Kyra Mancktelow is a finalist in the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2023 with her work One continuous string.
The Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award is a biennial nationally significant award that will celebrate its eighth iteration in 2023. It has been presented by Wangaratta Art Gallery since 2009. The award holds a vision and commitment towards the advancement and growth of contemporary textiles. It is an acquisitive award that embodies the current state of play for contemporary textile practice in Australia.
In Kyra’s ‘Moongalba’ series, the artist has recreated the uniforms First Nations children were forced to wear at Moongalba (Myora mission). The attempt at assimilation was weakened by continuing traditional weaving practices. In Kyra's work One Continuous String, the artist combines the traditional Quandamooka weaving method with the Western dress pattern to insert her culture back into this history.
‘These garments and prints investigate long-lasting legacies of colonialism, asking questions such as how we remember and acknowledge these histories. My hope is to draw upon the strength of resistance by adapting, retaining cultural ways and identity.’
Artwork:
handmade dilly bag – Quandamooka traditional weave, woven from natural fibres, collected flora from Quandamooka Country