February 16, 2025 • 20 mins
Meet Amanda Healy Amanda, a proud Wonnarua woman from the Hunter Valley in NSW, brings over 35 years of experience in the mining industry, working with renowned companies like BHP, Rio Tinto, and WMC. In 2014, she founded Kirrikin as a social enterprise to address the shortage of authentic Indigenous products.
Kirrikin digitally prints stunning Aboriginal artwork onto luxurious cashmeres and silks, creating exquisite scarves and ties. With a growing international reputation, Kirrikin is loved not only in Australia but also in the USA and Europe. Recognised for its excellence, Kirrikin has received the prestigious Indigenous in Business Award and an Ecommerce award through the Export Council of Australia.
As a finalist in national awards, Kirrikin continues to make its mark in the fashion industry. Amanda also featured in Forbes magazine Amanda also featured in Forbes magazine Amanda Healy on closing the gap (forbes.com.au)
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Unite our voices.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We respectfully acknowledge the Watchapnono people as the traditional owners
of the land in which these was created.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm Crystal Kinsella. I'm a proud Jarwin and Braddrew woman,
a supply diversity expert and published author. Welcome to Meet
the Mob, a series dedicated to showcasing black excellence in business.
I get to interview deadly first Nation business owners from
around the country and learn about their why.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Today I'm joined by Amanda Healey from Kerrikin, who will
share with us her why, why she got into business
and why she does what she does. So to kick
it off, Hey, Amanda, tell us who you are. Here's
your mob.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hi, Crystal, I'm Amanda Heally. Obviously my people are the
Wonnarua people from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
I have lived most of my life though here. You're
in Western Australia just to just because of things that
were happening to our family at that time. So here
we are, and I love it here in the West.
Except on days like this, I know it's.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
A bit sad. We had a nice sunny day and
then today's come all over cast. Yeah go figure, Yeah, Look,
I've known you for such a long time and you've
been involved in lots of different businesses. And I know
today we want to talk a little bit about currikein,
but I want to know, you know, what got you
into business, what has driven you, what's been the why
that's got you out of bed every day doing what
you do?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, I know, I just love it now, I really
do love it. And I guess some of that's around maturity.
But originally I started my own businesses, and mostly in
the mining industry and in engineering services area, because I
was a single mum with a young child, and it
really it was a real struggle to try and work
(01:54):
for a mining company where you started at seven o'clock
in the morning and finished at seven o'clock at night.
So I mean that was really what motivated me in
the first place, was to have some control over my
own time. And I'm sure you understand said that. So, yeah,
very similar situations, so except mine's a bit older than yours.
(02:16):
Your kids are, and so, but as time grew on,
it sort of became a real issue, and particularly when
what was then AMC came about, it became.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
A real thing for me.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I really wanted to identify and really wanted to show,
particularly the mining industry, that Aboriginal people are perfectly capable
of running reasonable businesses, you know. And that was how
Kurrican came about, of course, is because I was often
talking to people and found that there was no real
representation in the market. I went looking for up here
(02:52):
in the Hay Street more looking for a couple of
nice scarfs to wear, and found there was just absolutely
nothing made here, no connection, no authentic connection to Aboriginal people.
It was all made overseas and in the style of
so it sort of really frustrated me. So and you
might remember that Kurrican started as a scarf and Thai
(03:15):
brand and we branched out in about twenty sixteen when
the fashion industry here said to me, crazy, You've got
these beautiful prints, why don't you do something with them?
And so it became a real issue for me. Then
once I started talking to artists about putting their artwork
(03:37):
onto fabric, became a real issue for me when I
started to understand how little of the sales they actually got.
