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Speaker 1: Now the country's first one hundred percent aborage aloned, centralized

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Speaker 1: screen printing and licensed textile manufacturing hub has opened in Darwitt.

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Speaker 1: It's called print Shop NT. It's located in Winnelli and

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Speaker 1: it's operating as a multi user facility. It's going to

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Speaker 1: function both as a compercial manufacturing facility consolidating the printing

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Speaker 1: activity of Aboriginal artists and arts organizations across the NT

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Speaker 1: and indeed Australia. Now, the brains behind this business is

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Speaker 1: the wonderful Nina Fitzgerald, who joins me in the studio

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Speaker 1: right now. Good morning to you, Nina.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Thank you for having me this morning.

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Speaker 1: It is lovely to have you in the studio. I

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Speaker 1: love seeing people do great stuff in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: and I've seen so much of the wonderful stuff you've

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Speaker 1: done over the years for our listeners. I'm friends with

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Speaker 1: your mum and I Reckon. I met you probably about

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Speaker 1: twenty years ago when you were real maybe fifteen years

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Speaker 1: ago when you were quite a young girl. So for

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Speaker 1: me to see all the amazing stuff you're doing, I

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Speaker 1: feel like I feel proud of you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. Thanks for following along.

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Speaker 1: I love following that journey. I follow it on Instagram and.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, what's Nina ups.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you've been here and you've now you've got

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Speaker 1: a brand new business. Tell us a bit more about

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Speaker 1: print Shop.

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Speaker 2: NT print Shop and T, as you said, is going

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Speaker 2: to be a screen printing and textile manufacturing hub. One

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Speaker 2: of the main aims is consolidating the work of remote

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Speaker 2: artists and remote art centers and the incredible textile trade,

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Speaker 2: which of which a lot comes out of the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: So much comes out of the NT right, and people

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Speaker 1: love love those textiles. They love the wearable you know,

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Speaker 1: it's wearable art.

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Speaker 2: It's absolutely wearable art, and so much of it, like

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Speaker 2: it's a lot of it's made, you know, in arts

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Speaker 2: centers on country, a lot of it's outsourced to Sydney,

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Speaker 2: so far away. So I'm bringing it close to those

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Speaker 2: artists so that they can be more involved and have

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Speaker 2: more agency over their stories and their cultures.

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Speaker 1: There are And what do you reckon it means then?

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Speaker 1: For you know, for those artists, the fact that it

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Speaker 1: is then able to happen here in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: stay in the end, and and you know, hopefully see

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Speaker 1: more of their work then around the rest of Australia.

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Speaker 1: But in terms of that manufacturing and printing it able

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Speaker 1: to happen here.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think, I mean it excites everyone having things

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Speaker 2: local in the Northern territory. I think everyone's so proud

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Speaker 2: to bring things home where you know, we're distance, we're

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Speaker 2: so far away from other things, especially in remote communities,

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Speaker 2: and by having a hub here in Darwin, you know,

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Speaker 2: we can provide all this capacity building out to remote centers,

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Speaker 2: which I think is only going to increase what they

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Speaker 2: can do in their output and elevate elevate the textile trade.

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Speaker 2: I'm hoping into the broader Australian fashion narrative.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope so. And even when you talk about

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Speaker 1: the broader Australian fashion narrative, even for you, I've seen

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Speaker 1: more of what you are doing in that space as

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Speaker 1: well over the years. So how important do you reckon

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Speaker 1: it is then to you know, to have that aboriginal

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Speaker 1: w wearable art a bit more mainstreamer, a bit more

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Speaker 1: I don't know where the mainstream is the right word,

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Speaker 1: but more accessible to others.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's so important. I think Fashion is

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Speaker 2: this incredible medium that transcends socioeconomic divides, and if we

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Speaker 2: can push that out further into you know, the broader

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Speaker 2: narrative and globally, you know, it's really exciting. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we have the oldest surviving cultures on Earth. We should

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Speaker 2: all be getting behind that, we should be celebrating that,

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Speaker 2: and fashion is a very really easy and really fun

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Speaker 2: way to do that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. Tell me operationally, how does print

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Speaker 1: shop work? You know, like I suppose I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: wrap my head around it, right, and I know you're

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Speaker 1: sort of working through all the hurdles of it working

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Speaker 1: smoothly too, So how does it work?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been such a long time coming. It's very

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Speaker 2: exciting to see it come to life. Well, you know,

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Speaker 2: we've got a fourteen and a half met a long table,

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Speaker 2: so that's the meterage printing roll out a massive long

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Speaker 2: piece of fabric. We expose screens on site. We have

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Speaker 2: all the setup and we have an infrared conveyor belt

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Speaker 2: drying so we can kind of do from start to

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Speaker 2: finish of the design, the making of the screens, and

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Speaker 2: then the printing all in house, which is so cool.

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Speaker 2: And then we can provide those resources out to remote centers.

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Speaker 2: But also anyone can come and get stuff printed. Were

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Speaker 2: a commercial prints face, so anyone can come by.

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Speaker 1: How did you, like, how did this idea come about?

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Speaker 1: And you said, it's been a long time in the making,

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Speaker 1: but how did it come about?

