Story behind Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s Midwinter Ball dress

Like most Australians living close to the economic edge and without buffer, I have been slammed by my gas and electricity bills this year. 

Some days I worry how I will afford the 30-minute drive to work. I am frustrated that, in my rental, I have no choice to make my house energy efficient and environmentally friendly. 

I am furious that our new government maintains strong ties to fossil fuels. I am enraged that our cost of living has skyrocketed because of the grotesque affair between our political leaders and mining companies. 

So much of this could have been avoided with a switch to renewable energy, long overdue, and essential.

On top of this immediate concern, I’ve been involved in climate activism for some years. I find it not only incomprehensible, but evil that we are not doing all we can to protect the longevity of this planet that has cared so well for us.

Senator Hanson-Young’s dress was made by Adelaide artist Liz Cahalan (pictured), who described the project as a ‘labour of love’

So I said yes. And as I sewed I ruminated on the issues facing myself, my friends, clients, country, and my child’s future.

I used a 50-year-old damask table cloth for the main body of the dress. I thought furiously about how reliance on fossil fuels has taken the food of people’s tables.

As I hacked up some old curtains from my rental, I experienced rebellion and catharsis. It felt like defiance and defiance felt good.

I considered the way mining companies hide behind a flimsy veil of greenwashing.

One layer of black curtains referred to the ominous murkiness of coal. No matter the spin, there’s no avoiding this dark heart.

And for the lettering, I took a cheap, fast fashion handbag which had fallen apart. Option for convenience over quality, I’d felt guilty for buying this bag at all, and had therefore been unable to discard it. 

Made from fossil fuel-generated fabric in undoubtedly cruel working conditions, my fingers suffered with every stitch forced through this tough and unyielding fabric. 

Someone, somewhere, made this. Out of sight, out of mind doesn’t absolve us of the cost of fast fashion. 

Climate action is a cause I don’t want to have to hold dear to my heart, but I must. 

I can’t look my daughter and her peers in the eye knowing I didn’t do everything I could to raise awareness of the crisis we’re in and try to wake people up. And that is why I said ‘yes’ to this dress.

I’m so grateful to Sarah for thinking of me and instantly knowing I would understand the brief. I hope I did her justice.

Time to take a stand against fossil fuels and put every ounce of pressure we can on this new government to do the right thing and protect the planet and the future generations to live with it.

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