( MENAFN - The Conversation) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains names, images and stories of deceased people. Around the world, fashion researchers, designers and artists are exploring the links between clothing, adornment and wellbeing. “Enclothed cognition” considers the psychology of clothing, and designers are exploring how to create garments to heal the wearer.
First Nations people understand the power of connection to cultural clothing and adornment. Items like possum and kangaroo skin cloaks can contribute to healing and cultural practice. But it's not only traditional clothing that can lead to healing.
In Australia, there is a rise of designers and artists creating and fashion ing painful Protectionist-era clothing on the runway and in the galleries. By recreating clothing tied to painful and traumatic memories and histories, these designers and artists hope to share these horrific policies, rewrite the meaning behind them, and move forward in healing. First Nations peoples living in controlled reserves, missions and stations were forced to wear plain clothing and expected to keep them well-maintained and clean .
Often, garments were forms of payment and punishment. In some institutions, First Nations people generated clothing and adornment for interstate and international exhibitions and tourist trades . These regimes and power through clothing significantly impacted those living there, including their cultural pr.