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Speaker 2: I grew up, you know, in remote communities, seeing you know,

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Speaker 2: the arts practice. I was always drawn to textiles. It's

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Speaker 2: so beautifully done. It's largely run by women, which I

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Speaker 2: think is just so empowering and amazing. And you know,

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Speaker 2: then I worked for the Day on Average and art

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Speaker 2: Fair foundation and just being in and around that space

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Speaker 2: like this was thrown around. It's been thrown around for years.

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Speaker 2: The government has thrown around in and out of policy.

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Speaker 1: This is a need.

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Speaker 2: Is it viable? It is viable, It should happen. No

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Speaker 2: one's done it. So I just sort of thought, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to solve this problem.

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Speaker 1: Go I love this. Like what I love about it is,

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Speaker 1: you know, the fact that you're a young woman who's

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Speaker 1: achieving really big things and doing something that's such a

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Speaker 1: huge like it is such a huge concept and such

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Speaker 1: a huge thing to do for the for the wider community,

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Speaker 1: and and you know, sometimes people look at young women

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Speaker 1: and go, oh, I don't know, you know, I don't

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Speaker 1: know whether they're going to be able to do that,

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Speaker 1: but it's like, look at what you're doing. You know,

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Speaker 1: this isn't your only business either. You've also got a

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Speaker 1: business in per rap and and and you know, the

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Speaker 1: laundry gallery there has been operating now for a few it's.

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Speaker 2: A few years, isn't We're two We're just over two years,

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Speaker 2: so not ages, but long enoughter really starting to be

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Speaker 2: a part of the community up which is awesome as well.

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Speaker 1: And is it like it's all going quite well too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going really well. And the response from the

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Speaker 2: community has been amazing. I mean we're doing really different

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Speaker 2: things with Indigenous art and storytelling, which people are super

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Speaker 2: excited by.

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Speaker 1: A Nina, what's you I suppose what's your aim with

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Speaker 1: everything that you are doing in the NT is it?

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Speaker 1: You know? It sounds as though you're wanting to to

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Speaker 1: really bring the indigenous you know, Indigenous fashion I suppose

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Speaker 1: to the broader community. But it sounds like you're wanting

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Speaker 1: to make it accessible for people and also making sure

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Speaker 1: that those are in community, those people that are in

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Speaker 1: communities that are doing this beautiful art, or have got

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Speaker 1: this beautiful art that it's able to then be sort

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Speaker 1: of more widely accessible.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think it's just about championing those stories

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Speaker 2: and those peoples and all the amazing things that come

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Speaker 2: out of communities. There's a lot of negativity thrown around.

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Speaker 2: There's obviously still so much injustice, there's a lot of beauty,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of fun. I want to celebrate that

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Speaker 2: and share those stories. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping to do.

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Speaker 2: And I think with indigenous fashion, indigenous anything, but especially

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Speaker 2: in fashion, that's obviously the space I'm in. It's like

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Speaker 2: these stories should just be a part of the narrative,

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Speaker 2: stand alone, elevated and like stand up to fashion Yep,

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Speaker 2: not this sort of Oh it's indigenous and it has

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Speaker 2: its own section. So that's what I'm hoping.

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Speaker 1: Just embrace it. Yeah, that's great, that's a good you know,

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Speaker 1: that's a great way of thinking of it, because you're right, like,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't need to be it doesn't need to be

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Speaker 1: a different stream. Like it's amazing, right exactly.

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Speaker 2: And if we can work close with artists and keep

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Speaker 2: elevating what they're doing in terms of their output, you know,

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Speaker 2: the fabrics we can print on. There's incredible things you

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Speaker 2: can do with screen printing and manipulating artworks. And if

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Speaker 2: we can keep elevating that, I don't see why it

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Speaker 2: can't just become part of the narrative.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of I know, print shops only been

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Speaker 1: going now for a little while, but in terms of

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Speaker 1: the interaction and the feedback that you're receiving, do you

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Speaker 1: reckon it's going to be something that becomes really quite

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Speaker 1: a busy and popular space.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I hope so, I mean starting a business,

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Speaker 2: So I really hope we get some trade. Please guys

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Speaker 2: come in. But no, I think so. And I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know the fact that we're printing merch and we

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Speaker 2: can work with local businesses. People can come by and

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Speaker 2: see what we're doing. We can help with the design,

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Speaker 2: like we can be doing all of that, and because

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Speaker 2: we're local, we're going to reduce the create costs and

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Speaker 2: timelines and we can turn things around. And I know,

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Speaker 2: I think likes to get behind something that's local.

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Speaker 1: Are you feeling pretty pumped that it's now, like you

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Speaker 1: know that it is operational and it's happening.

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Speaker 2: I'm so pumped. I've been so impatient. The last few

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Speaker 2: things I was telling you earlier, like just ironing the

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Speaker 2: last little bits out, I'm just like so impatient. But

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Speaker 2: over there it's set up. The space looks epic, and

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Speaker 2: I'm just so excited to just keep jumping and diving

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Speaker 2: into that.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on you, Nina. I think it's awesome. Massive

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Speaker 1: congratulations to you, and and so great to speak with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. I love watching what you're doing. You're

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Speaker 1: doing incredible stuff. Thanks so much for having me anytime, anytime.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,