Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the country's first one hundred percent aborage aloned, centralized
screen printing and licensed textile manufacturing hub has opened in Darwitt.
It's called print Shop NT. It's located in Winnelli and
it's operating as a multi user facility. It's going to
function both as a compercial manufacturing facility consolidating the printing
(00:22):
activity of Aboriginal artists and arts organizations across the NT
and indeed Australia. Now, the brains behind this business is
the wonderful Nina Fitzgerald, who joins me in the studio
right now. Good morning to you, Nina.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good morning Katie. Thank you for having me this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It is lovely to have you in the studio. I
love seeing people do great stuff in the Northern Territory
and I've seen so much of the wonderful stuff you've
done over the years for our listeners. I'm friends with
your mum and I Reckon. I met you probably about
twenty years ago when you were real maybe fifteen years
ago when you were quite a young girl. So for
me to see all the amazing stuff you're doing, I
(01:04):
feel like I feel proud of you.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thank you. Thanks for following along.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I love following that journey. I follow it on Instagram and.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm like, oh, what's Nina ups.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm glad you've been here and you've now you've got
a brand new business. Tell us a bit more about
print Shop.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
NT print Shop and T, as you said, is going
to be a screen printing and textile manufacturing hub. One
of the main aims is consolidating the work of remote
artists and remote art centers and the incredible textile trade,
which of which a lot comes out of the Northern Territory.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So much comes out of the NT right, and people
love love those textiles. They love the wearable you know,
it's wearable art.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's absolutely wearable art, and so much of it, like
it's a lot of it's made, you know, in arts
centers on country, a lot of it's outsourced to Sydney,
so far away. So I'm bringing it close to those
artists so that they can be more involved and have
more agency over their stories and their cultures.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
There are And what do you reckon it means then?
For you know, for those artists, the fact that it
is then able to happen here in the Northern Territory
stay in the end, and and you know, hopefully see
more of their work then around the rest of Australia.
But in terms of that manufacturing and printing it able
to happen here.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, I think, I mean it excites everyone having things
local in the Northern territory. I think everyone's so proud
to bring things home where you know, we're distance, we're
so far away from other things, especially in remote communities,
and by having a hub here in Darwin, you know,
we can provide all this capacity building out to remote centers,
which I think is only going to increase what they
can do in their output and elevate elevate the textile trade.
(02:42):
I'm hoping into the broader Australian fashion narrative.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, I hope so. And even when you talk about
the broader Australian fashion narrative, even for you, I've seen
more of what you are doing in that space as
well over the years. So how important do you reckon
it is then to you know, to have that aboriginal
w wearable art a bit more mainstreamer, a bit more
I don't know where the mainstream is the right word,
(03:05):
but more accessible to others.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, I think it's so important. I think Fashion is
this incredible medium that transcends socioeconomic divides, and if we
can push that out further into you know, the broader
narrative and globally, you know, it's really exciting. And you know,
we have the oldest surviving cultures on Earth. We should
all be getting behind that, we should be celebrating that,
and fashion is a very really easy and really fun
(03:28):
way to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, it really is. Tell me operationally, how does print
shop work? You know, like I suppose I'm trying to
wrap my head around it, right, and I know you're
sort of working through all the hurdles of it working
smoothly too, So how does it work?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's been such a long time coming. It's very
exciting to see it come to life. Well, you know,
we've got a fourteen and a half met a long table,
so that's the meterage printing roll out a massive long
piece of fabric. We expose screens on site. We have
all the setup and we have an infrared conveyor belt
drying so we can kind of do from start to
finish of the design, the making of the screens, and
(04:04):
then the printing all in house, which is so cool.
And then we can provide those resources out to remote centers.
But also anyone can come and get stuff printed. Were
a commercial prints face, so anyone can come by.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
How did you, like, how did this idea come about?
And you said, it's been a long time in the making,
but how did it come about?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I grew up, you know, in remote communities, seeing you know,
the arts practice. I was always drawn to textiles. It's
so beautifully done. It's largely run by women, which I
think is just so empowering and amazing. And you know,
then I worked for the Day on Average and art
Fair foundation and just being in and around that space
like this was thrown around. It's been thrown around for years.
The government has thrown around in and out of policy.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is a need.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Is it viable? It is viable, It should happen. No
one's done it. So I just sort of thought, I'm
going to solve this problem.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Go I love this. Like what I love about it is,
you know, the fact that you're a young woman who's
achieving really big things and doing something that's such a
huge like it is such a huge concept and such
a huge thing to do for the for the wider community,
and and you know, sometimes people look at young women
(05:16):
and go, oh, I don't know, you know, I don't
know whether they're going to be able to do that,
but it's like, look at what you're doing. You know,
this isn't your only business either. You've also got a
business in per rap and and and you know, the
laundry gallery there has been operating now for a few it's.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
A few years, isn't We're two We're just over two years,
so not ages, but long enoughter really starting to be
a part of the community up which is awesome as well.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And is it like it's all going quite well too.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, it's going really well. And the response from the
community has been amazing. I mean we're doing really different
things with Indigenous art and storytelling, which people are super
excited by.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
A Nina, what's you I suppose what's your aim with
everything that you are doing in the NT is it?
