Seljak Brand X Leecee Carmichael's New Blanket Tells Stories Of Country

The sustainable blanket brand has commissioned a poignant new design by Quandamooka woman and artist Leecee Carmichael.

Writer
Christina Karras
21st of July 2022

The sisters behind Seljak Brand have collaborated with Quandamooka woman Elisa Jane (Leecee) Carmichael for a special new blanket that celebrates Country.

Sam and Karina Seljak have made a name for themselves with their beautiful, closed-loop blankets since launching in 2016, winning The Design Files + Laminex Design Award for Sustainable Design in 2019. Now the label has launched its first artist collaboration, commissioning Leecee to create a new artwork for their latest blanket!

Leecee is a descendant of the Ngugi people, one of three clans who are the traditional custodians of Quandamooka, also known as Yoolooburrabee — people of the sand and sea. The artist incorporates materials collected from Country, embracing traditional techniques, and expressing contemporary adaptations through painting, weaving, and textiles. The new Gather Blanket’s design tells stories of the power of these enduring cultural practices, which Leecee and her mother Aunty Sonja have reconnected with in the last 10 years.

‘The weave of the Gather blanket brings together the many threads of a gulayi (Quandamooka women’s bag) which loops and diagonally knots ungaire (freshwater swamp reeds),’ Leecee explains.

‘Gulayi have supported daily life for millennia and were used to gather shellfish from the shorelines of Minjerribah and Mulgumpin (North Stradbroke and Moreton Island). Our Quandamooka waters are alive, nurturing and sustaining us with ginyingara (oysters), eugaries (pipis) and quampi shells and many other precious freshwater and saltwater food sources.’

In addition to being soft and light-weight, the blanket features a reversible, two-tone design. It’s woven in Lithuania with yarn spun from reclaimed woollen jumpers in Italy, and just like all Seljak blankets, the brand will also donate $5 for each one sold to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

Shop the Gather Blanket online here!

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