So we now work with I've got nine artists on
my roster and they we work on usage agreements and
we pay them quarterly, and you know, I sort of
(03:58):
feel good about how it's going and what's happening with it,
you know, So I guess that's my real motivation now
is to make that change, to make this statement that
you know, like Aboriginal culture should be associated with high
beautiful products like you're wearing right, love this, and you know,
(04:19):
to be associated with something that's really high value and
high worse. And so that's sort of been my mission
a bit in that space, as well as the whole
the whole thing with the artists themselves. So yeah, it's
been fun.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
It's been such a journey. I mean, I think when
I first came across you, you were it was back
in your Max engineering days, right, and I was like,
oh my gosh, this average a woman runs a massive
engineering company. And then I remember I think you might
have sold that, and then and then transitions and obviously
this journey now to secure. Can you still are involved
(04:56):
in mining as well? Yeah? Is it Oracle? Yeahah, yeah,
which is fantastic. But I mean that's so inspiring, particularly
for people hopefully that are watching around, you know, being
being an Aboriginal single mum and then you know, creating
a business to be able to work the way that
you needed to work. That's there's a lot of first
(05:17):
in that as well of also working in a in
mining very male dominated, yeah, very male dominated.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And you know, like I worked for BHP for thirteen
years I think, and you know it was I was
amongst the first women to even be promoted into leadership roles.
It was crazy, crazy time now you think about it
when you look back on it, but it still happens
a bit. So there's still a bit of a fight
to go on, not just about being Aboriginal, it's about
(05:47):
being female as well, and there's a lot of challenges
in that and single mums. Then you add on single
mums and other issues. Yeah no, but you know, look,
Warricle has been a tremendous success. We I linked up
after I saw Max in two fifteen. I linked up
with a couple of guys I was going to retire.
(06:07):
Then I was like, that's it, you know, I'll just
concentrate on they for a while. And then then I
met a couple of fellas who just said, why don't you,
you know, like have a have a crack at this,
And the sort of pure shutdown type business. So I
was like, what have I got to lose, you know, like,
you know, might as well do something, because actually I
get bored pretty easily too. So in twenty seventeen we
(06:33):
actually hit the ground. We started off feelers, I think
about four employees. Last week we had eight hundred and seventy.
By the end of this year we'll have another four
hundred on top of that. So the gross has been amazing.
It's been really fantastic. Well, you know, like FMG were
(06:53):
great to us very early on. They placed their trust
in US and signed a pretty substantial agreement with US.
We just signing one now with BHP. We started working
again with Rio, we work with Pilgrim Minerals. It's fantastic,
you know, like there are all of a sudden embracing this, Ah,
you're an Aboriginal business. We do face there's still a
(07:15):
little bit of the are you sure this is an
Aboriginal business? You know, like, but that's sort of been
you know, I keep saying to my business partners, you
know what if we do nothing else apart from change
a half a dozen people's minds about what an Aboriginal
business can be, and I'm going to die happy, I
tell you, because it's you know, like the people that
(07:36):
I work with it constantly, and the other businesses that
are constantly facing those challenges and they, you know, like
they struggle to execute because there's this view that if
you're in business with somebody who's non Indigenous, then it's
not an indigenous business anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Crazy. Where does the management and control sit is the
question that I always say. So back to Curri Can,
I mean, yeah, I've watched the evolution over the years
from the scarfs and now e dresses, and I got
to wear one of your dresses, the k dress, just recently.
But I mean you had You've had a couple of
first in that as well. I mean I think you
(08:14):
did have a shot previously at Perth Airport, which was
really quite significant to have that and have it, you know,
set a stage where you know, lots of traffic in
and out. I think that was before COVID.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It was just at the start of COVID, and it
was at the Quantus terminal, which was a perfect place
for us to be really and then COVID hit and
it was you know, like so we were there for
a couple of years and a few things have changed
at the airport, and we've sort of pulled back a
bit and now have a studio over in Como, which
is not very far away. But I'm loving, you know.
