters. And so we're
constantly enrolling in that program, we enroll every six months
and um which is why, you know, some students will
be starting in july and some will be starting in
January and teachers kind of have to be adaptable to
that and understanding of shifting student needs. Um and so sorry,
(05:13):
the broader impact of the organization. So there's we've got
16 students in our Certificate III. We've we see between
about 15 and 20 in our weekly social sewing program,
the organization. Overall, we've got just over 20 staff including
casuals and 70% of us are from culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds
Craig Foster (05:34):
and as a social enterprise, you know, that can bring
its own challenges in terms of sustainability and funding and
the like, how do you manage that?
Dewi Cooke (05:44):
Yes, So we are not for profit social enterprise, which
means that we've got um DRG status, so we are
eligible for philanthropic grants and philanthropy is a really big
part of our model that kind of hybridity between having self
generated revenue streams and philanthropy is really important to the
(06:06):
nature of the work we do. So we aim for
retail and manufacturing, we aim for them to break even
or better,
but something like the school, which is delivered entirely for
free and we fund, you know, the teaching staff there,
we fund support staff and obviously all materials and everything
else that isn't a money making enterprise, that is really
(06:27):
something that in a way we want to keep pure,
I suppose if you like, because you know, it's community
development work and it's
it's not something that we ever want to charge our
students for the whole point of it is to really
break down the barriers for students to participate. And let's
face it, finances is a really is a really massive
(06:47):
barrier for a lot of people in education, but particularly
for new arrivals or people from refugee and migrant communities,
you know, it's hard to get work, it's hard to
um or they can be hard to get work um
and it can be hard to make that money that
you need to have kind of success within education. So
we really try to strip all of those barriers away
(07:09):
to make it as accessible as possible and being able
to rely on philanthropy for that sort of work is
essential for us.
Craig Foster (07:17):
And how important are the social connections between your students
and bringing people together and also their opportunity to express
their own culture through their creative arts.
Dewi Cooke (07:27):
It's everything really, it's the point of what the social
studio does is to really create those connections between people
celebrate culture, celebrate diversity of opinion of ability. And so
at the moment, you know, I think our student group is
from 10 different countries um and some of them are
from within the same community. So some of them know
(07:49):
each other from the Somali community or the Eritrean community,
but then we have students from Afghanistan from Iran from
China from South Sudan. And um and seeing that group
of people being able to come together
and enjoy their time together and really find connection with
each other um beyond the kind of um you know
(08:09):
perceived boundary lines of community is a really special thing
and there are some incredible relationships actually amongst the graduating
cohort that will be graduating and
um the end of this year we're very sad to
see them go because they're the first cohort of students
to graduate since the pandemic. So they've been through a
lot together and there's this beautiful friendship between a 22
(08:32):
year old Congolese young woman and um a she won't
give me her exact age or she wouldn't want me
to say her exact age, but a 50 plus year
old chinese woman, you know they're they're best friends um
and that's only because they've been brought together um you
know within a space like the social studio
Craig Foster (08:49):
and that social component is clearly no accident. Can you
tell us how you've built that into the enterprise?
Dewi Cooke (08:55):
So we run a social sewing program in both Collingwood
and in our satellite site in Heidelberg West which is
called actually the Social Fabric and it's a bit of
a joint venture between us and a couple of other
community organizations in the area
and on Sundays we have a group of Somali Australian
women who have been coming now for a couple of
(09:16):
months um their self organized which is a really um
great things so they didn't have a teacher, they were
just a group of women who wanted to learn how
to sew and a few of them knew how to
sew and they've had a couple of sewing machines.
Um and then once we got involved we have a
community worker from the community out there as well. Um
(09:36):
she sort of connected them with one of our teachers
make you bow and now the women the group has
gone from six or something to now 14 and it's
a really um special group um rather really special
gathering. So the women come on Sundays for a few
hours and it is both a social event, you know
(10:00):
they get food, they have snacks, they have tea as
well as a way for them to up skill. And
in some cases they've really found that having access to
a community worker. So I mentioned are community workers from
the Somali community Sehgal.
Um and Sehgal you know can speak Somali and what she's
(10:20):
noticed that the women are um I think just really
excited to have somebody that understands them.
Um But you know from a language point of view
but culturally as well um so she's found that they're
asking questions and have needs that are beyond I guess sewing.
