Deadly designs from local artist raise funds to do good
With inspiration drawn from personal experience and a deep love for the Australian outback, rainforests, and reefs, Indigenous artist Melanie Hava’s artwork is a captivating combination of colour and pattern.
A homage to Aboriginal art and culture, this collaboration features an assortment of Mel’s unique and distinctive character design, brought to life as wearable art.
It is that pride of her culture that inspires the artist as she commented.
“I am blessed to have been born into interesting and diverse cultures,” Hava said.
“While celebrating my father’s Austrian heritage, I also identify through my Mum’s line as a Mamu Aboriginal woman, Dugul-barra and Wari-barra family groups, from the Johnstone River catchment of the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland and the adjoining Great Barrier Reef sea country. Reef and rainforest country are important sources for my inspirations.
“I have known from a very young age that I was going to be an artist. While also being a bookworm and a piano player, art was a world that I frequently retreated into as I grew up. I reckon this is because I was deaf and felt I couldn’t join in with groups of people.”
With her artwork was showcased at the recent Freshwater Saltwater Exhibition she has formed a partnership with the team at Ertswilder to collaborate on her range of wearable art.
Erstwilder is a business that has great passion for designing, producing and supporting all sorts of limited-run adornments, such as the creations from Hava.
Over the course of the past 12 months, Erstwilder worked closely with Mel to translate her work into a collection of limited-run wearable art accessories for the first time. The reception to the collection has been incredible, with 8 designs already sold out online.
The range also helped to support local youth through a partnership with Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good - a charity whose mission is to inspire, equip and empower the next generation to change the world through creating safe spaces and a platform for Indigenous youth voices.
Founded in 2016, by a group of empowered young people, DIYDG is a youth-led organisation aiming to inspire, equip and empower the next generation to take action that changes their world.
They aim to achieve goals by providing a platform for young people to co-design and lead their own projects.
Through this collection launch and the incredible support of the community a massive $17,000 was able to be raised for the youth charity in forty-eight hours.