thrift

Who would have thought that one day I would get excited about mending?

This post is taken from a brief I came across today, I wrote it back in 2010 for a jewellery brief called Mikromegas "small works, large ideas". I wish I had a photo of the pins I produced but I don't seem to have any... they were displayed at COFA in a jewellery cabinet so long that I never got them back! It's nice to look back and remember the things that have inspired you!

4th August 2010

On July the 31^st I attended a mass clothing swap called ‘Rethreads’ which was part of the Exchange for change campaign run by Oxfam Australia. The festival is run to focus on and celebrate ethical practises in the textiles industry. Rethreads clothing swap promotes environmental and sustainable ideas where participants are invited to swap up to 20 of their best cast-offs and swap them for others. This encourages recycling to reduce landfill, reusing to reduce the demand for energy resources and reducing gas emissions. This initiative was incredibly creative and stacks of fun. 

For the 40-hour famine this year (as in 2010), I have decided to do something different. The fashion industry culture has pushed people into a mindset that to wear the same outfit twice is embarrassing, even disgraceful. Especially to be seen wearing the same clothes twice in a row! Yet some children in developing countries have no choice. They do not have clothes to choose from, they might have one set of clothes if they’re lucky. They don’t have a choice, that’s just what they wear. To raise money for poor communities in other countries I have decided to famine from the choice of clothes for 40 days. I am wearing the same t-shirt and jeans for 40 days (and washing them). As well as gaining sponsorship to raise money I am also aiming to raise awareness of the state of people in third world countries. I aim to get people to think about the issue in the textiles industry that pushes people to buy more new things and throw out the old, to encourage people to think about sustainable and ethical textile practises.

It is also a personal challenge to myself not to worry about the opinions of others about what I wear, to appreciate the fact that I have so many clothes to choose from every day, to think about others that wear the same clothes everyday and to consider the messages of the media that push people to have this mind set.

Back to the present, 7th October 2014.

Today, I am mending my husbands work pants which have 3 massive rips in them, (he must be working very hard!) He resisted the urge to just buy a new pair and instead asked if I could repair them for him. I would normally cringe at the thought of having to mend another pair of pants. However today, considering the waste I'm saving, instead I am thankful that I know how.

I would really enjoy running a small workshop around learning to sew & mending/altering clothes in the local community. If you are interested, comment below and I'll be in touch.

Fairtrade vs. Fair Trade

You says 'Tom-aye-toe'. I say 'Tom-ah-toe'.
You say 'Fairtrade', I said 'Fair Trade'.
What is the difference?

 Fairtrade (one word) 
The Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) runs a certification system that is a third party guarantee that a product has been produced under Fair Trade standards. To use this sign, a product must be certified by FLO. 'Fairtrade' (one word) is trademarked and there are strict guidelines for using this symbol. For example, a retailer whose products are certified cannot say 'We are Fairtrade', they must say instead 'We sell Fairtrade certified products'.

Fair Trade (two words) Unlike the restricted use of the word 'Fairtrade', use of Fair Trade (two words) is much looser. This is quite similar to the use of the word 'organic' ~ anyone can use it, however there are a few organisations that ensure that standards are adhered to.


The World Fair Trade Organization is the overarching body for Fair Trade, with member organisations all over the world. It is a global network of organisations including producers, marketers, exporters, importers, wholesalers and retailers from over 70 countries. They have just released the WFTO Product Label which is a guarantee system that ensures products are made under Fair Trade standards.

The Fair Trade Association (FTA) of Australia & New Zealand is The Voice of Fair Trade in Australia and New Zealand. They have staff and member organisations from Aus & NZ.
 The Fair Trade Association promotes the two above internationally recognised systems of fair trade and is crucial to the growth and development of the fair trade movement.

Fair Traders of Australia are endorsed by the Fair Trade Association (see above). They are Australian businesses that have committed to the standards of fair trade and their producers have completed the assessment process to ensure that all products are fairly traded.



In summary, all of these logos are signs that the organisation is following fair trade standards and disadvantaged producers have been empowered through trade. 

