Kalumburu Photography Collective

FREEDOM GARVEY-WARR | Justina Clements, Maria Fredericks, Tarisha Mouda and Maria Maraltadj from The Kalumburu Photography Collective

 

This project uses photography as a medium to learn enterprise skills, whilst fostering well-being and celebrating Kalumburu’s unique culture.

 

Since 2016, this project has supported women in the remote First Nations community of Kalumburu in WA to gain the skills required to launch a photography enterprise: ‘The Kalumburu Photography Collective’. The project creates new pathways to employment, including self-employment, and uses enterprise as a vehicle to connect people with country and keep culture strong.

This project is a collaboration with young women in Kalumburu, aged between 18-35. Over 25 women have been engaged in capacity building activities using the creativity of photography. The project has involved:

  • Four week-long intensive workshops in Kalumburu with photographer Freedom Garvey-Warr;

  • Intensive skill development in financial literacy, computer literacy, social media and microenterprise management;

  • Remote support and mentoring across the three years;

  • Support to develop a range of products for sale including a 2018 calendar, a 2019 calendar, prints, postcards and gift cards. These products raised revenue to re-invest back into the microenterprise.

  • Collaboration with fashion social enterprise Magpie Goose for a commissioned photo shoot in 2017 and 2020.

  • In 2018 and 2019, women from the Collective, Maria Fredericks, Justina Clement and Maria Maraltadj were invited to attend an intensive workshop series in the south-west of Western Australia; ‘Exposure: New Voices in Western Australia Photography’. This was supported by the Perth Centre for Photography and Gee Consultancy.

  • In 2023 Maria Fredericks and Maria Maraltadj will have an exhibition as at Perth Centre for Photography after an intensive year of mentoring with Sarah Landro from Camera Story.

The women hope to develop further products for the tourism market and continue to share the unique culture of Kalumburu via photography.

 
 

To find out more check out the Kalumburu Photography Collective on social media!

 

Watch Kimberley French talk about the impact being a member of the Kalumburu Photography Collective has on her life.

Watch a video from the Kalumburu Photography Collective’s first project in 2017; the “Olympic Vision Project”. This project was funded by Olympus Australia and facilitated by Clare Wood and Freedom Garvey-Warr.