You know? It sounds as though you're wanting to to
really bring the indigenous you know, Indigenous fashion I suppose
to the broader community. But it sounds like you're wanting
to make it accessible for people and also making sure
(06:10):
that those are in community, those people that are in
communities that are doing this beautiful art, or have got
this beautiful art that it's able to then be sort
of more widely accessible.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, And I think it's just about championing those stories
and those peoples and all the amazing things that come
out of communities. There's a lot of negativity thrown around.
There's obviously still so much injustice, there's a lot of beauty,
there's a lot of fun. I want to celebrate that
and share those stories. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to do.
And I think with indigenous fashion, indigenous anything, but especially
(06:41):
in fashion, that's obviously the space I'm in. It's like
these stories should just be a part of the narrative,
stand alone, elevated and like stand up to fashion Yep,
not this sort of Oh it's indigenous and it has
its own section. So that's what I'm hoping.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Just embrace it. Yeah, that's great, that's a good you know,
that's a great way of thinking of it, because you're right, like,
it doesn't need to be it doesn't need to be
a different stream. Like it's amazing, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And if we can work close with artists and keep
elevating what they're doing in terms of their output, you know,
the fabrics we can print on. There's incredible things you
can do with screen printing and manipulating artworks. And if
we can keep elevating that, I don't see why it
can't just become part of the narrative.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And in terms of I know, print shops only been
going now for a little while, but in terms of
the interaction and the feedback that you're receiving, do you
reckon it's going to be something that becomes really quite
a busy and popular space.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, and I hope so, I mean starting a business,
So I really hope we get some trade. Please guys
come in. But no, I think so. And I mean,
you know the fact that we're printing merch and we
can work with local businesses. People can come by and
see what we're doing. We can help with the design,
like we can be doing all of that, and because
we're local, we're going to reduce the create costs and
(07:56):
timelines and we can turn things around. And I know,
I think likes to get behind something that's local.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Are you feeling pretty pumped that it's now, like you
know that it is operational and it's happening.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I'm so pumped. I've been so impatient. The last few
things I was telling you earlier, like just ironing the
last little bits out, I'm just like so impatient. But
over there it's set up. The space looks epic, and
I'm just so excited to just keep jumping and diving
into that.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh good on you, Nina. I think it's awesome. Massive
congratulations to you, and and so great to speak with
you this morning. I love watching what you're doing. You're
doing incredible stuff. Thanks so much for having me anytime, anytime.
Thank you,
Now the country's first one hundred percent aborage aloned, centralized
screen printing and licensed textile manufacturing hub has opened in Darwitt.
It's called print Shop NT. It's located in Winnelli and
it's operating as a multi user facility. It's going to
function both as a compercial manufacturing facility consolidating the printing
(00:22):
activity of Aboriginal artists and arts organizations across the NT
and indeed Australia. Now, the brains behind this business is
the wonderful Nina Fitzgerald, who joins me in the studio
right now. Good morning to you, Nina.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Good morning Katie. Thank you for having me this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It is lovely to have you in the studio. I
love seeing people do great stuff in the Northern Territory
and I've seen so much of the wonderful stuff you've
done over the years for our listeners. I'm friends with
your mum and I Reckon. I met you probably about
twenty years ago when you were real maybe fifteen years
ago when you were quite a young girl. So for
me to see all the amazing stuff you're doing, I
(01:04):
feel like I feel proud of you.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thank you. Thanks for following along.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I love following that journey. I follow it on Instagram and.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm like, oh, what's Nina ups.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm glad you've been here and you've now you've got
a brand new business. Tell us a bit more about
print Shop.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
NT print Shop and T, as you said, is going
to be a screen printing and textile manufacturing hub. One
of the main aims is consolidating the work of remote
artists and remote art centers and the incredible textile trade,
which of which a lot comes out of the Northern Territory.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So much comes out of the NT right, and people
love love those textiles. They love the wearable you know,
it's wearable art.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's absolutely wearable art, and so much of it, like
it's a lot of it's made, you know, in arts
centers on country, a lot of it's outsourced to Sydney,
so far away. So I'm bringing it close to those
artists so that they can be more involved and have
more agency over their stories and their cultures.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
There are And what do you reckon it means then?
For you know, for those artists, the fact that it
is then able to happen here in the Northern Territory
stay in the end, and and you know, hopefully see
more of their work then around the rest of Australia.
But in terms of that manufacturing and printing it able
to happen here.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, I think, I mean it excites everyone having things
local in the Northern territory. I think everyone's so proud
to bring things home where you know, we're distance, we're
so far away from other things, especially in remote communities,
and by having a hub here in Darwin, you know,
we can provide all this capacity building out to remote centers,
which I think is only going to increase what they
can do in their output and elevate elevate the textile trade.
