Clothing with a message

By Jill Hickson

SYDNEY — Only 12 months old, Black Power Clothing is taking off in Australia. It features T-shirts and other apparel with slogans by people such as Martin Luther King, Ralph Ellison ("I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me") and Marcus Garvey.

Theodis Winston says he started Black Power Clothing because he got tired of seeing the media portray Aboriginal people as criminals. An African-American who met his Australian wife in the US, he had not been involved in any political activity at home.

He only really began thinking about political issues in Australia. Watching John Hewson and the Liberal Party in the last election greatly affected him, as did watching the Queensland cops and their treatment of the Aboriginal people. Winston likens the struggle for their rights to the struggle of African-Americans and of the American Indians.

While not being directly involved in political activity, he has approached organisations like the Aboriginal Legal Service and ANC in Sydney to help them with funds from Black Power Clothing to help their work.

Winston says that clothing with political slogans is one way of trying to change people's minds; it grabs people's attention and focuses their minds. He thinks that many people are racist through miseducation, and this is one way to help change that.

Black Power Clothing has become popular in both Sydney and Melbourne. It is expanding to the US and to NZ, and Winston has plans to go to Africa in the next few months.

Black Power Clothing can be obtained from Gowings in the City, Priority Mill Liverpool, Sanity Records Outlets, and Total Clothing Company, Redfern.

From GLW issue 133