Manapan In VOGUE

Get To Know The Aboriginal-Made Furniture Brand Shaking Up Design

ORIGINAL ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND: HERE

FRANCESCA WALLACE 13 AUG 2020

Manapan furniture was founded on the ethos of great design with heart.

If we told you some of Australia’s coolest furniture was coming from an island 500 kilometres off the mainland, what would you say? While they might be remote, Aboriginal makers living on Milingimbi, a remote island off Arnhem Land, are producing some of the country’s most innovative and beautiful designs—which might take three days to reach the shore, but once they get there, are truly treasured pieces.Manapan, the furniture company whose name translates to together, is doing just that; linking up both established and emerging non-Indigenous Australian designers with a team of artisans on Milingimbi. Founded by Mark White and supported by ALPA, a Darwin-based Aboriginal organisation, the company is paving the way for heroing First Nations talent and showcasing stories of the people and the land through great design.“The brief to designers is that it has to relate back to Arnhem land Aboriginal culture,” White tells Vogue Living via the phone of how Manapan was originally founded and the ethos behind the capsule collection. “[Originally] they came back with some beautiful pieces, and with those designs we started our range—and each one of these pieces has a beautiful story about them.”

On site at Milingimbi. Photographed Christopher Tovo.

Now, Manapan does it all. Catering to bespoke briefs and collaborative efforts with designers, the business has expanded to reach more than just the individual consumer. Now, Manapan can be found in commercial properties across the country, including pieces housed in the likes of Melbourne Airport and Monash University.

“We’d take the brief back up to the elders in Milingimbi and we’d talk—literally around a campfire—how it really related to them. We talked about the airport and movement… we really saw some synergies. All of the work that we do has a beautiful story behind it.,” White shares. Since, the team have built a table for Monash’s vice chancellor’s office, which depicts the island itself.

“It’s furniture with a story, it’s not just run of the mill stuff. The communities are very much over the design, they almost approve the design. And they sort of come up with the story,” he says. “Manapan has given our community a purpose, we are so proud of the furniture we make. We are proud to share our culture and skills with the world,” Milingimbi Elder, Keith Lapulung, tells us.

One of the most popular designs, which is available to buy direct, is a piece called the ‘Fire Sideboard’. Designed by Alexsandra Pontonio—who White discovered at Denfair in Melbourne—the piece is inspired by the importance of fire in Aboriginal culture. “It really depicts the dark stained timber of the doors being burnt timber and the light timber is the new growth. Fire and new growth is a big thing in Aboriginal culture,” White attests. And Pontonio had a personal connection, sharing “My partner grew up in Arnhem Land and I regularly travelled around the Kimberley Ranges in the north-west of this region.”

The Fire Sideboard

Similarly, collaborations between Suzie Stanford, Liz Doube and Jon Mikulic have resulted in exquisite furniture designed with care and made by hand in Milingimbi. One of the most striking pieces, the Art Bench, is an ode to the skill of the artisans.

“The design itself was based on the idea of a piece of furniture that could display skill in execution, use local material and reference an element of Indigenous traditional craft,” Mikulic shares of the design, which features five traditional spears implanted in the bench’s dark wood. “The spears balance the seemingly floating bench—it’s a reflection of the significance of the Indigenous community’s influence on the Manapan project.”

And therein lies the appeal of a Manapan object. The design is simple enough to fit in with most interiors, but the story behind the piece gives it a unique edge.

On site at Milingimbi. Photographed Christopher Tovo.

“We make a big point of talking to the people and the elders of Arnhem land to make sure we’ve got their story right in what we depict. My real focus is creating skills and a real want and need to create,” White confirms. In that vein, the Manapan Academy was born. Training up younger members of the community, the academy sees the elder’s skills transferring to the younger generations—and keeps them on the island and employed.

“The kids all go to school and they learn, but when they finish there are no jobs and they have to go to Darwin or to Alice Springs to get work. What we’ve done is created a bit of a pathway and they can go to the Academy and learn the skills [of furniture making]. Some of the young kids are just jumping all over it!”

White hopes that, soon enough, it’s these kids who will be designing the pieces—something he can see already happening. “They’re going home and building a table for the family, so they’re becoming young designers.”

For now, White’s aim is to showcase the enormous talent available on the island, and hopes to bring the message of Aboriginal culture into homes and offices.

“Our theory is that we’re working with Indigenous people and designers who have predominantly been non-Indigenous and we’re all working together to create one beautiful piece. It gets a conversation started, people might sit around their boardroom and ask where the piece is from. It’s going well,” he shares.