Celebrating First Nations in MTB
As regular readers know, I have been involved in a number of decolonial projects this year – including putting together the Cycle Shifting: Refiguring First Nations presences in Morton Bay Bikeway project.
The annual Chicks in the Sticks event was coming up and I was registered. This year, I wanted to continue conversations about the unbearable whiteness of cycling and lack of support/inclusion of First Nations riders, decolonising MTB, celebrating First Nation experiences and better recognising First Nations connection to country at MTB events.
CITS is Queensland’s biggest, annual all-female 3hr Enduro mountain bike event. Those who know me know I like to bring the fun – so a theme bike and outfit was in order, but not anything mainstream.
Chicks in the Sticks – Annual All-female 3 hr Enduro Event
At this event, there is a big emphasis on fun, inclusion, and ‘giving it a go’, so there is lots of costumes and colour: – there is a profusion of ladybirds, bees, rainbow tutus, Where’s Wallys amongst the more ‘serious’ riders.
In previous years, I have dressed up. For me dressing up means making-collating-constructing the outfit in a new and creative way, from second-hand materials (no buying anything new) and that uses the theme (if there is one) in an original way. For example, for the last CITS, Jen (my riding buddy) and I went as boogie borders (so good!). We had a great time – read more about how we went here.
I wanted to continue the good vibes, but also raise awareness of First Nations experiences. But ‘Decolonise MTB’ was not the right approach for this event.
So I came up with an idea to promote First Nations experiences in a way that was positive and clear, but not confrontational. My idea consisted of a costume that was comfortable to ride it that matched a uniquely decorated bike highlighting my key theme.
To bring my vision to life, I enlisted the help of two incredible women to make my idea happen. A massive thank you to both Alison and Nix for their collaboration!
My Outfit
The outfit centred mainly on a custom-made T-shirt. This was the visually impactful piece and meant I could still ride safety and comfortably. Alison is a creative mate who I have collaborated with on a number of previous projects, including prepping for Bike Hack 19. Alison was integral in producing my T-shirt vision.
The T-shirt was a bright yellow and had connecting circles and indigenous artwork prints on the front and the words ‘celebrating’ over the same indigenous print panel on the back. I specifically chose ‘celebrating’ as a present verb (ie doing) and it was a positive message. The print was sourced from a First Nations art Collective (to support artists) and the other material (black spots and yellow T) were sourced from Opp Shops.
My Bike
Then my artist friend Nix (who you’ll remember from the New Materialists Garden Retreat and the Ride4Justice + UN International Day of Forests Night Ride we did earlier this year).
Nix is a proud Quandamooka woman who is highly creative. I had the idea of decorating my bike in a way that combined the approaches of my previous Art Bike Projects CONS_U_Me Blues with the Kids Bikes are Hard Work …but also it needed to be lightweight, snag-free, and still easy to ride during the event.
We used recycled clothes from Opp Shops to decorate the bike in the colours of the Australian Aboriginal flag (red, black, and yellow) by strapping the frame in red and black with yellow hanging tassels (emulating the flag’s yellow sun) in the middle.
We added a large ball under the seat in the Torres Strait Islander colors.
On the handlebars we had a hint of the theme colous for front-facing reference.
We then decorated the helmet to match.
See the stages of development below.
It was a great project to collaborate with others and it ticked all the important boxes for me like being based on recycling and sustainable principles, increasing awareness for First Nation experiences, creating a new and original outfit to ride in, supporting the event by dressing up and bringing the good vibes, creating something we collectively made that was low-cost, sustainable, and low-tech, and I got to share quality creative time with people I admire.
A massive, big thank you to Alison and Nix – I love what we co-created!
In the next post, I’ll let you know how the event went.
To get more info about this event – see the official CITS website.