UTS, Indigenous artists and Breville in design partnership

Breville Teams Up with Australia’s First-Ever Artists to Present an Aboriginal Australian culinary journey – 65,000 Years of The World’s Oldest Living Food Culture

Professor Alison Page is already known to many at UTS as a Walbanga and Wadi Wadi woman, the Faculty of Design Architecture & Building's newly-appointed Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement), and an award-winning Designer and Film Producer. A graduate of the UTS Design program herself, her career now spans over 20 years and links indigenous stories and traditional knowledge with contemporary design.

Professor Page’s work has recently taken her into a collaboration with global appliance maker Breville, resulting in a world-first partnership between First Nations People and the National Museum of Australia that creates products for the heart of the home, celebrates contemporary design, and reflect 65,000 years of ongoing Australian Indigenous culture.

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we're all about food and the kitchen um

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but you know every culture is really

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like family and friends get together

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around food and

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starting off in the morning so like i

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think

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that's been a great thing to share here

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this morning

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[Music]

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coffee machines are a hit right

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good to meet you

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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who wants to try apple orange

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[Music]

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the products are going to look great but

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to share the stories behind the artwork

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with the rest of the world and to share

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with australia as well

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yeah very exciting

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blown away

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[Music]

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[Music]

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what's special about this range

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and what we're going to be sharing is

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applying all of this story and this

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meaning

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you know to the objects that people use

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every day so

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every day when they walk into their

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kitchen and make a cup of coffee you

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know this country will just come into

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their consciousness

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[Music]

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here we are and we've started and the

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arts going on

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um i'm so excited about this range and

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sharing with the world

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um these stories i can't wait can't wait

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till it's finished

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the first day of painting and

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of the

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thinking i guess we've done about how

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the artist is going to

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apply artwork to the products and are we

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going to take a canvas and apply it or

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paint directly onto the product

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and

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it was so amazing today to see them pick

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up the product

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and immediately respond to the shape and

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stuff

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and start putting their story onto the

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product

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you

An Aboriginal Culinary Journey is an ambitious initiative to tell stories of our country using products as canvas. The artists had the brief of combining ancient artistic techniques with current design acumen and an eye toward the future. Our artists, Yalti, Yukultji, Warlimpirrnga and Lucy embraced this project so effortlessly and intuitively and imbued so much story and meaning to each piece. I am so proud to be part of this rich and important chapter in Australian design and culinary history. – Prof Alison Page

A decade in the making, an Aboriginal Australian Culinary Journey combines ancient stories with the best of contemporary design, with 100% of Breville’s profits to be distributed between:

• Indigenous scholarships and initiatives at UTS to create pathways for employment in engineering, technology and design; 
• the National Indigenous Culinary Institute’s work to create employment opportunities for aspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander chefs; and
• the 'Indi-Kidi Program' by the Moriarty Foundation to support childhood nutrition and sharing Indigenous Food Culture.

Also part of the Breville team for this project is Sarah Jennings, herself a UTS Product Design graduate. Sarah originally joined Breville in 2018 as part of a UTS-Breville product design internship program.

Breathing art, ritual and stories into our homes and everyday lives, the inaugural limited series of six Breville products feature works by esteemed Western Desert artists, and members of the original Pintupi Nine, Yalti Napangati, Yukultji Napangati, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri and Sydney based artist and Yuwaalaraay woman, Lucy Simpson.

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Alison Page is Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement) at UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, founder of the National Aboriginal Design Agency, and member of several cultural Boards including the National Australia Day Council, The Art Gallery of South Australia, and the National Australian Maritime Museum.