You know they want to know how to do like
(10:40):
basic email skills and um and a bit of IT
literacy and then um you know when we were in
lockdown at the end of last year saga was sending
information about
obviously health care information but then also just kind of
being available to them to sort of just like translate
(11:01):
the world a little bit. And I think that that
um has been a really interesting I guess revelation to
me that the idea of like settlement actually isn't over
in the period of time that you know, services are
funded to deal with it. You know, these women, some
of whom have been here for a decade or maybe more,
Actually still need quite a lot of assistance or at
(11:21):
least someone that they can trust to ask for that
help and once they have it they take off, you know,
their horizons broadened and that's a wonderful thing and that's
something that we would always try to hope to do.
Craig Foster (11:35):
Can you give us a sense of the broader manufacturing
and production industry, how that's been shaped in the last
13 years from when social studio began.
Dewi Cooke (11:45):
Yeah, it's funny when I talk with with our founder Grace,
who's still on our board and very involved. She would
say she was like, you know, you couldn't have said
13 years ago that manufacturing was a clear employment pathway
for students in a way they chose fashion and you know,
and clothing, manufacturing is the vehicle for connection and the
(12:08):
vehicle to kind of help students set goals, but they
weren't jobs as much as
they are now and what we've really found, I think
in the last couple of years, in particular, in a
way for us anyway, because of the pandemic, there's been
an added increase in interest in local manufacturing, partly because
of supply chain issues that occurred very early on with,
(12:32):
you know, just things not being able to get off
the docks or leave countries at all. Um, and a
real kind of,
um, I suppose exposure of how reliant we have become
on being able to import goods and have them at
our beck and call quite easily and when those things
stopped being so easily available, people started looking inwards more. Um,
(12:53):
and that's across the manufacturing, I would say the government
industry across Australia, it's not just our experience that most
manufacturers we know are all really busy
and anybody who kind of has anything to do with
government manufacturing in Australia will know that that a lot
of the primary communities who have been working in recent
years in manufacturing of Vietnamese, Chinese, kind of Southern Europeans,
(13:17):
postwar migrants in some cases, and many of those people
are in their fifties, sixties and sometimes seventies, you know,
still working, but there aren't enough people kind of coming
through
into the workforce right now. So we're really seeing that
the skills that our students have been learning are increasingly
high demand.
Craig Foster (13:36):
and recently we've had the jobs summit in Australia at
the national level, and there's been a big push for
apprenticeships and trade training, including in fashion industries. How important
is that trend to the future of Social Studio?
Dewi Cooke (13:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think we definitely would support the
position of bodies like the Australian Fashion Council, that there
needs to be recognized apprenticeships within the garment industry, because
while organizations like ours and institutions like RMIT or Homesglen or other TAFES offering industry
(14:12):
level training within government, manufacturing, that's a very different thing
to being able to replace workers with 20 to 30
years experience on the manufacturing floor, you know, people for
whom their whole livelihoods have been around garment construction. And
so
it's not a zero sum where you can just say, okay, well,
we've got this number of graduates coming in and some
(14:34):
of them will go into the industry, what you really
need is to kind of see investment, I suppose, and
a way to support employers through that training as well,
because it will take time for people to get up
to up to speed. Um, and to sort of asking
organizations like ours to, I guess, you know, subsidize the
cost of that effectively
by conducting that training on our own is a really,
(14:56):
really difficult thing and it may be different for a
big manufacturer, but the truth is, there aren't that many
big manufacturers around right now, And I think you want
to encourage more and more work within the manufacturing industry
and more people to manufacture locally. I think the customer
or the market needs to have confidence that those skills
are out there.
Craig Foster (15:19):
That's Dewi Cooke CEO of the Social Studio and this is my Muhubo Sulieman.
Both a student and a teacher at the studio.
Muhubo Sulieman (15:27):
My name is Muhubo Sulieman. I'm coming from Somalia East Africa
with I was young five years old,
Learn how to weave or the finger weaving because I
born countryside. I didn't see any city or anything until
I'm 13 years old. My first time I go the
(15:50):
city I saw that the car or building or every electronic.
I'm 15 years old and I'm very surprised.
Um After I grew up, my sister sponsored me in
Egypt and then Egypt three years and then I'm coming
(16:11):
in here 2003.
And in Sydney, me at that time I have one daughter,
my daughter is 10 months now. I have three kids,
a mother for the three.
After I moved in 2005 in Melbourne, I would like
(16:33):
Melbourne because always I would like the arts and craft
and then I saw a lot of craft in Melbourne.
Um after 2008 I started a school Collinwood Malbin Polytechnic.
I think that the name of that time is they called TAFE
(16:55):
in Collinwood. Then next to social studio
my teacher um ask if a teacher everyone if I
see them. I'm asking I say, oh I wanted a
fashion design, I wanna do so in the grass with you.
