The Kimberley Mango Silk Collective
Ancient Fibres, Timeless Adornment for Body, Home & Soul
Keeping ancient traditions alive by continuing practices of textile trade and storytelling between cultures
More than just beautiful hand dyed pieces of art…
The Mango Silk Collective by HOOSH is a small group of women from the Kimberley region in Western Australia who use native eco bush-dyes to create textile art on natural fibres such as silk, hemp and organic cotton.
Designer Christy Van Der Heyden had 5 key Aims when creating the collective, based on her previous experience in managing social enterprise +teaching and sharing eco-dyeing in other remote areas of Australia.
‘When you purchase a product you are supporting Aboriginal Women to go out on country and continue the practice of intergenerational knowledge transfer.
You are contributing to creating social change and economic Opportunities for women in remote areas.’
The creative process begins when we head out on country to harvest native plants, seed and grasses to produce the earthy designs you see in our products…
Grandchildren come along too so they can learn from watching, participating and listening to stories being told as raw materials and firewood are collected.
Once harvested, the plant materials are prepared in large dye pots and the fire is lit! We mix different plants to form different colours and designs and wrap small bundles of love to add to the dye pots!
A lot of this Ecological Knowledge comes from memory from Grandparents and Aunties…from learned experience which is why it’s important to take the young ones out with us!
Then comes the process of taking our bundles of LUB out of the dye pots. It’s a bit like Christmas for us as we have lot’s of ‘AH WOW’ moments with each new design unravelled! Each item is unique and can not be reproduced!
Our little bundles of love can take from a few days up to a week to boil and set. Harvesting can be time consuming and seasonal so our products reflect the availability of plants, seeds and grasses.