WE MAKE BEANIES IN THE OUTBACK!
DEBORAH AND HER CLOSE-KNIT FRIENDS LOVE CREATING WEARABLE ART
Beanie-ologists from across the globe recently descended on Alice Springs for the town’s 26th annual celebration of the humble head covering.
Around 6800 handcrafted, colourful creations were on display at ‘Beaniefest’, all competing for coveted awards including the Central Australian accolade, the Heart of the Country award and the Stitched-up prize.
The crafty celebration began in 1997 when a group of Aboriginal women from remote communities decided to hold a ‘beanie party’ to sell 100 of their handcrocheted pieces.
It has since grown to be one of the largest beanie festivals in the world and includes beanie workshops, Indigenous culture displays and live entertainment.
Deborah White, vice chair and volunteer coordinator of the famous four-day festival, says the event aims to develop Indigenous women’s textiles, promote women’s culture, and boost the beanie as a distinctive regional art form.
“We have had people travel from as far as Germany, Canada and New Zealand to volunteer at the event,” Deborah, from Moruya, NSW, says. “The beanie is highly valued during the cold, crisp winter nights in Central Australia, but the festival is about more than that. It’s friendship, it’s artists, it’s sharing, and it brings the Aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities together. We are continually amazed by the shapes, textures, colours, and patterns that are evolving – there is no limit.”
People of all ages attended beanie making workshops led by Indigenous women in central desert centres including Titjikala, Santa Teresa, Apilatwatja, Ali Curung and
Tennant Creek. Demonstrating the art of crochet and needle-felting, the women shared their unique cultural methods of spinning and basketry.
Deborah, who has volunteered at the event for 13 years, was awarded ‘The Loudest Beanie’ prize in 2019 for her jukebox headpiece, complete with records, to suit the theme – Head Full of Tunes.
The mother-of-two spent 15 hours creating her masterpiece ‘Wurleanie, it’s beanie a long way to the top’ in honour of the famous Wurlitzer jukebox.
The piece was purchased by a doctor and is now on display at Tennant Creek Hospital.
“It was an engineering masterpiece getting real jukebox records to sit the way they did,” she says. “But it is not all about winning – around 120 people volunteer at the festival each year and they get to meet new people and often form lifelong friendships.”