And everyone I asked for that. I say in Australia
have a lot of grass, can I get it? And
then that teacher that she say okay, I know the
(17:18):
Socialist studio in smith Street.
I learned a lot of different things for the fashion design.
Now I'm happy really. I saw my clothes if I
wanted and were my friend. And then
I we've uh bags, hearing jewelry, rug, a lot of
(17:40):
different wave for the finger wave and for the material
I used to um wool,
a lot of different material or something. And then I
and then I decided how to combine close and we've
been together. That's what I love it. That my, my
(18:00):
dream for the textile and fashion design one day. Well
maybe I have been at the gallery,
that's my dream,
Craig Foster (18:10):
wow. Amazing. You have so much skill to pass on
and to teach to others. You recently created an amazing
Somali hut for your exhibition. Tell us about that. And
how long did it take to create
Muhubo Sulieman (18:23):
My craft in Melbourne? I'm using for five years
because every small bit, everyone I see them for the,
you know the grass because I don't have the farm
for the grass. I don't have the three branches. And
then I saw the city of Melbourne for the cutting
the season for the cutting for the branch tree, for
(18:46):
the under the tree for the shoot? And then I'm
asking everyone I saw that and then I grabbed it
and small things and then I weaved it again for
the hard skeleton for the insight for the three branches.
And first time I started um Siri and then a
serious one day I so I feasted for me and
(19:09):
my kids. And then I started the cutting for the grass.
And then I'm asking, I said oh can I use
this grass? And then everyone father loved me. They say,
well you have cow, this one is not a cow
for that for this one that I said no, I
wanted weaver.
Craig Foster (19:25):
How important is it to you to be able to
express your Somali history and your culture and parts of
your childhood through your weaving.
Muhubo Sulieman (19:34):
It's very important because to me I I burned that
house for that heart it's called. And then there's
I think it was a sharing for the, you know,
the community sharing is skilled sharing um the cultural sharing
everything very important to me I think. And then um
(19:56):
as well, because now I'm in the city, my first
time I live in the city,
the city has opportunity but can't decide they have grass,
three branches, a lot of things for the, you know,
the natural resources, the city have material machine, a lot
(20:16):
of different things. And then if together the conveyor
to me I think it's a very very good for
the sharing.
Craig Foster (20:25):
You have social sewing classes in Heidelberg West. Can you
tell us what the women and your students, what they
enjoy about that program? Yeah.
Muhubo Sulieman (20:33):
Yeah very very enjoyed. Very lucky. I have 14 students
And then that 14 student it's uh
I have know how to sew and then have I
teach them how to the soul the machine there's still
the learning.
Yeah. And then
(20:53):
for students and ask me for the Socialist Studio next year.
Wanted the same. Please ask me the Socialist Studio if
I got and I said yeah why not go the
study if you like it for that. You know the
certificate or business. A lot of people have they enjoyed
and then ask me a lot of questions for the
(21:13):
Socialist Studios. Do you want it? And then I planning
um
one day for the Socialist studio I would like to
visit my student for the the community there.
Craig Foster (21:29):
How important are the social connections that everyone gains by
coming together you know to learn and to weave or two.
So you know people all of these community members spending
time together and and connecting, learning from each other.
Muhubo Sulieman (21:44):
I think it's very important to further learn to use
skill because if I
learn so in uh design. If you wanted the on
shop you can go and then make your own tree
Tyler
or if you learned the sewing skills design, um, your family, friend,
(22:11):
your kids, you yourself, you make your own your own
dress and then yes, a very important I think to me,
but for me I would like um teach them the
people for the, I tell them for the come at
social studio even if you didn't want it, uh
(22:35):
the retailer or the shop, you help me, your family
or your friends or you the skill you yeah, I
think it's very important for the,
the connectors for the social studio.
Craig Foster (22:50):
Thanks, Muhubo and just finally what does the future hold for you?
What does the next five years look
Muhubo Sulieman (22:56):
like? I think I'm
maybe I'm textile and fashion designer.
I like, I make my own design compare within an
sewing for the clothes
and, and then I would like in the future for
the turbine retailer for my on studio on shop and
(23:23):
then I teach them my skill for the community, all,
all in Australia. For me I would like sharing everything.
My skill.
Craig Foster (23:37):
Thanks so much for listening to the final episode of
this season of Getting it right. If you've missed any
of the previous episodes, make sure you scroll back in
your podcast feed and check them out. There's so many
incredible people doing fantastic work in the social enterprise space
and you don't want to miss out on what they
have to say.
Getting it right is a jobs bank podcast produced by
(23:58):
Deadset Studios and hosted by, Craig Foster.
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