Adelaide-based artist Margaret Koo has been awarded an Order of Australia for her services to the creative arts. A world-renowned embroidery teacher and author of four books on the craft, she hopes to inspire younger people to take up these delicate skills to ensure the craft remains alive.
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00:00I was flabbergasted at first to have received it, and I hope this will be an inspiration
00:11to other embroiderers, especially to the young people.
00:15We need to have more young people, especially in today's society when there's a lot of pressures
00:21on life, just on daily living, and for them to be able to experience and know that there
00:28is an activity that can help them find their inner peace.
00:35So when you're sitting there with that needle, just going through that fabric, you find something
00:39within yourself.
00:43When you get together to embroider with other ladies as well, you form a community, and
00:48that community supports each other as well.
00:53One of my passions, obviously, with the traditional embroidery that I do, is to make sure that
00:59I pass on the art in its best integrity.
01:02A lot of it is being lost, commercialism has taken over.
01:08I do have a couple of younger people around the world who I am hoping to mentor, that
01:15they will then in turn pass on this embroidery skill, and not just a skill, but really that
01:22understanding of what it does for the inner being.
01:27I am very much honoured to be receiving this.