(02:42):
I'm hoping into the broader Australian fashion narrative.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, I hope so. And even when you talk about
the broader Australian fashion narrative, even for you, I've seen
more of what you are doing in that space as
well over the years. So how important do you reckon
it is then to you know, to have that aboriginal
w wearable art a bit more mainstreamer, a bit more
I don't know where the mainstream is the right word,
(03:05):
but more accessible to others.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, I think it's so important. I think Fashion is
this incredible medium that transcends socioeconomic divides, and if we
can push that out further into you know, the broader
narrative and globally, you know, it's really exciting. And you know,
we have the oldest surviving cultures on Earth. We should
all be getting behind that, we should be celebrating that,
and fashion is a very really easy and really fun
(03:28):
way to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, it really is. Tell me operationally, how does print
shop work? You know, like I suppose I'm trying to
wrap my head around it, right, and I know you're
sort of working through all the hurdles of it working
smoothly too, So how does it work?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's been such a long time coming. It's very
exciting to see it come to life. Well, you know,
we've got a fourteen and a half met a long table,
so that's the meterage printing roll out a massive long
piece of fabric. We expose screens on site. We have
all the setup and we have an infrared conveyor belt
drying so we can kind of do from start to
finish of the design, the making of the screens, and
(04:04):
then the printing all in house, which is so cool.
And then we can provide those resources out to remote centers.
But also anyone can come and get stuff printed. Were
a commercial prints face, so anyone can come by.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
How did you, like, how did this idea come about?
And you said, it's been a long time in the making,
but how did it come about?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I grew up, you know, in remote communities, seeing you know,
the arts practice. I was always drawn to textiles. It's
so beautifully done. It's largely run by women, which I
think is just so empowering and amazing. And you know,
then I worked for the Day on Average and art
Fair foundation and just being in and around that space
like this was thrown around. It's been thrown around for years.
The government has thrown around in and out of policy.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is a need.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Is it viable? It is viable, It should happen. No
one's done it. So I just sort of thought, I'm
going to solve this problem.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Go I love this. Like what I love about it is,
you know, the fact that you're a young woman who's
achieving really big things and doing something that's such a
huge like it is such a huge concept and such
a huge thing to do for the for the wider community,
and and you know, sometimes people look at young women
(05:16):
and go, oh, I don't know, you know, I don't
know whether they're going to be able to do that,
but it's like, look at what you're doing. You know,
this isn't your only business either. You've also got a
business in per rap and and and you know, the
laundry gallery there has been operating now for a few it's.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
A few years, isn't We're two We're just over two years,
so not ages, but long enoughter really starting to be
a part of the community up which is awesome as well.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And is it like it's all going quite well too.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, it's going really well. And the response from the
community has been amazing. I mean we're doing really different
things with Indigenous art and storytelling, which people are super
excited by.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
A Nina, what's you I suppose what's your aim with
everything that you are doing in the NT is it?
You know? It sounds as though you're wanting to to
really bring the indigenous you know, Indigenous fashion I suppose
to the broader community. But it sounds like you're wanting
to make it accessible for people and also making sure
(06:10):
that those are in community, those people that are in
communities that are doing this beautiful art, or have got
this beautiful art that it's able to then be sort
of more widely accessible.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, And I think it's just about championing those stories
and those peoples and all the amazing things that come
out of communities. There's a lot of negativity thrown around.
There's obviously still so much injustice, there's a lot of beauty,
there's a lot of fun. I want to celebrate that
and share those stories. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to do.
And I think with indigenous fashion, indigenous anything, but especially
(06:41):
in fashion, that's obviously the space I'm in. It's like
these stories should just be a part of the narrative,
stand alone, elevated and like stand up to fashion Yep,
not this sort of Oh it's indigenous and it has
its own section. So that's what I'm hoping.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Just embrace it. Yeah, that's great, that's a good you know,
that's a great way of thinking of it, because you're right, like,
it doesn't need to be it doesn't need to be
a different stream. Like it's amazing, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And if we can work close with artists and keep
elevating what they're doing in terms of their output, you know,
the fabrics we can print on. There's incredible things you
can do with screen printing and manipulating artworks. And if
we can keep elevating that, I don't see why it
can't just become part of the narrative.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And in terms of I know, print shops only been
going now for a little while, but in terms of
the interaction and the feedback that you're receiving, do you
reckon it's going to be something that becomes really quite
a busy and popular space.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, and I hope so, I mean starting a business,
So I really hope we get some trade. Please guys
come in. But no, I think so. And I mean,
you know the fact that we're printing merch and we
can work with local businesses. People can come by and
see what we're doing. We can help with the design,
like we can be doing all of that, and because
we're local, we're going to reduce the create costs and
(07:56):
timelines and we can turn things around. And I know,
I think likes to get behind something that's local.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Are you feeling pretty pumped that it's now, like you
know that it is operational and it's happening.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I'm so pumped. I've been so impatient. The last few
things I was telling you earlier, like just ironing the
last little bits out, I'm just like so impatient. But
over there it's set up. The space looks epic, and
I'm just so excited to just keep jumping and diving
into that.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh good on you, Nina. I think it's awesome. Massive
congratulations to you, and and so great to speak with
you this morning. I love watching what you're doing. You're
doing incredible stuff. Thanks so much for having me anytime, anytime.
Thank you,
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