Full description of the Ten Fair Trade Principles.

legacy.

If I ever have children, I want poverty to be just a bedtime story that I tell them.

I recently volunteered at the TEAR National Conference. It was a refreshing and inspiring time for me as it renewed my hopes for the future.

As I sat with my sister for lunch one day she introduced me to Marty ~ it turns out this wasn't the first time I had met him, but it had been more than 20 years. My family lived in community for the first few years of my life ~ with another young family, and Marty. I remember sitting with him on the driveway eating a smartie cake!

As we caught up on each others lives, he talked proudly of his daughter and her passion to make a difference in the lives of the poor. She's 13 and doing incredible advocacy and fundraising with her friends. She's eager to take a InDeep trip with TEAR or a similar exposure trip.

Shortly after I spoke with Marty, his daughter Tahlia and her friends presented TEAR with a massive cheque. They had raised $10, 000 for TEAR through baking, sewing, even weeding! It was so inspirational I have to admit, I teared up!

Yesterday my dear friend Ruth Lesmana posted this quote:

 “We are the next generation. It’s up to us to speak out about what is right. To learn lots about what is going on. I am still learning. Get involved. Get in there and start talking about what you feel strongly and passionately about. We can make a difference. They think ‘It’s just little me and I can’t do anything’. But with a few friends, you can make a big difference"

This is a quote from Marty's daughter Tahlia.
Just beautiful.
Thankyou girls, for your deep passions and aspirations to make poverty history.

The entire article can be found here.

At our youth group, we've been encouraging our young people that they have the power to make a difference and pass on a great legacy for the future. Talk about legacy!!! This bunch of people are trail-blazing a legacy of passionate, knowledgable change-makers. And its also thanks to their families, friends and community that inspire their visions and support their ventures.

It takes a village to raise a child.
~Ancient African Proverb

fair trade faith group.

This year, my church decided to become a Fair Trade Faith Group. What does that mean you ask? Let me tell you!

The Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand (FTA) have a way of recognising community groups and individuals for their support of Fair Trade. There are two minimum requirements for a Community Group to apply:

1. Supporting Fair Trade through using at least 2 products such as tea and coffee that is certified Fairtrade

2. Promoting Fair Trade to the community groups’ members

With these two simple minimum requirements, it’s easy to ‘tick the boxes’ and that’s that. But at our church, we wanted people to have a thorough understanding of why we support fair trade and foster a desire to expand on how we do that. I am really grateful that they wanted to get to the heart of what fair trade is all about.

In May this year, during Fair Trade Fortnight we held a Fair Trade Launch where we celebrated the start of our commitment to fair trade with a themed service, fair trade stall and taste testing during morning tea/supper. It was lots of fun, and wouldn’t have been possible without a fantastic team to pull it off! Massive thankyou to those people, who helped promote, decorate, sang, did a kids talk, brought tea/coffee/teapots & served. It’s because of you that we pulled it off!!! We would love more people on the team to make this happen so please let me know if you're interested!!! I am also greatly encouraged by our leadership who were key drivers in instigating this process.

Once a month we have ‘Social Justice Sunday’ where we focus on a particular Justice topic. This year we have started with the fair trade basics, drawing on the fair trade principles to explore ethical trade. We use Fairtrade certified tea & coffee, have the 10 fair trade principles on display and fair trade brochures available. We used a Fairtrade certified soccer ball for our church soccer game and very soon our youth group will start to fundraise with Fairtrade certified chocolates.

It has been a privilege to be a part of this process and have many people’s great feedback as they expand their understanding and start to promote fair trade themselves in cafes in our local area. I hope to see more community groups make this step and I am very excited by our church community getting on board with fair trade.

On Thursday the 11^th September I’m setting up a fair trade stall and guest speaking about fair trade at Turning Point Community Connections. I'll be sharing at the women's group which runs from 10am-2pm at 80 John St, Camden. We’d love to have you come along to taste test some fair trade tea and coffee, hear about some fair trade producer groups and some intriguing products, and then browse the range of fair trade handicrafts for sale. 

cultural textiles.

