In the lead up to our new Home collection, I travelled to the Pilbara to spend time with Wendy Hubert and the Juluwarlu Art Group. I always try to create images of our collaborations in the places that are meaningful to the artists in their studios, gardens, or Country and it was a privilege to do just that for this collection.

With the Juluwarlu Art Group members based in Ngurrawaana, Roebourne and Perth and not often all together in the same place, we took the opportunity during the Karratha Red Earth Arts Festival in May to visit and take photos of the collection with Wendy and the team.

Over three days we visited places special to Wendy – Miaree Pools, where Wendy used to camp and swim with her family, sunrise in the spinifex grass hills near Karratha, and Yurlburrunha (Python Pool) in the Millstream-Chichester National Park, on Yindjibarndi land.

Join me as I share my travel notes in the lead up to launching this stunning collab on the 3rd of June.

We had many of the Juluwarlu team helping us over the days – Gabby, Zali, Corrine, Sigourney, Monique, Deahna, Nat, Promod and Wendy.

I was so struck by the generosity of sharing and helping on the days we were shooting the collection - getting up before sunrise to catch the first light when we shot in the spinifex hills, helping set up the bed, swimming with the air bed to the middle of the water at Python Pool to get the shot, taking video of behind the scenes and searching for the best location along the banks of Miaree Pool. We took picnics and had swims after the shoots.

After our day at Miaree Pool I was lucky enough to come along to see the Bunggaliyarra Munggu First Lights drone show, a choreographed light show over the beach, telling the Yindjibarndi story of the Seven sisters  - at Hearson’s Cove, on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha. This is an area with over one million petroglyphs on the deep red rocks which are piled on each hill in this area. It’s an amazing landscape, unfortunately with massive gas development encroaching and damaging these fragile environments – they look like a massive city driving past them on the way to the cove. More info here.

At Hearson’s Cove, the Juluwarlu team led by Lorraine, created a camp kitchen for their mob, which I was invited to share – emu cooked in a camp oven, kangaroo tail stew, damper. It was amazing and so generous to be included.

It was so special seeing the colours of Wendy’s artworks in the actual landscape and the light – the deep reds, bright greens and lilacs.

It was beautiful seeing the styled bed against the colours of the sunrise, the rocks and ghost gums of Yurlburrunha (Python Pool), and nestled against the tall reeds and waterlilies at Miaree Pool, and made the collection feel like it has come full circle.