(08:48):
Like one of the things that came from having Kirriken
was I was given a Churchill fellowship, So I spent
the last three months of last year learning how to
be a designer. They're like, really, you know, like a
real growing up there. So I spent three months in
Paris and at the International Facility.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Vicariously through you on your Facebook or your pictures, but yes.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
What a time, what an amazing experience, like and very
fortunately I tried to learn a bit of French before.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Can you speak French? I just know, you know, basics,
that's an it's what comments of us I see. I
wouldn't even know what that means.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
But for about four months before I went, I got
onto oh, what's the app on?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Like Google Translate or something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
No, this is another one that helps you understand the
words and you know, like start to build sentences. I
tried for four months, but it was such a hard
language to learn, and so I wasn't very effective at that,
and thank heavens, it was all in English, and actually
just about everyone in France now speaks English, particularly the
(10:00):
younger generations, and I think you have to be, you know,
like in some small country towns to be faced with
areas where nobody can speak any English at all. So
that was an absolute delight. But that collection, my evening collection,
came from that, oh wow. Yeah, And I really enjoyed that.
And so I'm going to explore that a little bit more.
(10:22):
And I've just got my latest collection, which is a
bit more casual, a bit more dayware, a bit more
workware stuff, and we'll have that out before Christmas this year.
I'm trying very hard to just do one collection a year.
A bit difficult because the demand is to be constantly
doing something different. But we always work with with fabrics
(10:44):
like Discos, which is which is a man made product,
but it's a recycled product. So and I guess one
of the reasons that I was attracted to using viscos
was that it breaks down if it goes into landfill,
it breaks down in a year, whereas the polyestas are
forty five years.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Wow. So yes, it's much better from an environmental point
of view.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Absolutely, yeah, And I love you know, like I have
so much art worker it just I just struggle every
year to decide which one you're going to choose.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Definitely, I welcome the work where because you know, the
amount of different environments and stages that I get on
be really Yeah. Great to have more shirts and things
like that and the collection. I wear the blazer, the
Ripples blazer all the time now and everybody just comments,
They're just like, oh, where did you get that from? It?
(11:35):
I'm like, here, everybody here, you can go and have
a look at this Instagram check it out. But I
mean just getting back to you've got you know, nine
artists that are on board with you, and you've set
up a proper system for them to be paid and
to be remunerated appropriately, because we just hear so often
(11:56):
about artists that do get unfortunately ripped off. There are
some fake label, fake brands out there that are propping
themselves up that they are an indigenous brand when actually
they're not. Yeah, you know, what can we do more
to kind of protect artists out there?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know, it's an interesting thing. It's really hard for
somebody like me too to compete with you know, Gorman
or Camilla or someone like that who's printing Aboriginal onto
that so, and I'm not saying they do that unfairly
or unreasonably. I'm sure the artists are paid in those circumstances.
(12:37):
So there's a whole heap of layers. I know that
Terry Jenki has done some amazing work in the IP space.
But I encourage when people ask me how you know,
like what do you do? How do you make sure
you're getting authentic stuff? I said, ask questions, find out
where they're from, who their mob is, who knows them,
you know what other artwork? Go and look online. Don't
(12:59):
just accept that you can walk into Maya or wherever
and by a bit of a you know, a shirt
with Aboriginal print on and it's got nothing to do
with Aboriginal people. So you know, do your research and
you know, and I think there's enough now online about.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You know, how we're owned.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean we always put on Kurricane that we're one
hundred percent Aboriginal owned, we were hand crafted in Australia,
and you know, like, I don't know, it would be
it would be really interesting to see us fit into
the fashion industry rather than be seen as an Aboriginal
(13:40):
Aboriginal fashion.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
You'd be embedded and not be have to be that
call out.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Definitely, yes, quite separately, and I think that has caused
us a bit to be seen as a novelty product.
