truthtelling

Aboriginal breastplates (also called king plates or aboriginal gorgets) were a form of regalia used in pre-Federation Australia by white colonial authorities to recognise those they perceived to be local Aboriginal leaders. The breastplates were usually metallic crescent-shaped plaques worn around the neck by wearer. Aboriginal people did not traditionally have kings or chiefs. They lived in small clan groups with several elders—certain older men and women—who consulted with each other on decisions for the group. By appointing kings of tribes, and granting them king plates, the white colonial powers went against the more collegiate grain of traditional Aboriginal culture. In the 19th century, king plates were given by numerous communities in various Australian States to esteemed Aboriginal men and women, who were usually elders of their particular tribal or kinship group. The plates were presented to perceived 'chiefs', courageous men and to faithful servants.[1] There have been suggestions that the presentation of breastplates also had a great deal to do with whether or not the recipient was seen as useful or respected by the white Australian community of the area in question. While some Aboriginal people wore their breastplates with pride, others saw them as yet another insult to their culture from the white European settlers.[2] Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_breastplate

The Indigenous Peoples of the Darling Downs For several thousand years, the Darling Downs was home to various clans of the Wakka Wakka language speakers: the Keinjan around Warwick, the Giabal around Toowoomba, the Barunggam to the west of Dalby, and the Jarowair around the Bunya mountains. To the south and west were the Bigambal and Kambuwal of the Kamilaroi speakers; to the east were the Jagara of the Turubul speakers. The Downs Indigenous peoples were also knows as the Gomaingguru, ‘men of the Condamine’, or Gooneburra, ‘fire blacks’ (from their habit of frequently firing the grasslands). They numbered perhaps 1500–2000. Source; www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/martens_standard.asp?na...

Fashion is reversible. Ones Europeans tried to dress Aboriginal people, today Aboriginal traditional elements are wining the fashion look of Europeans.

Indigenous Australians have influenced modern Australian dress since first contact. From possum skin cloaks and booka kangaroo capes to shell necklaces in Tasmania, Europeans have been fascinated with Indigenous materials, skills and aesthetics. They have stolen, purchased, borrowed and worn them for more than 200 years. In turn, Indigenous Australians have at times enjoyed wearing soldiers’ red jackets as battle spoils and possibly mocked the Europeans by wearing their top hats cockily in the early streets of Sydney. Later, as First Australians were dispossessed from their lands and herded into reserves and missions, clothing was imposed on them, ranging from shapeless “mother Hubbard” dresses for women to shabby but respectable woolen two-piece suits for men. Traditional dress practices, along with the ceremony, language and music-making, were often banned by the colonisers. Missionaries often taught western-style leatherwork to men and needlecraft to women – yet powerful hybrids of the self-determined dress also emerged, expressing subversive gestures and quiet resistance. In the mid 20th century, missionary nuns in Far North Australia began to allow Indigenous women to craft their own textiles. Brightly coloured fabrics were the result, with unusual combinations of motifs. For some time, Indigenous Australian art was often seen as the future of a distinctively Australian design, as evident in the 1970s energy of Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson, but on the whole, Indigenous design was not recognised in its own right. This is now changing - Indigenous fashion design today is being shaped by First Nations people at every level. Source: theconversation.com/how-indigenous-fashion-designers-are-...