The 'Koori Clan Female' costume was designed by Jennifer Irwin and manufactured in the Ceremonies Costume Workshop. It features an A line dress with foil and hand- painted finish. Multiple examples of the costume appeared in the Awakenings segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. They was worn by young adult members of Northern NSW indigenous groups.

The Opening Ceremony Context

The Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games comprised three major sections: mandatory formalities and protocol sections, the cultural display and the entrance of the athletes.

Within the cultural display there were eight sections: Welcome, Deep Sea Dreaming, Awakening, Fire, Nature, Tin Symphony, Arrivals and Eternity. The Awakenings segment followed the Deep Sea Dreaming segment and pays homage to the indigenous peoples of Australia. The segment was directed by Stephen Page and Rhoda Roberts and features dancers from various indigenous groups throughout Australia, including dancers from the Eora nation.

The Opening Ceremony Program states: Djakapurra Munyarryun, the songman, calls the new generation of spirits. The white ochre spirits are drawn to the heartbeat of the land by the Central Desert women. Their 'Chant of the Seven Sisters Dance' births the s\ceremony. As ochre fills the air, dancers from Arnhem land perform the 'Flag Welcome Song', which welcomed the Macassan traders at least four centuries ago. Torres Strait islanders arrive: the Eora nation group welcomes and plays host. All gather around drums of burning eucalyptus leaves, rekindling and cleansing this stadium on Daruk land. The Gjorn Gjorn, huge spirits from the Kimberly Ranges, hover. As the clans unite, they birth the giant Wandjina - ancestral creation spirit and lawmaker.

The Awakenings segment was a collaboration involving the culture, music, dance and traditional costumes of indigenous peoples throughout Australia. The design of the costumes embraced both traditional dress and modern dance costume.

Jennifer Irwin (born Sydney 1958) has designed costumes for numerous Australian dance and theatre productions. Her designs for dance have been seen on stage in 24 countries. She has designed costumes for over 25 works by the Sydney Dance Company and has worked extensively with director and choreographer Stephen Page on his productions for the Bangarra Dance Theatre and for the Australian Ballet. Also with Stephen Page, Irwin designed costumes for the Opening Ceremony for the Festival of the Dreaming (1998) and for Tubowgule - the Opening Ceremony for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. Irwin also designed the costumes for the Official Ceremony for the Centenary of Federation on 1 January 2001.

Jennifer Irwin's many costume design commissions for dramatic works include collaborations with directors Gale Edwards and Marion Potts for the Sydney Theatre Company and with Neil Armfield for Company B at the Belvoir St Theatre.

Irwin was awarded a Theatre Board (Australia Council) grant to study scenic design at La Scala Opera in Milan, Italy.

Her designs for the Awakenings section of the Opening Ceremony demonstrate her unique talent and ability to infuse contemporary, cutting edge design with sensitivity and an understanding of dance, movement and cultural significance.

These designs reveal an innovative use of texture and silhouette, and an ability to create an abstract contemporary tribal look that does not contradict indigenous Australian values or beliefs.

Commenting on the application of silver foil to the surface of the fabric and the design generally, Irwin says, "it was for a contemporary look on beautiful black bodies. Stephen [Light] - the Artistic Director of the section - he kind of likes that spirit, silvery snake kind of. It's always with that kind of spiritual element. And there's an earthiness to it as well..And we wanted to keep it modern, cracked and wrecked. So modern contemporary meets traditional..These were the female version of the silver pants. They were put on in strips, silver kind of strips and then painted over the top in black.like that bushfire burning silver ash kind of colour".

Silver body paint on both the body and hair completed this costume.



Maker name Genevieve Blewitt of the Ceremonies Costume Workshop

'Koori Clan Female' costumes were worn young adult members of Northern NSW indigenous groups.

Presented to the Powerhouse Museum by the Olympic Coordination Authority, on behalf of the NSW Government

Performance costume, 'Koori Clan Female', fabric, designed by Jennifer Irwin, made by the Ceremonies Costume Workshop, used in Opening Ceremony of Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, 2000

Consists of a sleeveless, knee length 'A' line dress made from grey woven nylon fabric. The dress has been painted a darker grey using fabric paint around the edges and has had strips of metallic material attached to its surface. There is a small split in either side seam of the dress, extending 140 mm up from the hem.

Made: 2000

2001/84/87

2000