Artist weaves a fashionable new thread from her island home

ELCHO Island artist Mavis Warrngilna Ganambarr's collection of wearable art has been teamed with a new range from Melbourne fashion designer Lisa Gorman.

ELCHO Island artist Mavis Warrngilna Ganambarr's collection of wearable art has been teamed with a new range from Melbourne fashion designer Lisa Gorman in a fashion exhibition that aims to forge a new market in Aboriginal art.

Gorman's range of organic clothing has been modelled with woven handbags, beaded necklaces and brooches crafted from Pandanus and Kurrajong tree fibres dyed with natural ochre.

Greg Mallyon, the curator of the show at Birrung Gallery in Sydney, which opened last night, said the exhibition aimed to alter perceptions of Aboriginal art.

"We're trying to bring perceptions of what Aboriginal art is, which to many Australians is just dot painting, into a fashion context," Mallyon said. "It's presenting indigenous art in a completely different way."

Ganambarr's pieces incorporate shells and feathers from the brolga birds, cockatoos and lorikeets common at her Elcho Island home in Arnhem Land.

"This is a new way of weaving," Ganambarr said. "It's giving more images of the weaving to other people around the world."

Weaving is a source of economic independence for many women on Elcho Island.

The island's art centre supports 150 artists, and Ganambarr, who is currently being exhibited in two other national exhibitions, has a salaried job as the centre's artist liaison officer.

Elcho Island arts manager Dion Teasdale said indigenous artists from the island were keen to share their work more widely around Australia, after the success of Elcho musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and the island's famous Chooky Dancers.

InStyle editor Kerrie McCallum said Ganambarr's art would be popular with a market that was increasingly interested in ethical fashion.