So we're not getting the traction that you know, that
we'd like to because because it is it's hard to
compete one against bigger, bigger companies that have got more
funds than we have to advertise. But secondly, just you know,
(14:08):
like sometimes they're better knowledge and you know, better, better
profiles and all that stuff. We'll keep working at it
though we want it to you know, like I think
there's a few of us that are really keen to
see some change. And one of the things that's happening
about that, of course, is we're going internationally. We're doing
the Kylie minogsing you know, if you've got to go
(14:29):
seems to become.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Become famous and then come back. Yeah that's great. Well
you come off to London tomorrow tomorrow. Yeah, so for
fashion week over there. Yeah, it is a part of
fashion Week. So we're doing a runway show on next
Tuesday night, which is a part of Fashion Week, and
we'll we're taking with us Mara Collective Negali, Mimi and Ginder,
(14:55):
Kamara Swim, Leander Swim and of course Kurri Cans all
my favorite brands here. Yeah. Well, I just I dropped
a little bit of money on the Mimi and Ginder
waiting for that to come. But that's so Look, it's
just fantastic exposure for all of it, everyone to be
(15:18):
getting over there. So I mean, you know, you've been
in business for quite some time, various businesses, whether it's
engineering in the mining industry or you know, the growth
of curricum. What's the legacy piece for you? Oh wow?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, my one hope is that people will remember who
we are and we'll start to see or recognize our
culture in a different way. That's my dearest hope. And
you know, like I hope Currican carries well on after
I'm retired, and you know, maybe pushing up Daisies that
(15:54):
might be a bit of a bit of a wild dream,
but it would be really nice to see that carried forward.
But and you know, one of the things that I
love about going to London is for and taking some
young people with us that haven't been exposed to an
international audience before, is that they for some of them
for the first time in their life. They get treated
(16:16):
with interest and respect. Yes, and so I'm really loving
the impact that it has on the young ones too.
It's sort of like makes me feel all warm and
fuzzy inside. How awesome is that, you know, like all
of a sudden seeing themselves differently and their culture differently.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
What a great experience and great exposure. And look, it's
been incredible to know you for so many years. I
think I've known you for over ten years. You've always
been such a great support to me. What message have
you got for other young Indigenous women out there that
are maybe thinking about going into business or starting up.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Or well, you know, like I'm sort of a real
I'm a Star Wars fan.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
So and I.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Always loved using Yoda's quote, you know Yoda with is
do or do not?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
There's no try. If you're going to do it, do
it properly and just give it.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're all give it everything, and then you know, and
really make it worthwhile.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Most definitely, I'm not a start what was person, but
that does resonate like if you're going to do something,
get in there, have a crack and do it well. Yeah,
right man, Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And so many are now to it like it's awesome.
I see Sharon Windsor with her indiduous and how that's
all going, and Mara and like so many businesses. It's
just I think the first time I met you, there
was less There was less than five hundred businesses registered
across Australia.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I think there were because I was there in the
ainsy days all right, so right at the end before
the change to supply Nation, and so yeah, it amazes
me when I see so many of you that I
was looking at in Awe and then now I'm I'm
on the other side of the fence with you. But
to see how you've all some of you have diversified,
(18:06):
some grown, but just to have all those established relationships
is really amazing, isn't it. So how many is there now?
Do you reckon how many businesses are? I think there's
over four and four thousand, three hundred businesses on Supplantations directory.
Isn't that amazing change in the world? Oh? I definitely, definitely.
I was only just talking to Jenny Hays from Supplanation
(18:29):
yesterday just saying, gosh, look how many people we've met
in these last ten to eleven years and just watching
the growth of the sector and the relationships and she's like, yeah,
said income, it's it's so powerful.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It is, it is and you can see the shift,
you know, and like for me and I don't want
to get political here, but I really really hope that
we get this referendum up just because that shift will
just push so many of our people to do so
much more and allow them more I guess, freedom to
(19:05):
do what they want to do as well.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Definitely. Well, it's been so great to have you here,
enjoyed me on the couch and have a yarn today
and share a little bit about you know, your business
journey and the strength of Currican, and I wish you
all the best going over to London tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, it's nearly as warm as here at the moment
over there, so that's going to be a shock, I suppose.