In my second year of my Bachelor of Design, I was starting to plan ahead for the professional placement that was to come in fourth year. I had begun to explore fair trade and was interested in pursuing a textiles career that empowered the poor.

I visited the office of the Head of Design, Liz Williamson.
“I’ve been considering where to do my professional placement and I wondered whether you knew where I could go for a fair trade internship?”
“In Australia?”
“…Yes?” (What a bizarre question, I thought, where else!)
“I know of plenty in India”

India! Of all places! Until that point I had never thought of going to India. To be honest, it wasn’t a place I desired to go. But as I left Liz’s office the thought started to tick around in my head.

Shortly afterwards, Liz was offered 12 places in a 3 week ‘Cultural Textiles Course’ in Ahmedabad, India. If it weren’t for the scholarships they offered that year I wouldn’t have even been able to consider going. But by this point I was completely convinced that this was what I was meant to do.

Liz took a group of COFA students, me included, to Gujarat in January 2012. We spent two weeks in Ahmedabad and one week in Bhuj, visiting a variety of textile artisans with a small group of Indian students from NID. Visiting India was honestly a big shock for me at first but as I got used to the environment I fell in love with the India and particularly the rich culture and history of Indian Textiles. I am sure I inherited this from Liz, with the way she explains and explores textiles, you are bound to be caught up in the admiration for the skill and detail of each piece in each artisan group or museum.

the weaver.

The first time I went to India on a cultural textiles tour, I found myself in a rural village in the middle of a desert, in the home of a weaving family. That day I had chosen to wear a scarf that I had borrowed from my sister. The Master Weaver said to me ‘Where did you get your scarf?’ I replied ‘It’s from Australia but now I think it’s originally from India”.

“That’s my work!” He said to me. “Come and I will show you identical scarves”.

I was amazed that God had brought me to the exact place where that scarf was made. So I bought another one, exactly the same. I was shocked at how little I knew about the people behind the products I buy and use everyday. They are invisible to me.

But they are not invisible to God. And He had brought me face to face with this producer. This is my passion played out through fair trade, to bring consumers face to face with the people behind the products; to value and appreciate their work through both acknowledging their skills and by treating them equally ~ as if they were family.

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ ~Jesus (Matthew 22:39)

Liz.

Liz Williamson's studio sale is today, Friday 22 and tomorrow Saturday 23 August. 

Liz has been instrumental in my journey of involvement with India and will be selling a range of scarves and wraps woven by a Fair Trade organisation in India and also items woven in her Sydney studio. I'm very excited to visit tomorrow, I'd encourage you to pop in if you can. Also Sydney Design is on this week so it's a great opportunity for a day out. 

the least of these.

A man was walking down a beach the morning after a storm. He saw that the storm had washed up millions of starfish, as far as the eye could see, stretching out in either direction.

In the distance he could see a boy, and as he got closer he saw that every now and then the boy was picking up a starfish and throwing into the ocean.

He approached the boy and asked “Why are you throwing the starfish back into the ocean?”. The boy replied, “The sun is up, the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them back, they’ll die”. “But there must be millions of these starfish, you can’t possibly make a difference!”

The boy picked up a starfish, threw it into the ocean and said “Well it made a difference for that one”

In the same way, everyone matters to God.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus said “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”. When Jesus said ‘the least’ he means the downtrodden, the poor, the oppressed, the outcast, the widow, the orphan. Followers of Jesus are called to love God and love others.

I shared this starfish story with my church on our Fair Trade Launch day, where we celebrated becoming a Fair Trade Community with a taste testing morning tea (& supper), a Fair Trade Handicraft stall and a Fair Trade themed service.

I am so excited about the potential that a community has when they band together for a cause they care about. I had some fantastic conversations with people who were eager to know more about the details of Fair Trade.

Together, we celebrated the difference that Fair Trade makes in the lives of poor and marginalised producers. Fairtrade certification ensures that the people that we don’t see in the production of a product are cared for properly.

