Hello out there!

We feel very grateful as we reflect on this (particularly crazy) year and what we’ve been able to achieve together with you - our community. Here's our impact wrap up for 2020.

Licensing payments

This year saw us make over $82,000 in licensing payments to remote Aboriginal artists ($82,678 to be exact!), bringing our total licensing payments to just over $403,000 since 2017. That is nearly half a million dollars - hopefully we can achieve that milestone by the end of 2021!

Keturah Zimran with her Puli Puli design which was licensed to Magpie Goose for production on fabric through Ikuntji Artists; Magnolia Maymuru in Keturah's design at the DAAF fashion show (a career highlight for Keturah!)

Modelling and photography

In a year that prevented travel and gatherings, we got creative with our photography + marketing, sending outfits and briefs to talented photographers and models around the country! We commissioned four photoshoots with different Aboriginal businesses and made over $7,500 of payments to Aboriginal models and photographers: Wayila Creative (Aug 2020), Barefoot Wandering (Aug 2020), Ikuntji Artists (Nov 2020) and the Kalumburu Photography Collective (Oct 2020). We loved being able to feature the gorgeous faces of 15 emerging Aboriginal models!

Production

2020 saw the launch of our ongoing accessories collection with Second Stitch, a refugee and asylum seeker textile enterprise in Melbourne. It really helped keep our spirits high in the height of lockdown, and our dog Chappy relished the opportunity to be the face of the new Magpie Goose dogkerchiefs. The accessories - including bumbags, scrunchies, baby bibs, facemasks and headbands - were designed by the talented women of Second Stitch, and are produced with the offcuts from our clothing collections.

We continued to work with our dream team in Sydney: printing specialists Publisher Textiles, our manufacturers Sphinx Australia; our pattern maker Gina Baby, who helped us to develop some new styles to add to our collection; and our Newcastle based Creative Whiz Millie Shorter!

Sophita sewing face masks; Yan with completed masks; Rameeza cutting fabric offcuts; Suraya ironing masks.

Pop ups + Stockists

It was a very quiet year for pop ups due to Covid19, but in March just before lockdown we were able to throw a couple of events with our stockists - Lulu & Daw in Darwin and Yardsale Trading Co in Newcastle. We’re so grateful to them, and our Brisbane stockist Open House Collective, for continuing to showcase Magpie Goose clothing in their stores!

Workshops

Like everyone we missed meeting new people this year. So we were thrilled to be invited to facilitate an earrings workshop with the Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Women’s Circle in Albury in September. We loved making new connections and floating ideas for future collaborations - thanks to the staff at AWAHS for helping to make this happen.

Collaborations

We played a small role in introducing the NT Local Law Courts to Ikuntji Artists which led to the licensing of Mavis Marks’ Women’s Business design for their new uniforms. We love seeing the growing interest in Aboriginal textiles from diverse businesses and organisations - Australia needs so much more of this, bring it on!

Left: Court staff + Mavis Marks' family at the launch of the new uniform; Dhuderoa elder Aunty Val at AWAHS earring workshop.

New collection: Kalumburu Strong Women's Centre!

As we write this we are in the process of launching our long awaited Kalumburu collection! We are receiving new boxes from our manufacturers and getting the items online as soon as humanly possible. There are five amazing prints now live - and more styles in these designs will be added soon. We’ll continue to release more prints from Kalumburu in early 2021, so you can look forward to more ripper stories from one of Australia’s most remote Aboriginal communities. The collaboration has been made possible with the support of the Kalumburu Strong Women’s Art Collective, Community Focus National and Enterprise Partnerships WA.

Thank you to all of you who supported our collaboration with Ikuntji Artists, this collection just kept on giving throughout 2020.

Kalumburu women in Kalumburu prints! Photo by Maria Fredericks of the Kalumburu Photography Collective

Size inclusivity

We are very excited to offer sizes 6 to 22 in our latest collection. Thanks for your patience and encouragement while we worked towards making our sizing more inclusive. We’ll continue to develop our collections so that we are able to kit out as many people as possible.

Our ongoing commitment to ethical business

Magpie Goose is committed to ethical and transparent business practices. We work with Aboriginal artists and art centres who see shared value in collaborating. We’re grateful to be assisted by Copyright Agency, who support us to broker ethical licensing agreements with remote artists. We are always happy to respond to questions or concerns, or hear your ideas and feedback.

Reconciliation and celebration

One of our goals is to create opportunities for people to connect with, learn about and celebrate Aboriginal culture. This year we heard from many of you about what it means to be able to wear these powerful designs - we love receiving these emails! The clothes really do become vessels for sharing stories and making connections.

Thank You!

We are truly grateful for all of your custom, support and encouragement this year. We are creating this story together and it feels good!!!

Much love,

Maggie + Laura

Magpie Goose co-founders