Our Story
Our Culture
Born under a rainbow next to the sea, Gantharri - meaning “Queen Bee” and “Grandmother” in Ngarluma language - is an Aboriginal-owned and designed inclusive label of love by Ngarluma, Kariyarra, Nyulnyul and Yawuru artist Bobbi Lockyer.
A tribute to Bobbi’s grandmother - the original Queen Bee, Gantharri’s vibrant and colourful collections are living art, inspired by the patterns, colours and textures of country, from the waves of the ocean to the wildflowers that blossom from the rust-red ground every spring.
A heart-led love affair between country and creation, art and fashion and a dream for a better, more colourful and inclusive world, each Gantharri piece weaves together the threads of country, culture and community, from conception to completion.
Our Community
Designed to be loved and worn everywhere from the runway to the beach and the bush, our clothes are made for everyone. Just like a Queen Bee or a wonderfully welcoming Grandma, Gantharri embraces our LGBTQIA+ family into our fold. Whatever your identity, we want everyone to feel welcome to wear our designs and be proud to flaunt their fashion - just as we are proud to welcome them into our community.
We believe that everyone has the right to embrace their true self and connect with their essence through fashion, and create our collections to be as inclusive and accessible as possible, with a wide range of sizes (starting at 8-22), and clothes designed to be both flowy and tight-fitted, meaning one size can fit different body types.
Our creator, Bobbi, is also a social justice campaigner, using her platform as an artist, designer and photographer to raise awareness of social and Indigenous issues, including fighting for women and LGBTQIA+ rights. She believes that creativity and community go hand in hand and loves being a force for positive change in the world.
Our Country
We love our country and our planet and strive to do everything we can to be better guardians of it. All of our collections, prints and patterns are designed here in Australia in Port Hedland on Kariyarra country, and the majority of our fabrics are printed in Australia. Our pattern-maker works to minimise any and all wastage, and we pay a fair living wage to all our tailors and creators. Where we cannot produce in Australia we do manufacture ethically overseas for our bulk creations.
We focus on creating long-lasting timeless wardrobe staples that transcend fast trends and can be worn again and again and again, using natural fibres as much as possible and cotton threads while minimising the use of plastic, elastic and any sort of wastage wherever we can.
We are experimenting with different textiles to ensure the best balance between comfort, style and fit and colour-fastness to avoid any fading of our hand-drawn designs. For now, this means that we use an array of different fabrics, like sustainably-sourced cotton and viscose, but in the future we hope to expand into new textures as the ethical fabric technology industry grows and becomes more accessible for small businesses.
Our Creator
NAIDOC Artist of the Year 2021, a photographer and official Nikon creator, social justice campaigner and mother of four boys, Bobbi Lockyer is a vibrant shining light of creativity who loves the ocean and the land she calls home.
Bobbi Lockyer started Gantharri with a dream of creating beautiful, colourful clothes for everyone. A lifelong lover of fashion and a skilled fashion photographer who has worked with big-name brands around the world, Bobbi wanted to take her passion for design to the next level by launching her own label.
A true labour of love, Bobbi hand-designs each collection ground-up from the print to the style and oversees every aspect of the label, from clothing development to photography.