Black activism and traditional weaving celebrated at Australia's National Indigenous Fashion Awards

SYDNEY — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander designs have been celebrated at the third annual National Indigenous Fashion Awards, which were announced Wednesday in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Held at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Australia's largest First Nations visual arts event, showcasing work from over 75 Aboriginal art centres, the awards recognize and showcase excellence in the categories of Fashion and Textile Design, Business, Traditional Adornment, Wearable Art, and Community Collaboration.

Melbourne-based Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco has won the fashion designer award for the second consecutive year, winning her back-to-back 12-month business mentorships with Australian retail chain Country Road.

The Business Achievement Award went to Laura Thompson, co-founder of Gunditjmara, Melbourne-based Clothing the Gaps, a B Corp-certified Aboriginal social enterprise specializing in streetwear featuring campaigning slogans such as "Aboriginal Land - Tread Lightly " and "Always was, always will be", a key slogan of the Australian indigenous land rights movement. The brand name is a play on Closing the Gap, an Australian Federal Government health initiative aimed at reducing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

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Models in looks from Clothing the Gaps, winner of the NIFA Business Achievement Award, at the presentation of the First Nations fashion and design group during Australia's Afterpay fashion week on May 13. Mark Metcalfe

Esther Yarllarlla, a Kunibidji artist who works with the Bábbara Women's Center in Maningrida, Northern Territory, won the traditional adornment award for her women's mókko, a traditional skirt made of knotted "bush rope" by hand, while the community collaboration award went to artist Yankunytjatjara Linda Puna of the Mimili Maku Arts collective located on APY lands (Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, a local government area for aborigines) and brand Melbourne-based vegan Unreal Fur, for their collection of down jackets and coats featuring Puna's work.

The Textile Design Award went to Philomena Yeatman, master weaver of Gunggandji and Kuku Yalanji, for her 'Yulu Dreaming' linen print which features images of stingrays and was incorporated into trousers and a top made by seamstresses from the Yarrabah Arts & Cultural Precinct in Far North Queensland, where Yeatman is based. Best known for her baskets and placemats, which are woven from pandanus leaves and can take anywhere from a fortnight to six months to produce, Yeatman has created mini basket earrings to go along with the look.

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