Sianna and Taneisha Catullo are Narungga sisters advocating for Aboriginal culture and rights through fashion with Clothing The Gap – an Aboriginal owned and led social enterprise where Sianna resides as Chief Creative Officer.
Clothing The Gap aims to unite people through fashion and cause, 100% of profits actively support grassroots Aboriginal health and education programs, delivered by their team of health professionals. Clothing The Gap expressed their pride and identity with the Aboriginal flag, however did you know the Aboriginal flag is copyrighted? Currently a Non-Indigenous company has world-wide licensing rights to the Aboriginal flag and hold the monopoly on the clothing market.
Clothing The Gap are currently leading the national campaign called Free the Flag and lobbying to free the Aboriginal Flag back to the people. The movement is about Pride not Profit and we will be sharing more about this over the next coming weeks with more information on how you can contribute.
We sat down with Sianna and Taneisha to chat how Australian’s can contribute to the cause, their hopes for tomorrow and how they’re staying motivated.
What does a better tomorrow look like for you?
Sianna: A better tomorrow for me involves more people prioritising community gain and less about individual gain. A better tomorrow for me has more businesses operating as social enterprises and bigger corporate businesses working in collaboration with not-for-profit organisations and giving back to their community. I hope this crazy has made more people realise the importance of working together as a community and the power it holds.
How have you been keeping motivated during this time?
Sianna: I have stayed motivated by trying to keep to a routine and give myself something to train for. With everything being postponed and closed right now, it had been a real challenge. However I didn’t let that stop me and my team and I found creative ways to stay motivated and in routine. We have started a virtual running or walking event called #RunRona that has kept us and others in our community accountable and motivated to keep moving and exercising.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
Taneisha: My biggest inspiration with indigenous rights and Aboriginal culture is my sister. She started working in the field first and she really showed me what’s going on and what needs to change – she pushes me to want to fight for what’s right and help close the gap.
What are some small things Australians can do to contribute to your cause?
Taneisha: I think it’s mainly simply embracing Aboriginal culture as a whole. I feel like Australia neglects Aboriginal culture and history and act like it hasn’t happened which is why it’s causing such a raucous and why people are viewing Aboriginals as angry black people because no one seems to be listening to what we have to say. I think if Australians embrace Aboriginal history and listen to us more, everything will be alright.
Sianna: Aboriginal people have been around for 65,000 years, we’re not asking other Australians to not celebrate your 230 years here, we’re asking you to acknowledge the 65,000 years of history. You acknowledging Aboriginal history and culture doesn’t mean you lose your own 230 years of history, it’s you gaining 65,000 years of Australian history.
We’ve got the oldest living culture in the world, we take such pride in that and we just wish all Australians felt pride in that also.
If I could change one thing in our society for the future it would be education. I think education on Aboriginal history is key to understand how our culture exists today and education also means that Aboriginal people aren’t misunderstood anymore.
If you would like to find out more about Clothing The Gap and their Free The Flag campaign, you can visit their website and follow them on Instagram.
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