Don't expect it in London, definitely. So if you want
to get one final message that you might want to
share with my viewers, what would that be, Happy to
look down a barrel of that camera down there, have
a look at Kurrican for one, and for two, don't
take no for an answer ever in business, keep at it.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So there you have it. I hope you've enjoyed the
latest episode of Meet Them All and as Amanda said,
check out Currican online and don't take no for an
answer until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode.
If you love it, please share it on your socials
with your mob. Let's tell amplify as many Indigenous businesses
as possible and get everyone supporting each other. Thank you.
Unite our voices.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We respectfully acknowledge the Watchapnono people as the traditional owners
of the land in which these was created.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm Crystal Kinsella. I'm a proud Jarwin and Braddrew woman,
a supply diversity expert and published author. Welcome to Meet
the Mob, a series dedicated to showcasing black excellence in business.
I get to interview deadly first Nation business owners from
around the country and learn about their why.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Today I'm joined by Amanda Healey from Kerrikin, who will
share with us her why, why she got into business
and why she does what she does. So to kick
it off, Hey, Amanda, tell us who you are. Here's
your mob.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hi, Crystal, I'm Amanda Heally. Obviously my people are the
Wonnarua people from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
I have lived most of my life though here. You're
in Western Australia just to just because of things that
were happening to our family at that time. So here
we are, and I love it here in the West.
Except on days like this, I know it's.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
A bit sad. We had a nice sunny day and
then today's come all over cast. Yeah go figure, Yeah, Look,
I've known you for such a long time and you've
been involved in lots of different businesses. And I know
today we want to talk a little bit about currikein,
but I want to know, you know, what got you
into business, what has driven you, what's been the why
that's got you out of bed every day doing what
you do?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, I know, I just love it now, I really
do love it. And I guess some of that's around maturity.
But originally I started my own businesses, and mostly in
the mining industry and in engineering services area, because I
was a single mum with a young child, and it
really it was a real struggle to try and work
(01:54):
for a mining company where you started at seven o'clock
in the morning and finished at seven o'clock at night.
So I mean that was really what motivated me in
the first place, was to have some control over my
own time. And I'm sure you understand said that. So, yeah,
very similar situations, so except mine's a bit older than yours.
(02:16):
Your kids are, and so, but as time grew on,
it sort of became a real issue, and particularly when
what was then AMC came about, it became.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
A real thing for me.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I really wanted to identify and really wanted to show,
particularly the mining industry, that Aboriginal people are perfectly capable
of running reasonable businesses, you know. And that was how
Kurrican came about, of course, is because I was often
talking to people and found that there was no real
representation in the market. I went looking for up here
(02:52):
in the Hay Street more looking for a couple of
nice scarfs to wear, and found there was just absolutely
nothing made here, no connection, no authentic connection to Aboriginal people.
It was all made overseas and in the style of
so it sort of really frustrated me. So and you
might remember that Kurrican started as a scarf and Thai
(03:15):
brand and we branched out in about twenty sixteen when
the fashion industry here said to me, crazy, You've got
these beautiful prints, why don't you do something with them?
And so it became a real issue for me. Then
once I started talking to artists about putting their artwork
(03:37):
onto fabric, became a real issue for me when I
started to understand how little of the sales they actually got.
So we now work with I've got nine artists on
my roster and they we work on usage agreements and
we pay them quarterly, and you know, I sort of
(03:58):
feel good about how it's going and what's happening with it,
you know, So I guess that's my real motivation now
is to make that change, to make this statement that
you know, like Aboriginal culture should be associated with high
beautiful products like you're wearing right, love this, and you know,
(04:19):
to be associated with something that's really high value and
high worse. And so that's sort of been my mission
a bit in that space, as well as the whole
the whole thing with the artists themselves. So yeah, it's
been fun.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
It's been such a journey. I mean, I think when
I first came across you, you were it was back
in your Max engineering days, right, and I was like,
oh my gosh, this average a woman runs a massive
engineering company. And then I remember I think you might
have sold that, and then and then transitions and obviously
this journey now to secure. Can you still are involved
(04:56):
in mining as well? Yeah? Is it Oracle? Yeahah, yeah,
which is fantastic. But I mean that's so inspiring, particularly
for people hopefully that are watching around, you know, being
being an Aboriginal single mum and then you know, creating
a business to be able to work the way that
you needed to work. That's there's a lot of first
(05:17):
in that as well of also working in a in
mining very male dominated, yeah, very male dominated.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And you know, like I worked for BHP for thirteen
years I think, and you know it was I was
amongst the first women to even be promoted into leadership roles.
