It felt like a long shot when Glenda McCulloch, founder of Cungelella Art, reached out to footwear label Twoobs in January 2020 with an offer to collaborate.
‘I just thought I would send them a message on Instagram and said, if you’re ever interested in collaborating and creating an Aboriginal print, let me know,’ recalls Glenda. ‘Jess and Stef then messaged me back and took me up on the offer!’
For Twoobs founders Jess and Stef Dadon, the timing and opportunity was perfect. ‘We had been on the lookout for an artist to team up with following huge demand for our previous print collaborations, and it felt so right to partner with an artist whose work honours the land that we live and work on, and celebrates our First Nations People,’ they say.
‘We fell in love with Glenda’s contemporary take on traditional Indigenous Australian art, and were really drawn to the beautiful soft colours she works with.’
One Zoom call later (in true 2020 fashion!), and the collection was underway. ‘People often think of Twoobs as a big company, but we’re actually just a team of four, so our process of bringing a collaboration like this to life is pretty informal and we get to have a lot of fun with it,’ say Jess and Stef.
Glenda founded Cungelella Art just two years ago as a vehicle for sharing her culture through modern Aboriginal art. The collective soon expanded to include her sisters Jaunita Doyle, Dale Bruce, and Cheryl Perez, all of whom paint the story of their homelands.
Campaign imagery for Twoobs x Cungelella was photographed in Queensland, on the land the collective is based. ‘It was so beautiful to be able to shoot right here on the red dirt – Kalkatungu Country – our home and the inspiration behind all our artworks,’ Glenda says.
Included in the Twoobs x Cungelella range are three different prints, across two styles, made from vegan and recycled materials.
$5 from every pair sold will be donated to Injilinji Preschool & Kindergarten in Mount Isa – a local kindergarten selected by McCulloch. This non-profit Aboriginal organisation was opened by three local Aboriginal women in the 1970s, and is the only Aboriginal kindergarten still operating in the town today.
The Twoobs x Cungelella collaboration is available exclusively via the Twoobs online store now!
