Textile art for Indigenous identity

KAIT James is doing her part to reclaim her culture.

The Wadawurrung visual artist’s latest exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Hang us out to dry, involves punch needle embroidering over Aboriginal-themed souvenir tea towels from the 70s and 80s to highlight Indigenous issues.

James said she was inspired after seeing vintage tea towels for sale in op shops while on holiday.

“These are the type of things that people did keep as a sort of souvenir,” she said. “There’s a big love-hate relationship with Indigenous souvenirs, I used them as a way of telling my story.

“I originally started using them by the year so whatever year it was I was researching what was happening in First Nations culture in Australia at that time and then embroidering that on to the tea towel.”

She said she also used them to recount her own personal history, including an ode to 1983 Culture Club song Karma Chameleon.

“Some are kind of autobiographical, so whatever I was doing at the time,” she said. “There’s one that’s called Every day is like survival, it was the year that song came out.

“In that piece I’ve got a big yellow ghetto blaster and I remember in 1983 that’s what I had and what I was listening to at that time.”

“Now they’re not really about the year, I just use them more as a canvas. Dealing with issues like land rights, treaties, looking at the commercialisation of our culture, the copyright of our flag and things like that.”

Originally from Ballarat, James has lived in Geelong and currently lives and works in Melbourne.

“Geelong and Ballarat being Wadawurrung country it’s super important to me and I like the idea of people in those areas seeing Wadawurrung artists,” she said.

“At the show, quite a few of my cousins came and they really love it which is amazing.

One of the most important pieces to James is called Ring my Post Bell Hill, about the Geelong suburb.

“It’s about the suburb Bell Post Hill in Geelong and how that’s named after a bell on a post, and it used to get rung when Aboriginal people were in the area and that was my people, the Wadawurrung people,” she said.

James’ humour is something she wanted to express in the pieces, with pop culture references and vibrant colours a key element to the exhibition.

“I think that’s a big part of my personality, I try use humour as a way of dealing with difficult topics and it makes it easier in a way for the viewer to look at it and understand it and to see my viewpoint,” she said.

The exhibition is on until Sunday, 1 August and James will have an in-person discussion at the gallery on Saturday, 29 May at 2.15pm.