It was crazy, crazy time now you think about it
when you look back on it, but it still happens
a bit. So there's still a bit of a fight
to go on, not just about being Aboriginal, it's about
(05:47):
being female as well, and there's a lot of challenges
in that and single mums. Then you add on single
mums and other issues. Yeah no, but you know, look,
Warricle has been a tremendous success. We I linked up
after I saw Max in two fifteen. I linked up
with a couple of guys I was going to retire.
(06:07):
Then I was like, that's it, you know, I'll just
concentrate on they for a while. And then then I
met a couple of fellas who just said, why don't you,
you know, like have a have a crack at this,
And the sort of pure shutdown type business. So I
was like, what have I got to lose, you know, like,
you know, might as well do something, because actually I
get bored pretty easily too. So in twenty seventeen we
(06:33):
actually hit the ground. We started off feelers, I think
about four employees. Last week we had eight hundred and seventy.
By the end of this year we'll have another four
hundred on top of that. So the gross has been amazing.
It's been really fantastic. Well, you know, like FMG were
(06:53):
great to us very early on. They placed their trust
in US and signed a pretty substantial agreement with US.
We just signing one now with BHP. We started working
again with Rio, we work with Pilgrim Minerals. It's fantastic,
you know, like there are all of a sudden embracing this, Ah,
you're an Aboriginal business. We do face there's still a
(07:15):
little bit of the are you sure this is an
Aboriginal business? You know, like, but that's sort of been
you know, I keep saying to my business partners, you
know what if we do nothing else apart from change
a half a dozen people's minds about what an Aboriginal
business can be, and I'm going to die happy, I
tell you, because it's you know, like the people that
(07:36):
I work with it constantly, and the other businesses that
are constantly facing those challenges and they, you know, like
they struggle to execute because there's this view that if
you're in business with somebody who's non Indigenous, then it's
not an indigenous business anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Crazy. Where does the management and control sit is the
question that I always say. So back to Curri Can,
I mean, yeah, I've watched the evolution over the years
from the scarfs and now e dresses, and I got
to wear one of your dresses, the k dress, just recently.
But I mean you had You've had a couple of
first in that as well. I mean I think you
(08:14):
did have a shot previously at Perth Airport, which was
really quite significant to have that and have it, you know,
set a stage where you know, lots of traffic in
and out. I think that was before COVID.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It was just at the start of COVID, and it
was at the Quantus terminal, which was a perfect place
for us to be really and then COVID hit and
it was you know, like so we were there for
a couple of years and a few things have changed
at the airport, and we've sort of pulled back a
bit and now have a studio over in Como, which
is not very far away. But I'm loving, you know.
(08:48):
Like one of the things that came from having Kirriken
was I was given a Churchill fellowship, So I spent
the last three months of last year learning how to
be a designer. They're like, really, you know, like a
real growing up there. So I spent three months in
Paris and at the International Facility.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Vicariously through you on your Facebook or your pictures, but yes.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
What a time, what an amazing experience, like and very
fortunately I tried to learn a bit of French before.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Can you speak French? I just know, you know, basics,
that's an it's what comments of us I see. I
wouldn't even know what that means.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
But for about four months before I went, I got
onto oh, what's the app on?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Like Google Translate or something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
No, this is another one that helps you understand the
words and you know, like start to build sentences. I
tried for four months, but it was such a hard
language to learn, and so I wasn't very effective at that,
and thank heavens, it was all in English, and actually
just about everyone in France now speaks English, particularly the
(10:00):
younger generations, and I think you have to be, you know,
like in some small country towns to be faced with
areas where nobody can speak any English at all. So
that was an absolute delight. But that collection, my evening collection,
came from that, oh wow. Yeah, And I really enjoyed that.
