Selling Yarns

Australian Indigenous textiles and good business in the 21st century

 

Speakers

Nalda Searles: Biography

Artist,

Nalda Searles is based in Perth and has been extensively involved with Indigenous women through a number of fibre textile projects. Working with Noongar women in Narrogin from 1993 to 2004, Searles established workshops in cloth doll making and sculpture. Joyce Winsley (dec) a Noongar woman excelling in fibre sculpture attended the workshops in Narrogin and remained closely associated with Nalda Searles throughout 1990 to 2002.

Searles worked with Wongutha women in Kalgoorlie which lead to a long collaboration (1992 to 2006) with painter Pantjiti Mary Mclean, a Ngaatjatjarra woman. Throughout 1996 to 2006 Searles worked with women from the Western Desert in association with Thisbe Purich from Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara where she facilitated fibre basket making and sculpture workshops. Searles worked with Martu women from the Sandy Desert communities with fibre basketry during 2003 and 2004. From 2000 to 2002 Searles worked with urban indigenous women at Midland TAFE in Western Australia teaching various fibre skills and techniques.

Searles has curated and been involved in a number of exhibitions facilitating cross-cultural exchange between artists. These include High fibre diet 1994, recoverings 1997, Fibres arising from the West 2004-2005 and most recently Woven forms: Contemporary basket making in Australia 2005.

Nalda Searles is a practitioner using recycled textiles and fibre to form basketry and sculptural objects. Searles is represented in major collections.

See also: Abstract of Nalda Searles's paper:
Collaborations