Endorse the Minimum Standards.
The Australian Crafts Alliance has set the Minimum Standards for the Australian Craftsmanship Sector. Endorsing them is a public statement that this sector warrants recognition, infrastructure and legislative protection.
A floor, not a ceiling.
The Minimum Standards set out the baseline conditions under which Australian craft practitioners and producers should be recognised, remunerated, classified and protected. They are minimum requirements, not aspirations.
They are benchmarked against systems that already work elsewhere: Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs and its Densan trade designations, Italy's Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, the Harris Tweed Act 1993, and the European Union's Geographical Indications framework for craft and industrial products.
Endorsing creates no legal obligation. It is a public declaration that your organisation or practice supports the principle that craftsmanship deserves recognition, fair payment and formal sector infrastructure.
Three numbers.
Industrial awards covering craft practitioners in Australia. There is no wage instrument for the trade.
Countries that have ratified the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Australia is not among them.
EU Digital Product Passport compliance deadline. Australian textile exporters without verified provenance records risk exclusion from the European market.
Twelve standards. All of them achievable.
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01
Recognition as skilled economic activity
Craftsmanship — tangible and intangible — must be recognised as skilled economic activity within workforce, procurement, economic measurement and institutional systems.
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02
Provenance: attribution, origin and integrity
Craft and industrial goods must carry clear provenance. The Southern Cross Mark certifies an individual maker and object; a Geographical Indication certifies a place-based category of goods. A single object may carry both.
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03
Certification of practice and practitioners
Certification pathways — Certified Craft Practitioner (CCP) and Certified Craft Atelier (CCA) — must exist, backed by a national Practitioner Register.
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04
Documentation and registration
Practitioners and practices must be identified, documented and registered in the Geographical Indications Directory for Crafts and Industrial Products.
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05
Succession and transmission
Systems must support knowledge transfer from experienced practitioners to those who carry it forward, including funded succession mechanisms.
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06
Sovereign manufacturing integrity
Claims that goods are Australian-made must be verifiable. Australian cloth must be made in Australia, by Australian hands, to declared methods — certified by the Southern Cross Mark.
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07
Economic recognition and remuneration
Practitioners must be remunerated at rates reflecting skill, knowledge and provenance value, backed by enforceable remuneration mechanisms.
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08
Visibility in national data
Craft and industrial work must be visible in national workforce, economic and policy datasets, with formal sector classification.
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09
Trades and industry, not arts
Craftsmanship must be classified, for policy and portfolio purposes, as Industry and Trade — not as a subset of the Arts.
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10
Geographical Indications and CIGI coordination
A national GI and CIGI Hub must convene producer groups, maintain the evidentiary record, and provide stewardship once a mark is granted. A dedicated CIGI statute is the longer-term goal.
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11
Accredited Craftsmanship Centres
“Skills are freedom.” A national network of Accredited Craftsmanship Centres — guilds, studios, working farms, and craft, industrial and produce enterprises — must be established and government co-invested.
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12
Craftsmanship in education
Hand-based craft activity must be reinstated in school curricula. Crafts and Industrial pathways for girls must be recognised as equivalent to trade apprenticeships for boys, with credentialled higher education and VET pathways.
A public record of who stood behind this work.
Minimum standards campaigns work by building a visible, growing record of organisations and individuals committed to a set of principles before legislation adopts them.
The Harris Tweed Authority built industry consensus over generations before the 1993 Act gave it statutory force. The consensus came first. The statute followed it.
The infrastructure already exists. What is required now is the political will to recognise it.
The Alliance does not ask endorsers to lobby government, fund legal action, or commit to any advocacy activity. The endorsement register is a public record of those who have read these standards and found them reasonable, and are willing to say so publicly.
Ministers, departmental advisers and committee chairs look at the breadth of support behind a position before they act on it. Every endorsement adds weight.
Anyone who believes this work deserves recognition.
Endorsement is open to individuals, organisations, guilds, studios, working farms, educational institutions, businesses and government bodies. There is no membership requirement and no cost.
Makers
Weavers, ceramicists, jewellers, leatherworkers, blacksmiths, textile artists — any maker whose practice would benefit from formal sector recognition.
Guilds & studios
Craft organisations and making spaces: guilds, cooperative studios, makerspaces and craft schools working across Australian craft and industrial production.
Producers
Working farms and industry: wool growers, fibre processors, mills and manufacturers seeking Geographical Indication and provenance recognition.
Education
TAFEs, universities, art schools and vocational providers whose programmes include craft, heritage skills or industrial trades.
Business
Fashion labels, homeware brands, galleries, museums and retailers who source from Australian makers.
Advocates
Supporters and allies — anyone who has read the standards and believes the sector deserves formal recognition in Australia.
Simple. Public. Free.
It takes less than two minutes. Your name is added to the public endorsement register, and you can download an endorsement badge to use on your own site or materials.
The standards are written.
What is needed now is a visible public record of support. Every maker, guild, organisation and institution that endorses these standards adds to the weight of the case for legislative recognition.