Roots: Crafting Connection to Place
Explore a series of naturally dyed textiles by Reify and Child of Society, showcasing their explorations into how design and craft can be utilised to deepen our connection to place.
Child of Society explores how place shapes culture and identity, weaving together the artist’s Japanese and Sri Lankan heritage with her upbringing in Far North Queensland. By focusing on the environment as the source of cultural motifs, her pieces suggest that a deeper connection to the land can foster an understanding of culture and heritage. By employing natural dye techniques that have been sustainably practiced for thousands of years, she builds an ongoing relationship with the lands, seas and traditions that shape her.
Reify works with foraged and found materials, approaching design with an ecocentric philosophy that positions the environment as a collaborator. The act of ethical foraging cultivates familiarity with place, it is an ever evolving process that nurtures intimacy with the environment over time. Combining embellishment techniques such as embroidery and needle felting with fabrics dyed using foraged materials, they create pieces that evoke the environment that they draw colour from.
Child of Society acknowledges that the majority of longstanding textile practices take decades of practice and dedicated training to master. The purpose of these garments is to incorporate a deep appreciation for longstanding techniques through a modern lens for a sustainable future. These designs are handmade by a young Australian designer to honour her heritage and share her culture. These garments are not claiming to be of traditional artisanal standards or practices.
The Ocean Knows My Name, 2025
indigo dye on vintage kimono silk, shibori resist technique
This piece is shaped by the memories I have created, and time I have spent with the ocean. Each reef creature is shaped by hand, each one holding memories of the creature I met and the place they live. This piece reflects how water touches every community and how the ocean connects us all. Growing up by the reef, the sea continues to connect me through its familiar rhythm and sound. In The Ocean Knows My Name, the creatures remind us that connection to place can be rooted in land, the tide and in our memories with them.
Forest of One, 2025
indigo dye on cotton/linen, batik and shibori resist techniques
This work begins with a single tree. A spotted gum growing near my home, surrounded by concrete, trains, roads and buildings. I traced the patterns and lines of its bark and leaves by hand. The lines were then split, imagining each one as a an individual tree that could come from this tree’s seeds. Forest of One imagines what could be if this spotted gum were given space to grow and scatter its seeds. The patterns reveal themselves in indigo through batik and shibori.
Weaving Memories, 2025
indigo dye on Sri Lankan handloom cotton, batik resist technique
This branch carries a nest, a home for green ants – a weaver ant. In Far North Queensland, where I grew up, their nests were everywhere. Tucked in trees, above paths that I walked with friends and in places that I camped and played. They were so much a part of the environment that I stopped noticing them until I moved away. In Melbourne, the trees looked different. In the absence of the nests, I felt the shape of what had always been there. Weaving Memories captures the realisation that something that was so familiar and part of the everyday environment can act as a reminder of childhood, reflecting the intimacy of the way that our environment etches itself into us.
Three Roots, One Bloom, 2025
indigo dye on recycled cotton canvas, katazome technique
Inspired by Kamon – a traditional family crest – I have created my own personal crest, one that reflects the lands of my heritage, and the lands that have shaped me into who I am. A water lily for Sri Lanka, where my father’s roots first reached the earth. A sakura branch for Japan, where my mother’s spirit blossomed. Eucalyptus leaves and flowers for Australia, the place that raised me, the place I call home. Three Roots, One Bloom is a reflection of identity, connection, and the beauty of intersecting cultural identities.