The fifth element: Regenerating fashion through traditional Indigenous knowledge

The fashion industry is facing several significant and complex challenges. Its cultural and philosophical premise for constant change does not sit well with the crisis surrounding climate change. Escobar (2011) argues that “to make sustainability less illusory” there needs to be a move toward the pluriverse. In Escobar’s words, the pluriverse is “a world in which many worlds fit”, and no single notion of the world, neither human, nor animal, can occupy it (2015). The pluriverse is a relational ontology that avoids division between culture and nature, amongst other dualities. This paper argues that there is the opportunity to bring different values to fashion futures with the introduction of traditional Aboriginal knowledge (a part of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, TEK) and practices in the management of land and grazing. This is a chance for the reconstruction of biodiversity with local-based knowledge that can bear on fashion’s complex issues and wicked problems. The paper discusses two case studies of wool growers in Tasmania and the way in which they integrate land regeneration according to Indigenous traditional knowledge within their farming practices. The farms are situated in the heartland of Tasmania, where superfine Merino wool is produced. Kingston is situated on a land partially in a pre-European colonialism state, which the owner seeks to maintain, while the Beaufront farm sits on a land that Aboriginal people had transformed into grassland for the grazing of wallabies, their staple diet. Despite Aboriginal people’s loss of land to colonialism and land appropriation, today these farmers recognise their responsibility to the land and TEK for an ecological transformation of wool growing. Wool occupies two worlds simultaneously, agriculture and culture. From the soil to the feed and the animal, wool is a primary industry where land management is a key consideration in its production system. Wool is also a cultural industry whose main final product is yarn or textile, objects that are then transformed into fashion incorporating immaterial elements such as trends in colour, patterns, styles, and often sustainability values. Wool’s duality between form and matter relates to its existence in apparently separate realms bringing to the fore the concept of materiality as an indicator of wool’s continuous processes of transformation that bridges the world of primary industry with the world of fashion. A recognition of this transformation of elements is the pathway to building regenerative fashion that contributes indirectly to the health of soil, waterways, air and fire.Currently, there is a growing interest in regenerative fashion. Regenerative agriculture has become a buzz word like sustainable, zero waste and circular economy. Luxury brands and brands such a Patagonia are looking for ways to sequester carbon through regenerative systems. However, without placed-based knowledge and rebuilding of local communities, efforts made by the fashion industry can simply amount to “reducing unsustainability” (Ehrenfeld 2008). Simple best practice sustainability will not enable effective solutions. A movement toward the incorporation of local indigenous knowledge in regenerative practices for wool growing opens a path toward worlds that go beyond business as usual, encouraging and motivating steps that are pragmatic, transformative and regenerative at the same time. This engagement outside universalist practices is transferred to fashion’s supply chain for the transition to a new ecological pluriverse.To support the case studies, this paper relies on quality semi-structured interviews with five wool growers and observations during field work conducted in Tasmania in 2018. The study focussed on a relatively small, geographically concentrated, and culturally similar group of wool growers. Two farmers have been selected because of their implementation of land regeneration practices, contrasting with traditional land management. Scholarly and grey literature complement the discussion. The analysis is conducted through the interpretative lens of the pluriverse (Escobar 2011, 2015), which leads to a new ecological society that relies on knowledge created between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people. The creation of a space where many worlds, cultures and practices come together to transform the elements of earth, air, water and fire into a fifth element provides an opportunity to generate new cultural and practical transitions to diverse societal models, going beyond solutions and strategies of business as usual. The first step in this transition space is to understand that local is the starting point. This started from the Indigenous fire regime on pasture for wallabies in Tasmania. The Indigenous landscape made super fine wool production possible. Although mindful that this local economy is ultimately based on colonialism, today the regenerative element relates to the responsibility for maintenance of that productive landscape via collaboration between the wool grower and the traditional owner. This quintessence of elements and practices are the fifth element of fashion, a space for a genuine and ecological fashion transition discourse