Sukrita Mahon is a spinner and knitter based on the Central Coast, a region in New South Wales Australia. Sukrita’s focus is on living sustainably and with intention. She revels in working with natural fibres and it was through a need to connect and unwind that she found her love of spinning which she shares with us in Part 1.
Sukrita is also one of the co-founders of a newly established community called Sydney is Cancelled. It’s a community open to people of colour within the knitting, crafting, and fibre community to have a safe space to interact and learn from one another
For those of us not involved in the fibre community you may be wondering; isn’t knitting and crafting a welcoming, apolitical and safe space ? In some ways it is and this is often why people are drawn to craft and maker communities. There is however growing concern that experiences are being erased, especially experiences of those who may not identify as being female, white, and middle class.
Sydney is Cancelled is a new movement that allows people of colour to bring their full selves without the colonial gaze. In Part 2 we chat more about what this space and community might look like with a small group of attendees of a recent event by Sydney is Cancelled. The event was held at the exhibition by the American artist Nick Cave.
The mesmerising exhibition Nick Cave: Until at Carriage Works serves up a world, inviting us to step in to see life from the perspective of the artist. His work is a response to the violence against black lives through police violence and other systems of oppression. More than a response, Nick presents a mirror for our own self-reflection and the role we might play to subvert or participate in these systems. Listen to Part 2 to hear what the founders of Sydney is Cancelled and the attendees thought of the exhibition and their commitment to anti-racism work in the fibre and maker communities.
Following are a couple of links of people who's work Sukrita admires, along with links to articles and profiles mentioned in Part 1 and Part 2.
Sukrita mentioned the work of Ocean, Grace Anna, and Korina. As a group also collaborate on issues within the fibre and maker community under the premise of diversity becoming inclusion at Unfinished Object.
Other links
Sukrita Mahon and the Fibre Community (Part 1)
Sydney is Cancelled and the Fibre Community (Part 2)
Recorded at: Nick Cave: Until at Carriage Works
A summary of the background discussed: 'The knitting community is reckoning with racisim', Jaya Saxena, Vox (with links to posts and discussions)