Kelly Upton, pictured below, started The Interior Trading Company with the dual aim of bringing ethically produced homewares to Australia and giving value to the traditional skills of Cambodian women to enable them to support their communities. Here she tells us more about the business and its beautiful hand-made products...



What is your background, and what led you to start a business supporting women in Cambodia?
My background is in environmental education and through this I have worked with many different community groups and programs.

I have always travelled; as a young single women, with my partner and with our children from when they were very young. When I travel, I try to see the world through the eyes of local people, to get a sense of place and of a life lived differently from mine.

Time and time again I would see women who possessed skills for traditional crafts and produced beautiful work but they would often be underpaid for their work or undervalued for their skills.

Cambodia is a fascinating place but it has a shocking recent history and the people are still recovering slowly. With so many demands competing for funds across the country, the environment is not always receiving the attention that it needs.


Houses on the Tonle Sap lake, where most of the makers live.

What local issues does your business address?
In Tonle Sap, the largest lake in south east Asia and located in Cambodia, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a major invasive environmental weed. This plant grows on the surface of the lake and forms a thick, impenetrable blanket restricting navigation for those people living and fishing on the lake.

Women who live on the lake are now harvesting this weed, drying the stems in the sun on their rooftops and weaving the water hyacinth into useful products for Interior Trading Company such as baskets, floor mats and placemats. Purchasing one of these products can actually make a difference.


The water hyacinth plant (right), and harvested, dried water hyacinth being woven (left).

What do you hope to achieve with The Interior Trading Company?
My ultimate aim is to bring beautiful home wares that are ethically produced to the Australian market and in doing so, support women in developing communities.

As I say on our website, The Interior Trading Company aspires to unleash the potential in women. I believe that women across the planet possess skills, determination, ability and compassion. Not all women though, are in a position to make the most of their potential.

Women in impoverished communities live on an inner strength to keep going, to feed their families, to make a better life. Many of these women have traditional skills and produce beautiful, high quality work. Through this work women, and often their daughters, maintain dignity, community and value.

By developing a market for the products of these women, their work and their skills increase in value. This enables women to progress, to look after their family and to provide possibilities for their children.


Dried water hyacinth is woven into mats and baskets.

What have you learned by working with these communities?
One thing that stands out for me when I spend time with the weaving women in their village or home is how differently we live but how much we also have in common.

On my last trip to Cambodia I travelled with my 14 year old daughter and when we visited the women's groups together we both felt so comfortable and relaxed in their company. Many of the women are mothers; some even had their very young children with them. We could relate about the same things women do all over the world. We are all concerned for our children. We want them to have opportunities and to be healthy. We all want to have a happy home life and live in comfortable surroundings. We all have work to be done and we all need support in some way.


Kelly and her daughter chat to a group of makers with the help of an interpreter.

How do you balance the idea of trends and fashion in homewares with maintaining traditional techniques and products?
I really just go with my own instincts on this. I always look for a good design that is practical yet aesthetically pleasing. Once we develop that to a high standard, then we can play with colour variations and modified designs.

The women who make the products have really good ideas and know the limitations and potential of the materials they are working with. It's important to me to work closely with the women so that it remains a community focused project.

All of the products of the Interior Trading Co brand are hand-made, hand-checked and packaged. We cannot make huge quantities of product and that's not our aim. I am more interested in developing a sustainable business that can support the community development initiatives long term.