Clothing The Gaps' “Not a Date to Celebrate” petition, calling for Australia to move its national day from the date the country was first colonised, has gathered more than 74,000 verified signatures.
Co-founder and CEO Laura Thompson’s journey started far from the fashion world, working as a health promotion manager at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service.
“I was that person who ran around at community events getting people to drink more water, exercise more," the Gunditjmara woman said.
One of her programs offered a 'limited edition' T-shirt if mob completed an eight-week healthy lifestyle program and those shirts quickly became something more.
She realised that wearing your values voiced a perspective, and that was powerful.
It was also vital to create garments that were the highest quality, so that any message was strong and lasting.
"For a while I’d been creating custom merch that built a community of people that were changing behaviours and taking action,” said Laura.
When government funding began to dictate what issues they could talk about, Laura and co-founder ally Sarah Sheridan decided to go out on their own.
During COVID, they shifted their work online and started selling the shirts under a new name: Clothing The Gaps.
The merch meant the messages could spread nationwide. It was an online tool to reach as many people as they could without the restriction of only people in the area being able to represent a message they wanted promoted.
“Once we came up with a name, the product really sold itself because people were like, I get it. If I buy this garment, I’m helping close the gap.”
Laura says her public health background guides the way the business runs as a profit-for-purpose social enterprise.
“We’re not selling wearable art, we’re selling political messages ... for every garment, every message we sell, we have to be able to back that up with resources that support people to wear that.”
With an authentic and empowering way of working, community sets the agenda.
Messages that are next in line for the brand are inspired by the real world, what issues are happening, what needs promoting and what people want to visually show that they are supporting.
“Community really does drive what we’re talking about.”
Laura believes people don't want to feel powerless in the face of adversity, proven to her and the team when there was a phenomenal increase in sales during the Black Lives Matter movement.
For her, it was proof that demand was growing for advocacy through clothing, and they were ready to step up.
Clothing the Gaps presents an opportunity for mob to buy from other mob, and for non-Indigenous people to show allyship and contribute to a Blak business.
The “Not a Date to Celebrate” campaign began about five years ago to raise awareness that January 26 is a day of mourning for many First Nations peoples.
“Possibly the worst day on the calendar to celebrate Australia on,” Laura says.
“We’re in fact the only country in the world that has its day of national celebration on the day the country was colonised or invaded.”
Through T-shirts and online resources, the campaign encourages people to rethink what they do on the day.
“We had conversations with people about what else they could be doing instead of having a beer and a barbie,” she says.
Laura is clear that mob are at the centre of the work.
“I had to remind myself that we’re not creating these resources for non-Indigenous people,” she says.
“We’re creating these resources for mob, so they don’t have to keep repeating themselves.”
Over time, she has seen a shift in how some Australians mark the day.
“Last year I saw more and more people treating January 26 as business as usual … more and more Australians were not celebrating, but you can’t just put your head in the sand and ignore that it’s a day of mourning.”
The movement is another way to spark and provoke change, with the brand knowing they can make substantial impact.
This journey comes of the back of the 'Free the flag' campaign. Clothing the Gaps led the charge in 2019 to gain use of the Aboriginal flag without copyright restrictions.
By 2022, there were more than 165,000 signatures on their petition and a successfully freed flag.
On the one-year anniversary of the 2023 referendum, the team launched the petition to harness the energy of the six million Australians who voted Yes.
“We’re up to 85,000 people who’ve signed the petition … and the aim is to get 100,000 this year,” Laura says.
For the team, that number represents more than signatures - it’s a measure of hope and possibility.
“It’s the small wins and the big wins along the way … recruiting another brand that I have a lot of respect for gives me joy and hope ... I genuinely believe that Australia and Jan 26 can’t stay the same way.
"If you’ve got hope, you can continue.”
Despite the weight of the work, Laura is proud of what Clothing The Gaps has already achieved.
"We’re a small team, but there’s an enormous amount of trust in the work that we do … the plan right now is just to continue to do better, one foot in front of the other.”
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