Clothing The Gap co-founder and director Laura Thompson. Source: supplied.
Aboriginal-owned and -run streetwear brand Clothing The Gap has been up and running for less than a year, and has already amassed a 100,000-strong social media following, and evolved from an e-commerce store to bricks-and-mortar retail offering.
But for Laura Thompson, Clothing The Gap’s co-founder and director, and a Gunditjmari woman, this social enterprise was never only about selling a few T-shirts.
It’s about giving First Nations Australians a voice and an online space to occupy, and amplifying their voices, while also educating non-Indigenous people.
Never has that been more evident than now, in the run-up to January 26, or so-called Australia Day.
HUNDREDS of people have signed up for a star-studded event billed as “the biggest and best indy event of 2020” – the Big Indy Night In – which is happening online from 3pm to 10pm today. Almost 600 people had paid £10 per household by last night to sign up to the event, which marries Scottish culture and politics. Hosted by Elaine C Smith, it features some of the best-known names in the two fields, including Karine Polwart, Andrew O’Hagan, Dougie MacLean, Janey Godley, Eddi Reader, Val McDermid, Ricky Ross and Hue and Cry. The National is also well represented with the first public appearance of our columnist Paul Kavanagh since he had his stroke, the paper’s founder Richard Walker, along with columnists Lesley Riddoch, Stuart Cosgrove, Ruth Wishart, Gerry Hassan and Bella Caledonia’s Mike Small.