Lee: I think a lot about what Leecee Carmichael (a Ngugi/Quandamooka artist and designer) speaks about, which is that weaving is the act of putting two fibres together and rubbing them on our legs. It has been happening for centuries, over 60,000 years. And this is the core essence of everything we’re wearing today.

The act of weaving is so simple, but so difficult as well, because it’s arduous and it’s repetitive and it’s long. Maybe it’s a bit like life – but then you can create this beautiful thing.

Hobson: Your practice is very much about traditional weaving techniques, and you do that through really beautiful and contemporary context. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you got to this point?

Lee: In my final year of studying fashion at RMIT, I took my grandmother back to the Torres Strait – she hadn’t returned for 57 years. I was very young, I was 21, and I was like, “What is going on here?”

My Nana asked: “What do you want to do about this?” And I realised I needed to make something to respond to it; the best way I knew how to react to the situation was through my creative practice. I created a collection called Intertwined, and I connected with Uncle Ken Thaiday.

Uncle Ken just kept inviting me back to learn more. I’d come in and bring my grandma, and they would have a yarn. Weaving with him was very organic. He wasn’t like, “I’m going to teach you this.” He was just doing it, and then I was like, “Ooh, can I have a try?”

Fashion was a way for me to understand my cultural identity and to be proud of that, because that was suppressed in my father’s upbringing.

Hobson: That concept of re-engaging with culture and community is so important.

Lee: I think a lot of Australians are lost, and I think they’re probably lost because they don’t feel connected.

The reason why First Nations work can be so powerful is because we are connected to our Country. So when we bring people that aren’t connected to this Country, and they come out on to Country, it’s a very special moment for them. But it can be a bit glorified and not really thought through.

I get tired of the fact that everyone expects Indigenous fashion to look like Indigenous art. I think that’s really marginalising us into a category that’s restricted. I think that if artists are only being utilised – and utilised is the word – for their storyline and Aboriginality, it’s not really ethical.

Hobson: There are so many things I don’t think a lot of people think about when they think of Indigenous fashion. Like when you go into a community, there is a style. The Indigenous jerseys, that people wear with pride, and the beautiful island dresses. It’s something that’s super important, and that I think Indigenous people have inherently made their own.

The rise of social media has been a good avenue for people to get their brands out there and be entrepreneurs. We’ve got Teagan Cowlishaw’s Deadly Kween jumpsuit in the exhibition. She’s been a really important voice in this space, building her brand Aarli.

For me to be able to wear something like that is just so empowering and uplifting. I think for young Indigenous people as well, it’s good to have that visibility within the colonial space. I think she’s been really great in that sense of reclaiming black identity through fashion, and empowering young black people to feel confident in themselves and their culture.

You’re right, Grace, designers need to be met on the other end as well.

Lee: We are already changing the face of what Australian fashion looks like. Now it’s about being more immersed within the industry, and more acknowledged within the industry. Without having these foundations that we’re building on right now, we’ll be back at where we were 50 years ago.

The more people that are benefiting from the economic stimulation that the fashion industry creates within our nation, the better.

I do know a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who don’t want to be the artist and the storyteller. The ecosystem of the fashion industry is huge. It consists of textile designers, printmakers, cutters, sewers, pattern markers, drapers, trend forecasters, makeup artists, photographers, models, modelling agencies. How do we encourage the growth of all those different things?

There’s a lot that could be further explored or just expressed through fashion, and it doesn’t have to be so literal in a sense. I think that we’re just at the beginning of what that looks like. I think we’re just scraping the edges.