This year marks the 10th anniversary of the fashion showcase, Country to Couture, as part of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, and two First Nations artist-designers from Canberra have been invited to the Top End’s Indigenous Fashion Awards.

Rechelle Turner and Megan Daley from the independent label Corella & Crow, will travel on August 2, along with Turner’s 10-year-old son Finn, to see their collection titled Nguramban-Dhi (From Country) paraded by fashion models.

Turner and Daley can hardly conceal their excitement that the collection is already winging its way to Darwin. 

Presented along with National Indigenous Fashion Projects, the event is being billed as “more than just a runway”, but also a platform that celebrates indigenous culture and creativity by serving to hook-up remote, regional and urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities keen to break on to the global fashion stage. 

Other designers exhibiting in the geographically-varied line-up will be the famous painter King sisters, Sarrita and Tarisse of KingKing Creative, Bula’bula Arts and Black Cat Couture from the Arafura Wetlands in NT and Fire in the Sky, from Yarrabah Arts and Cultural Precinct in Queensland.

When I catch up with Turner and Daley at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, where their NAIDOC week show is still up, I find that their debut collection of garments and accessories will feature handcrafted animal and botanical prints in natural dyes. 

They’ll be exhibiting their collection in Show 1, a runway honouring land, water and country fitting, they say, as their work was inspired by “old people, totems, and songlines”.

Both artists have strong commitments to their Wiradyuri ancestry, but support the Ngunnawal community in which they live.

Turner, who works happily by day as executive teacher of languages at Belconnen High School, has studied for a graduate certificate in Wiradyuri language, culture and history, but by night is a painter and textile artist focusing on dying and hand-weaving. 

Daley, by contrast, having spent her childhood in Wellington, NSW, before moving to Canberra in 1999, identifies as both Wiradyuri and Ngunnawal. She is completing a masters in social work, but has been experimenting with painting since 2016.

The pair met not in Canberra, but as ACT delegates to Purrumpa, a five-day national gathering of First Nations arts and culture held in Adelaide during 2022.

Both painters wanting to learn about natural dyes and different practices, they found themselves to be a natural mix.

“I’ve always made my own clothes,” Turner says. “Since we were asking what we could do with the fabrics we were making, we used the skills we had been learning to make the garments.”

They have created all the works, but they were asked to send up a range of sizes to fit the fashionable body range from sizes 8 to 14. But there is a clause that allows them some leeway.

While the title “country to couture” suggests a wide scope, from sporty to evening wear, they see themselves at the high end of the range. 

There are some everyday pieces, but most are “sculptural works”, along with weaving, headwear, bags and brooches.

As for their chosen label, Corella & Crow, that was named for their respective family totems.

When deciding whether to go into business, Daley saw a crow flying over her, a sure sign of the old people saying yes, while Turner spotted a corella.

“It made sense,” they chorus, “it’s a bit of both of us”.

Country to Couture, Indigenous Fashion Awards, Darwin, August 5. From Country, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, until August 9.