Indigenous Entrepreneurs - Injalak Ethical Art Thongs
The coolest, hottest, most ethical thongs in Australia. Would you like to wear cool clothing and footwear with Aboriginal designs but worry about the ethics? Stop fretting and get organised to support our campaign to produce some uber-cool ethical thongs (flip-flops to you internationals). Be stylish, comfortable and have peace of mind knowing that you're doing two things at once: supporting Injalak Arts' Aboriginal artists and also Australia's most ethical social enterprise, Etiko. Three great designs to choose from. Becoming a supporter of this campaign - whether by ordering thongs or taking up another reward - will give us the necessary cash to pay the producers to make the first ever batch of these fair trade thongs specially for us + royalties for the artists. If we are not successful we can't order the thongs to be made. More information about costs of production in 'how the funds will be used' below. PS: The artists have no issue with the designs being on thongs - in fact they're thrilled.
Injalak Arts
The guiding principle of our art centre is 'sharing and teaching our culture'.Injalak Arts is an 100% Aboriginal owned non-profit artists cooperative (incorporated as an Association) located in Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) in the Nothern Territory of Australia. We have more than 200 active artists as members. See this lovely short video about Injalak Arts. Our crew create paintings and also designs for hand screen-printing on fabric. We now have 43 designs by 22 artists and we have featured some of these on the shirts and thongs. Our artists are carrying on a tradition of making art that was done by their ancestors for tens of thousands of years. No kidding! We're actually a bit famous in the Aboriginal Arts sector. Have a look at the tours we offer to a nearby rock art site here.
The commonly spoken language in the area is Kunwinjku and members of Injalak Arts must be Aboriginal Kunwinjku speakers. Located in West Arnhem Land and famous as the home of 'x-ray' art, the artists of the region have been making collectible and acclaimed artworks for more than a century. Based on imagery found in rock art throughout the region, and part of a continuous culture dating back more than 20,000 years, the figurative themes in the paintings of the region feature animals, plants, spirits and creation ancestors. Being a non-profit (it's in our Constitution that any proceeds need to be used to support members social and cultural needs) we have very limited funds for activities and need to rely on social entrepreunerialism to generate income and fund projects.
If you like what you're seeing so far - follow us on Facebook and Instagram to be kept up-to-date with all the happenings in our art centre.
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