Can an everyday appliance on your kitchen bench tell a story? Can your daily morning coffee and toast connect you to food rituals reaching back millennia? Breville believes it can. The company’s recently launched Aboriginal Culinary Journey range brings together the work of Indigenous Australian artists with appliances including coffee machines and toasters, with 100% of the range’s profits to support opportunities for Indigenous Australians.
The artists whose paintings have been reproduced on these objects are Lucy Simpson, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Yukultji (Nolia) Napangati and Yalti Napangati. Each artist owns the copyright for their work, which is exclusively licenced to Breville for the range, and they receive a royalty for each product produced. Breville expects the range to raise just over $1 million, with all profits to go towards the support of employment opportunities for aspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander chefs; better childhood nutrition and sharing Indigenous food culture; and Indigenous scholarships and initiatives to create pathways for employment in engineering, technology and design.
Breville is using the project to remind customers that its appliances are designed and engineered in Australia, and to place these objects as part of the food culture on this continent stretching back 65,000 years. This connection is reiterated through the exhibition An Aboriginal Culinary Journey: Designed for Living, at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra (NMA) until 18 September, which places these designs alongside First Nations cooking and food preparation objects from the NMA’s collection.
There are many recent examples of large and reputable companies engaging in successful collaborations with Indigenous Australian artists and creators. Myer has collaborated with artists from Central Australia through Yubu Napa Art Gallery and Warlukurlangu Artists, with artwork featured on clothing and accessories. Beauty brand Mecca, as part of their support for women in the arts and in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, collaborated with Southern Kaantju/Umpila artist Naomi Hobson on its 2021 holiday artwork and have contributed to the NGV’s acquisition of works by the artist.
Designer Rugs has translated the work of Alyawarre woman Minnie Pwerle, as well as the work of five key artists from the Bidyadanga Indigenous art movement, into a range of handmade rugs. Furniture and design company Koskela creates income earning opportunities for First Nations artists and makers through collaborative design projects, to date collaborating with 49 First Nations artist and Art Centre partners, generating over $1.1 million in income for these artists.
Historically, the art and imagery of Indigenous Australians has been appropriated, altered, distorted and misused in commercial products, from ashtrays to tea towels. Girramay and Kuku Yalanji artist Tony Albert has collected many such items, which he terms “Aboriginalia”, and incorporated them into his works to highlight their problematics. Australian copyright law now protects the work of individual artists, and protocols have been developed by the Australia Council for the Arts for the use of First Nations cultural and intellectual property, so any product incorporating the artwork of Indigenous Australians should adhere to these frameworks. However, when drawn to such products, it is worth considering what motivates these companies to engage in these collaborations, and what is gained by both the artist and the company.
In the case of the Aboriginal Culinary Journey, Breville has openly expressed its desire to get it right, and has transparently detailed every step of the process, from the germination of the idea by Alison Page, a descendant of the Walbanga and Wadi Wadi people of the Yuin nation and curator of the Breville Art Series, through to the engagement of the artists, the trial-and-error process of applying the artwork images to the appliances to achieve the most authentic outcome, and the plan for the donation of profits. This not only offers peace of mind for the consumer considering purchasing an appliance from the collection, but by openly detailing the challenges of what was ultimately a long and involved process while being able to showcase an outstanding outcome that the artists and Breville are clearly proud of, a framework of possibilities is provided for other companies seeking to embark on a similar collaborative journey.
Featured image: Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri painting on a Breville Coffee Machine. Courtesy: the artists and Breville.