And so I'm going to explore that a little bit more.
(10:22):
And I've just got my latest collection, which is a
bit more casual, a bit more dayware, a bit more
workware stuff, and we'll have that out before Christmas this year.
I'm trying very hard to just do one collection a year.
A bit difficult because the demand is to be constantly
doing something different. But we always work with with fabrics
(10:44):
like Discos, which is which is a man made product,
but it's a recycled product. So and I guess one
of the reasons that I was attracted to using viscos
was that it breaks down if it goes into landfill,
it breaks down in a year, whereas the polyestas are
forty five years.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Wow. So yes, it's much better from an environmental point
of view.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Absolutely, yeah, And I love you know, like I have
so much art worker it just I just struggle every
year to decide which one you're going to choose.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Definitely, I welcome the work where because you know, the
amount of different environments and stages that I get on
be really Yeah. Great to have more shirts and things
like that and the collection. I wear the blazer, the
Ripples blazer all the time now and everybody just comments,
They're just like, oh, where did you get that from? It?
(11:35):
I'm like, here, everybody here, you can go and have
a look at this Instagram check it out. But I
mean just getting back to you've got you know, nine
artists that are on board with you, and you've set
up a proper system for them to be paid and
to be remunerated appropriately, because we just hear so often
(11:56):
about artists that do get unfortunately ripped off. There are
some fake label, fake brands out there that are propping
themselves up that they are an indigenous brand when actually
they're not. Yeah, you know, what can we do more
to kind of protect artists out there?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know, it's an interesting thing. It's really hard for
somebody like me too to compete with you know, Gorman
or Camilla or someone like that who's printing Aboriginal onto
that so, and I'm not saying they do that unfairly
or unreasonably. I'm sure the artists are paid in those circumstances.
(12:37):
So there's a whole heap of layers. I know that
Terry Jenki has done some amazing work in the IP space.
But I encourage when people ask me how you know,
like what do you do? How do you make sure
you're getting authentic stuff? I said, ask questions, find out
where they're from, who their mob is, who knows them,
you know what other artwork? Go and look online. Don't
(12:59):
just accept that you can walk into Maya or wherever
and by a bit of a you know, a shirt
with Aboriginal print on and it's got nothing to do
with Aboriginal people. So you know, do your research and
you know, and I think there's enough now online about.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You know, how we're owned.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean we always put on Kurricane that we're one
hundred percent Aboriginal owned, we were hand crafted in Australia,
and you know, like, I don't know, it would be
it would be really interesting to see us fit into
the fashion industry rather than be seen as an Aboriginal
(13:40):
Aboriginal fashion.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
You'd be embedded and not be have to be that
call out.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Definitely, yes, quite separately, and I think that has caused
us a bit to be seen as a novelty product.
So we're not getting the traction that you know, that
we'd like to because because it is it's hard to
compete one against bigger, bigger companies that have got more
funds than we have to advertise. But secondly, just you know,
(14:08):
like sometimes they're better knowledge and you know, better, better
profiles and all that stuff. We'll keep working at it
though we want it to you know, like I think
there's a few of us that are really keen to
see some change. And one of the things that's happening
about that, of course, is we're going internationally. We're doing
the Kylie minogsing you know, if you've got to go
(14:29):
seems to become.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Become famous and then come back. Yeah that's great. Well
you come off to London tomorrow tomorrow. Yeah, so for
fashion week over there. Yeah, it is a part of
fashion Week. So we're doing a runway show on next
Tuesday night, which is a part of Fashion Week, and
we'll we're taking with us Mara Collective Negali, Mimi and Ginder,
(14:55):
Kamara Swim, Leander Swim and of course Kurri Cans all
my favorite brands here. Yeah. Well, I just I dropped
a little bit of money on the Mimi and Ginder
waiting for that to come. But that's so Look, it's
just fantastic exposure for all of it, everyone to be
(15:18):
getting over there. So I mean, you know, you've been
in business for quite some time, various businesses, whether it's
engineering in the mining industry or you know, the growth
of curricum. What's the legacy piece for you? Oh wow?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, my one hope is that people will remember who
we are and we'll start to see or recognize our
culture in a different way. That's my dearest hope. And
you know, like I hope Currican carries well on after
I'm retired, and you know, maybe pushing up Daisies that
(15:54):
might be a bit of a bit of a wild dream,
but it would be really nice to see that carried forward.
