Janelle Puruntatameri is an essential member of BIMA Wear, leading the studio's pattern cutting and serving as the first point of contact for customers making orders. Janelle also assists in an administrative role at Bima Wear, where she started working in 2022 when she decided to "have a crack" at learning the trade.

Art and making runs in her family - her aunty was a screen printer at BIMA when Janelle was a child, her uncles are wood carvers and painters, and her mum's sisters are painters at Munupi Arts Centre. "Seeing them doing artwork makes me happy cause I feel proud of them," she says.

Working at the front of the studio, Janelle sits between the printers and the sewers, transforming hand-printed designs into carefully cut patterns for skirts, shorts, dresses and more. "The printers make the designs and I cut them up for sewing," she explains. She's still learning to sew and is keen to develop all her skills in both garment making and screen-printing. What drives her work is clear: "I like helping family and community out when we make all their clothes for funerals and I like helping BIMA Wear stay strong."

For Janelle, BIMA Wear is about keeping Tiwi culture alive through the stories in the designs, helping families through difficult times, and maintaining a strong Tiwi business run by women. "It's important for us to have this place that's ours - Tiwi women," she says. She hopes more young women like herself will come to BIMA to learn and carry the work forward, keeping the designs of the old ladies alive.