MAD V1

NATUR ES BOND

Madeline Page is an Australian fashion designer who grew up on her family farm in SouthWest NSW. As the fifth generation to call this farm home, Madeline understands the value of learning from her ancestors, and drawing from the experiences of those that have come before her. With this as her source of inspiration, Madeline highlights inclusivity and the natural environment holding these as pillars throughout her

comprehensive and free flowing design process. Madeline aims to emphasise the importance of land stewardship lessons, learned by her family, throughout her design. After being awarded the Wool Grant by the AWI Madeline was able to provide particular attention to Merino Wool - not only a sustainable natural fibre, but also holding deep personal connections to her family’s farming history.

Concept Statement

“Us farmers, we love out land. Our bit of dirt, our slice of heaven. Our happy place. A sense of place” - Nguurruu Farm

Let me tell you a story. Growing up on our family farm Stoneridge, we always felt a connection to nature. However something never felt quite right when it came to the conventional farming practices that rely heavily on taking from the natural environment. Eventually we decided that we needed to change our way of thinking, moving away from the conventional farming and employing techniques that allows us to work with the land. Imagine we loved our land so much that we believed that it is our Mother, something so special and precious that we treat her like our family.

Imagine that we loved our land so much that we believed that every creature has story and Lore that connects us all and that our farming choices were grounded in the principle of connection. Imagine no separation between our spirituality and our farming life.

Imagine we loved our land so much that we believed that each and every rock, tree, animal, bird and indeed the soil itself, has a living soul. Imagine if we valued our responsibilities to these living souls more than our rights over them.

And when our time on Earth is up, imagine we loved our land so much that we believed that we were simply going within, to return to the same land as spirits to continue to care for Mother.

It’s time we turned to those who’ve always known. It’s time to open the farm gate and invite our First Australians to teach us, both practically and spiritually.

These ideas is where the hero body was created from. Using the natural fabric of a wool silk blend in the maxi aline skirt was chosen with purpose. Having a female Indigenous Australian artist was chosen with purpose and with meaning. Inside this collection you will see that as human beings we are all one.

“We are the fourth and fifth generation of our family to be the farmer custodians of Stoneridge. Since we (Richard and Bernadette) have taken over the management and caring for this land we have come to realise that we are only here for a short time and that the land has been managed before us for thousands of years.

IMAGE BY HOLLY BRADFORD

By changing our ideas and thoughts we now care for the land using nature as our teacher and learning that for the land to thrive we need to stop fighting against it.

IMAGE BY HOLLY BRADFORD

Print by Becauseofmyfour

Becauseofmyfour is a brand created by Amanda Hinkelmann. Amanda is a proud Indigenous women born in Wagga Wagga on Wiradjuri Country. Amanda works respectfully to be able to promote her culture but still be able to tell stories through her art. Her hope is that everyday more and more people can see the beauty and the deep connection that her culture has and that we can move forward as one nation. This is why Amanda was the perfect artist to collaborate with for Natures Bond collection. To start with we were both born on

Wiradjuri Country, and so she knows the land that I grew up on well. Her love of the land of belief that we can work as one moving forward is the entire meaning behind this collection.

Name of woven thing

I collaborated with Debbie Wood to create this woven piece for the top of my garment. She used ratten on the inside circle bit and then emu feathers around the edge. Debbie is a proud Indigenous women from Wagga Wagga on Wiradjuri Country.

Collaborations

Zimmermann Resort 2023

Zimmermann Resort 2022 Zimmermann Resort 2023

Country to Couture 2022 Mara Hoffman Fall 2021 Ready-To-Wear

Soulland Spring/Summer 2022 Collection

Stella McCartney Spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear

AZ Factory Spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear

Zimmermann Fall 2022 Ready-To-Wear Zimmermann Resort 2022

Industrial/chemical farming has set agriculture

back many years and the connections with the land have been forgotten, today’s agriculture is about how much can we get out of the country, with no respect for what is left or what we are doing to the soil. We believe that to fully understand the land we need to listen to thos who have managed this place for many years before us.

Body 2

We now want to involve the First Nation people in the life of our farm, listen to their stories to understand the connections they have had for years before us, and to try and learn how we can come to some of the same connections and be able to pass that down through our generations.” - Richard Page