But and you know, one of the things that I
love about going to London is for and taking some
young people with us that haven't been exposed to an
international audience before, is that they for some of them
for the first time in their life. They get treated
(16:16):
with interest and respect. Yes, and so I'm really loving
the impact that it has on the young ones too.
It's sort of like makes me feel all warm and
fuzzy inside. How awesome is that, you know, like all
of a sudden seeing themselves differently and their culture differently.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
What a great experience and great exposure. And look, it's
been incredible to know you for so many years. I
think I've known you for over ten years. You've always
been such a great support to me. What message have
you got for other young Indigenous women out there that
are maybe thinking about going into business or starting up.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Or well, you know, like I'm sort of a real
I'm a Star Wars fan.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
So and I.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Always loved using Yoda's quote, you know Yoda with is
do or do not?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
There's no try. If you're going to do it, do
it properly and just give it.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're all give it everything, and then you know, and
really make it worthwhile.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Most definitely, I'm not a start what was person, but
that does resonate like if you're going to do something,
get in there, have a crack and do it well. Yeah,
right man, Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And so many are now to it like it's awesome.
I see Sharon Windsor with her indiduous and how that's
all going, and Mara and like so many businesses. It's
just I think the first time I met you, there
was less There was less than five hundred businesses registered
across Australia.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I think there were because I was there in the
ainsy days all right, so right at the end before
the change to supply Nation, and so yeah, it amazes
me when I see so many of you that I
was looking at in Awe and then now I'm I'm
on the other side of the fence with you. But
to see how you've all some of you have diversified,
(18:06):
some grown, but just to have all those established relationships
is really amazing, isn't it. So how many is there now?
Do you reckon how many businesses are? I think there's
over four and four thousand, three hundred businesses on Supplantations directory.
Isn't that amazing change in the world? Oh? I definitely, definitely.
I was only just talking to Jenny Hays from Supplanation
(18:29):
yesterday just saying, gosh, look how many people we've met
in these last ten to eleven years and just watching
the growth of the sector and the relationships and she's like, yeah,
said income, it's it's so powerful.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It is, it is and you can see the shift,
you know, and like for me and I don't want
to get political here, but I really really hope that
we get this referendum up just because that shift will
just push so many of our people to do so
much more and allow them more I guess, freedom to
(19:05):
do what they want to do as well.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Definitely. Well, it's been so great to have you here,
enjoyed me on the couch and have a yarn today
and share a little bit about you know, your business
journey and the strength of Currican, and I wish you
all the best going over to London tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, it's nearly as warm as here at the moment
over there, so that's going to be a shock, I suppose.
Don't expect it in London, definitely. So if you want
to get one final message that you might want to
share with my viewers, what would that be, Happy to
look down a barrel of that camera down there, have
a look at Kurrican for one, and for two, don't
take no for an answer ever in business, keep at it.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So there you have it. I hope you've enjoyed the
latest episode of Meet Them All and as Amanda said,
check out Currican online and don't take no for an
answer until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode.
If you love it, please share it on your socials
with your mob. Let's tell amplify as many Indigenous businesses
as possible and get everyone supporting each other. Thank you.
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