An Aboriginal Culinary Journey

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  • 2022

  • Product
    Domestic Appliances

Commissioned By:

Breville | Sage

Designed In:

Australia

An Aboriginal Culinary Journey is a collaboration between Breville|Sage and Aboriginal artists who decorated appliances with stories of food, culture and community to celebrate and raise awareness of 60,000 years of Indigenous Australian culture. This project will be the start of ongoing initiatives to give back to the Indigenous community.


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Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey - Marrapinti by Yukultji(Nolia) Napangati
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey - Kampurarrpa by Yalti Napangati
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey - Piruwa by Yalti Napangati
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey - Dhuuyaay by Lucy Simpson
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey - Dhunbarrbil by Lucy Simpson
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey - Tingari by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri
Image: an Aboriginal Culinary Journey
  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE
  • An Aboriginal Culinary Journey combines ancient stories with the best of contemporary design. An invitation to experience the world’s oldest living culture. When beginning the 3-year long design process for the Aboriginal Culinary Journey we knew we wanted the artwork to be authentic and have a meaningful connection to the appliances themselves. To faithfully represent these world-renowned artist hand painted works Breville had to work on a new high-quality industrial process to apply graphics to products. This process had to accurately capture colour and texture and result in a product that’s virtually identical to the original.

  • The development of the Aboriginal Culinary Journey resulted in Breville innovating an industrial process that combines high tech and artisan methods. 3D-photogrammetry is used to digitally remove the painted artwork off the products which is then modified so it can be reproduced at a the highest quality. The art is re-applied to our products as a multilayer decal. The final decals intricately layer inks and texture. Some products have up to 16 decals which are all skilfully applied by hand. The end process whilst being tedious and technical, captured the most faithful representation of the original artwork.

  • As a proud Australian company, Breville recognise the rising need & responsibility to form a reconciliation action plan and to give back to the Indigenous community of Australia. We see an opportunity to share Australia's long history of food culture through native Australian art, on a global scale, to lovers of art, decoration, and design. As part of this campaign, all profits are dedicated to funding Indigenous charities and philanthropic works. It is also the hope that this initiative will be the start of ongoing future projects for Breville in giving back to the Indigenous community on a global level.

  • Curatorial Statement by Alison Page "When we step into a modern kitchen, it’s easy to forget that our wondrous appliances - while efficient, convenient, practical and aesthetic - provide the same service that our ancient ancestor’s campfires, grinding stones and stone age tools did over millennia. When it comes to food preparation and cooking, Indigenous Australians have been at it longer than most. It has recently been demonstrated archeologically that they are the world’s oldest bread makers, harvesting ancient grains that were gluten free and packed full of nutrients. Now that’s a discovery! Even their most basic tools for preparing food were layered with a 65,000-year history told through symbols and stories, which are painted, burned and etched into their objects. These stories of family and sustainability are the stories that the world is ready to hear. An Aboriginal Culinary Journey combines ancient stories with the best of contemporary design. An invitation to experience the world’s oldest living culture."