THERE may be a 10 year age gap between sisters Coco and Asha Roche but that doesn't stop them being "joined at the hip".
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The siblings are about to launch their new business Sisterly selling handmade jewellery, artwork and pottery made from their Purnim home in south-west Victoria.
Merging Asha's art strengths with Coco's pottery skills, Sisterly is a contemporary celebration of the siblings' Indigenous heritage and artistic passions.
"When we were brainstorming our name, Sisterly just made sense," Asha, 25, said. "We're joined at the hip, she's my best friend.
"Our mob comes from Tasmania so we're actually Palawa and that's where our great grandmother is a descendant from.
"When we were younger we didn't know much about our culture but once I went away to uni I was asked to be part of the Indigenous group and I was like wow, this is amazing, I want to learn more.
"We grew up out of town all our lives and went to Grassmere and a lot of the Indigenous kids around here went there so we've always gone to ceremony days and things like that when we were younger.
"When I first started making art down here I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing by everyone, obviously not having our mob from this country it means you need to be respectful in what you create.
"Our artworks are very contemporary for Indigenous art."
Sisterly has a focus on sustainability, Coco, 15, explains: "We didn't want any waste, we re-use our clay and make sure everything is sustainable."
The logo image is a photo taken by Asha at Childers Cove, one of their favourite childhood places.
They have around 800 followers on TikTok where they have been documenting their small business journey.
I want to celebrate our culture and show other people how beautiful it is.
- Asha Roche
Asha has a background in studio art and had her own small art business before embarking on Sisterly.
Their current collection features four artworks called Mermaid Dreaming, Coming Together, Isolation and Burnt.
The pieces explore traditional Aboriginal dot-style painting through a contemporary lens.
"I do a lot about rivers and water-based things because I feel drawn to that," Asha said.
"I feel like I'm more of an intuitive artist, I'm very self-taught and often something will happen in my life that triggers an idea so I always have a sketchbook with me wherever I go so when I have an idea I'll write them out.
"I've done a few that I feel have come to me, and I know that sounds a bit strange, but for example the piece Burnt was for the bushfires in Australia last year; while I haven't necessarily seen the land where the fires burnt it was almost like its own dreaming if that makes sense, the way I saw it when I thought about it.
"Mermaid Dreaming is definitely based on the ocean but not anywhere specific, imagining how a child sees below the water - they think everything is mermaids and magic and I painted how they wish it looked like underneath the sea."
Coco's painting Isolation is a darker, more sparse artwork depicting the way the pandemic affected communities.
She's currently undertaking VCE Art at Emmanuel College in Warrnambool where she will focus on pottery.
"I was inspired by everyone isolating because of COVID, that was a major event last year, everyone being isolated within their own little families and whether that's big or small we were all going through the same thing," she said.
"I find during school when I'm doing my work I just start drawing and things just come to life and I think, I have to do art.
"I find it helps me relax and switch my brain off."
Asha and Coco hope to share and celebrate their culture through Sisterly.
"So many generations were split during my great grandmother's time, she tried to reconnect with her brothers as well but back then to be Indigenous carried a lot of shame; she didn't want to be openly Aboriginal as it carried a lot of social difficulties," Asha said.
"That's one of my focuses now about sharing my culture is that you should be proud of it no matter what's happened in the past, you should be proud and want to share that with other people.
"As much as it's something that is horrible and can't be taken back, helping other people learn about it I think is the next step forward.
"A lot of Indigenous culture in Tasmania has been wiped out, it was one of the biggest mass genocides of Indigenous people in all of Australia but is one of the least spoken about.
"Some of the language is being rebuilt, but a lot is being rebuilt out of Western European findings, so a lot of the culture's been removed. I know there are many people who are trying to build up what was there so people can have some identity to where they belong.
"I know when my dad went over to Tasmania, he said he couldn't explain how he felt, but he felt a deep connection to land.
"I think that's one of my major things for wanting to reconnect with our culture, I want to celebrate it and show other people how beautiful it is.
"It feels like the right thing to do and I know my great grandmother would be so proud of us, for the fact that we're showing now that she should have been proud of who she was and where she came from."
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