Creative Women’s Association · Australian Crafts Alliance
Australia’s provisional registry of origin-linked goods and practices eligible for Geographical Indication (GI) protection — covering Crafts, Industrial Products, and Cultural Works.
It functions as Australia’s cultural practitioner register under UNESCO ICH Article 2, and as the evidentiary foundation for GI applications as Australia’s domestic framework develops following the Australia-European Union (AU-EU) Free Trade Agreement.
The Definition
A Craft and Industrial Geographical Indication — referred to internationally as a CIGI — is a legally protected name for a product that has a strong connection to its geographical origin. A quality, reputation, or characteristic linked to a specific place, region, or country, where at least one stage of production occurs in that area.
The European Union extended this protection to craft and industrial products for the first time in December 2025, under EU (European Union) Regulation 2023/2411. Textiles, ceramics, leather, glass, jewellery, woodwork, lace, stone, porcelain, and cultural works — goods made by hand, in a named place, by a skilled person — now carry the same legal standing as the world’s most recognised origin-linked products.
This Directory maps to the EU’s two registration pathways. An individual maker registering their Unique Provenance Identifier (UPI) is the equivalent of a single-producer GI application. A guild or studio registering through the Untitled Works programme is the equivalent of a producers’ group applying for GI protection for a named regional product.
Every registration builds the evidentiary record that a formal GI application will require — named maker, named place, documented practice, verified provenance chain.
Two registration pathways
Individual GI Status
A sole Australian maker and cultural producer of a specific product. Maps to the EU’s single-producer GI pathway. Entry point is your Unique Provenance Identifier (UPI).
Get Your UPI →Collective GI Status
A guild, studio, or affiliated organisation delivering the Untitled Works programme — a producers’ group registering a named regional product. Geelong wool cloth. Tasmanian woven tweed. Swan Hill textiles.
Register as a Collective →This Directory also functions as Australia’s cultural practitioner register under the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), covering Cultural Works as defined under ICH Article 2.
The Record
The Maker
The named Australian maker and cultural producer. Their Unique Provenance Identifier (UPI). Their craft discipline, their practice, their certification status under the Southern Cross Hallmark.
The Place
The geographic origin of the work and the materials used. The region, the state, the named production area. The link between the product and the place that gives it GI eligibility.
The Practice
The documented craft or cultural discipline. The method. The know-how. Assessed against the Southern Cross Code of Practice and verified by a certified Southern Cross Inspector.
Active Transmission Sites
Guilds, studios, and Untitled Works spaces registered as active cultural transmission organisations — where skilled practice is taught, practised, and passed on. Formally documented in the Directory as living transmission sites.
The Provenance Chain
The verified fibre-to-finished-product record. European Union Digital Product Passport (EU DPP) compliant from the first piece registered — the record that EU market access will require from mid-2028.
The Directory
This Directory is open for registration now. Every Australian maker and cultural producer who registers receives a Unique Provenance Identifier (UPI) — their permanent, searchable entry in the Directory — and their certified work can carry the Southern Cross Mark or Southern Cross Seal.
The public searchable Directory launches with founding maker registrations. If you make something by hand, in Australia, in a practice with a place — register now. Your entry is the beginning of the record.
The EU maintains the EUIPO Union Register — a public database of every authorised GI across Europe. This Directory is Australia’s equivalent: the authoritative record of Australian makers and cultural producers and their origin-linked production.
What qualifies
Crafts, Industrial Products, and Cultural Works produced entirely by hand, with tools where human skill is significant, or mechanically where manual work is significant at least one stage:
Textiles · Lace · Leather goods · Ceramics · Glass · Jewellery · Natural stone · Woodwork · Porcelain · Cutlery · Cultural works under UNESCO ICH Article 2
The Southern Cross Hallmark
The Southern Cross Mark (for cloth) and the Southern Cross Seal (for all other craft and industrial production) are the visible stamps of certification — proof that a product is registered in this Directory, verified by a certified Southern Cross Inspector, and protected as a named Australian origin product.
About the Hallmark →The Australian Crafts Alliance
The Australian Crafts Alliance, convened by CWA, coordinates the collective voice of Australian craft and industrial producers — working nationally with guilds, studios, and Untitled Works spaces, and internationally with the European Crafts Alliance, the EUIPO GI Hub, and UNESCO safeguarding frameworks.
Designed with WordPress