Let us participate in making the world a better place for all, demanding fair conditions for the disadvantaged.

social impact.

This post has been almost week in the making because I've just been so busy! On Thursday night I was invited to a dinner for 'DESIGN for SOCIAL IMPACT' at the r.e.a.l store, Woolloomooloo. It truly was an inspirational evening. Starting with an exhibition of works by students from UNSW Art & Design (formerly COFA), guests sat down to a sustainable meal, heard from inspirational Designers and Guest Speakers, with a silent auction of works from local artists.

REAL Design for Social Impact Dinner
Feast prepared by John Montagu
The Gentle Deer, 2014

Student works included AU.thentic by Lucy Hoskin, Children in Protective Isolation by Sabah Asif, Coral by Ellie King, Anxiety by Zoe Jenkins, Dhaka by Ayusha Dallakoti, Gulp n' Give by Lauren Goritsas, The BARD Project by Simon Swalding, The Blue Marigold project by Tara Chatrath, Catharsis by Eliza Prescott and SEE SEA Change by Ann-Marie Rouhana. These students were mentored by Virginia Bruce through The REAL Design for Social Impact mentoring program.

I was particularly impressed by Lucy Hoskin's AU.thentic project about Fairtrade Gold. Fairtrade gold is still pretty rare in Australia. According to Lucy, only 2 companies are supplying fairtrade gold. AU.thentic is about being conscious consumers and being counter cultural in supporting a fair trade economy in place of one that exploits people in developing nations.

'It is my understanding that every consumer has a voice, just not every designer attempts to challenge their buyers to use it.' 

~Lucy, I couldn't agree more.

A small ball representing fairtrade gold fits into these three 3D printed & cast pendants. The ball also fits into a little book, cleverly poetic and beautifully illustrated. If I had the money to publish that little gem, I would!

Lucy Hoskin

Dhaka by Ayusha Dallakoti focussed on gender equality for Nepalese women through opportunities to learn new skills for income generation. She designed a beautiful homeware range of ceramics and textiles, naturally dyed using tumeric and tea.

Tara Chatrath has also used her major project 'The Blue Marigold Project' to focus on bringing dignity to the lives of the marginalised. 'If we are to realise a future we want, we must hear the needs and calls of the marginalised and underprivileged.' I am so excited about these students advocating for consumers to pay attention to the people behind the products.

Looking back on it, I think it's a shame that I didn't involve myself and my major project 'Advocate for the Artisans' in the Real Design for Social Impact mentoring program. But now I can let this night inspire me to continue pursuing my goals to create sustainable livelihoods for the poor and disadvantaged. And now that I've seen the value in this program, I would encourage any future students to consider this brief. 

Other Inspiring People ~ Sala Verde ~ Artisans of Fashion ~ WEFT Shop

to the (food) rescue.

I first came across OzHarvest in Peppermint magazine, then I heard Ronni Kahn speak at a Macarthur Future Food Forum event and I am totally behind this initiative! Ozharvest rescues surplus food from restaurants, retailers, food outlets, hotels and corporate kitchens and delivers it to 420 different organisations that provide meals for people in need, all in around 15 vans!

"Ozharvest gather food and distribute over 441, 500 meals per month."

I was so happy to see the Ozharvest van visiting my local Aldi, I think I freaked the van driver out, wondering why I was smiling so enthusiastically at him.

I was over the moon when I saw Virgin's add about their new campaign: Meal for a meal.
All you have to do is snap a picture of your food, hashtag it with #mealforameal and Virgin will donate money to Ozharvest to enable them to deliver meals to the needy. They're aiming to deliver over 400, 000 meals through the meal for a meal campaign. So I encourage you, jump on board with this fantastic initiative, the odds are you're already snapping photos of your meals, why not turn it into a meal for someone else. And if you like what you hear about Ozharvest and you want to know more or even buy their cookbook (with left-over meals from Maggie Beer, George Calombaris and Bill Granger), head over to ozharvest.org

The figures... Across Australia, we throw away the equivalent of $7.8 billion dollars worth of food every year. When it goes to landfill, food waste is Australia's second largest source of methane.

There are around 105 000 homeless Australians and 60 000 low-income families who often go without proper meals.

teach a man to fish.

Ever heard the saying: 'Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime'...? The key to this is the significance of empowerment. Providing sustainable livelihoods is vital to contributing to the health and wellbeing of an individual, and for a community.

To me, this proverb speaks of training, and this post is about exactly that.

After a variety of job changes, my husband decided what he really wanted to do was make coffees. (Make coffees?! Alright, I thought, not what I expected but go for it!) With minimal experience in hospitality, we thought it would be hard for him to get a job, but pretty soon there was a wise cafe manager who was prepared to give him a chance. He started off as the kitchen hand and has now been trained in food prep, cold drinks, hot drinks and waitering. He's even started a certificate in hospitality!

A few weeks ago he got a very generous tip from some happy customers. He went to lifeline and bought a second hand coffee machine to practice his barista skills at home. He's getting pretty good at free pouring, see picture below. Now what those customers didn't know is that Matt and I have been looking for opportunities to go back to India. Our passion is working towards empowering the disadvantaged to provide sustainable livelihoods. I'm very keen to work with artisans to collaborate on Fair Trade textiles but Matt wasn't sure what he would do. Now we're looking for an opportunity for Matt to use his new found cafe skills to improve livelihoods for the disadvantaged in India. We're 'keeping our eyes peeled' as his journey continues.

teach a man to fish... or in this century, make coffees?!

mother fish.

I've been on the look out for movies about justice issues that 'The Justice Project Macarthur' can show at a future event. I must say, I think I've found a huge contender.

'Mother Fish' is an incredibly moving story about two refugee sister from Vietnam. I won't spoil any elements of the movie, except to say that I felt like I was watching a stage performance (If anyone's looking for a script to pick up for a new play I'd seriously recommend this one!)

These girls are incredible actresses. I was hugely impressed by the impact that was created through close up angles of the characters with minimal background.

I'm so keen to show this movie and I'd really recommend buying or borrowing it from your local movie store or library (It's available at Camden Library for those that live in my local area).

just food. eat seasonally.

"With my husband out of the kitchen this week,

I have cooked up bangin' sustainable meals every night!"

This Weeks Meals
Asian Seasonal Broth with tofu wontons*
Pad Thai (the best I've ever made)
Pumpkin & Walnut Ravioli with Beetroot and Pear (made it up!)
Orzo Seasonal Salad* (with Roast chicken wrapped in bacon for my husband)
Lentil Burgers* with pineapple and baby spinach

Inspired by 'The Just Food Festival' hosted by the Justice Project in February of this year, I started a journey to become more sustainable in what I buy, cook and eat. Well, I did have a bit of a head start, I'm already a vegetarian! But I do cook meat for my husband.

Armed with the Oxfam seasonal food guide and seasonalfoodguide.com, I started out by buying in season. So its taken me a few months but I finally found a process that works for me! I plan my meals based around what fruit and vegetables are in season.

Of course it helps when the recipe tells you what season to cook it in! My husband bought me 'The Sustainable Table' Cookbook, which I love!!! Not only does it have interesting articles about the recipe contributors (Including Costa Georgiardis from Costa's Garden Odyseey SBS, key figures in Farmers Markets, Recipe Clubs, Top Restaurants and my favourite Illustrator and Children's Author Graeme Base) but it also has fantastic info about Global Food Security, Organic farming and Sustainable Meat and Fish! *Thanks Sustainable Table!Now, my household is a post-modern one and I am (most of the time!) proud to say my husband does most of the cooking in our house. This can be particularly challenging if I've made a meal plan and he just cooks as he feels. I was reading some tips on meal planning and one said that if you get your kids involved in meal planning they're more likely to eat what you cook. So my logic followed: get your husband involved in the meal planning and he'll end up cooking what you planned him to cook! It's worked so far!