The Sydney handicrafts society, Eesti Seltsi Kunsti-, Käsitöö- ja Etnograafia Ring (SESKKE), has created a calendar that shows off the national costumes worn by Australian Estonians across the country, and this is the story behind how the calender came to life.
This project came about due to another project SESKKE had undertaken, the digital photo archive, led by Mai Buchert. We had a series of photographs of members in the Australian Estonian community wearing their folk costumes, or folk costumes donated to our rahvariide raamatukogu (folk costume library), curated by Maie Pikkat.
Turning the archive into a community calendar
The calendar project was first brought to SESKKE by Maie Pikkat, who has built her knowledge over the years about Estonian folk costumes though many trips to Eesti, and watching her grandmother create many of the pieces in Australia, in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of which have found their way back to the folk costume library. Maie thought it would be a great idea to have the photos taken from the digital archives project and turn them into a calendar that could be enjoyed all year round.
The idea behind it was to showcase a variety of folk costumes, but also the people within the Estonian community throughout Australia. The 2025 calendar mostly showcased folks in New South Wales, with those from other states missing out. This was largely due to the project idea being brought to SESKKE and developed in the middle of the year, with all the backend work done by Mai Buchert to obtain consent from the people previously photographed as part of the digital photography archive. Thankfully many wonderful community members contributed with their content that was included in the 2025 calendar. At the 2024 Eesti Päevad, SESKKE were selling the calendars and heard thoughtful suggestions to feature Australians from more states. This encouraged SESKKE to expand the reach and include even more Australians in the 2026 edition.
It was a collaborative effort to obtain consent from folks all over Australia, to showcase even more beautiful people and costumes, as this calendar project was not considered when the original photographs were taken. The ladies at SESKKE worked hard over the first few months in 2025, led by Mai, to gather the consent. Luckily the ladies in SESKKE are very well connected. Once the consents started to come in, the photos were securely handed over to Danae Pikkat to start putting the calendar together.
Designing the calendar
Danae is not part of SESKKE, however she was very generous with her time, collaborating with Maie Pikkat to design the calendar. Danae and Maie decided on the front page image, which is a broach (sõlg) from Maie’s collection. Danae took the photo, then spent hours editing to get the image right, and the cover was born. The name of the calendar was also developed by Maie and Danae Pikkat, with meaning around the community coming together and showcasing the folk costumes we have put together in Australia. There is an understanding, developed from these two projects, that the costumes may not always be accurate but we do our best with what we have at the time. Our ancestors who created these costumes largely made them from memory because when they left Estonia and came to Australia, during occupation, they only had one suitcase full of essentials, not folk costume books, like we have access to now.
Once the cover and general layout was decided, the graphic along the bottom of each page to bring it all together needed to be decided. Now Danae was using the paid Estonian Designs AU Canva account so she added the Setomaa graphic across the bottom of each page, as she had access to this, then in a very cheeky way asked for my permission to use the commission paid for Estonian Designs AU to use in the calendar. There was no question that this could be used for the community, with acknowledgement on the back page. In fact, it was an honour and a privilege.
Printing and a special diplomatic request
Danae had worked hard for months, going back and forth with Mai getting images in a secure way, to add to the calendar. Once the calendar was almost ready, Maie and myself presented the digital version to SESKKE for feedback and comments. These were taken onboard, some further edits were made, then the calendar was sent for printing.
Danae and Maie made a decision on how many were to be printed and an extra 10 were added to the order, especially for our Ambassador Jaan Reinhold. Last year at Sõrve camp, Jaan and I discussed the calendars and he personally requested we do a 2026 edition as he wanted to purchase some to give as diplomatic gifts. True to his word, they were ordered and delivered to our Ambassador, ready to be gifted this Christmas. This was very exciting for SESKKE and there was a collective gratitude around this kind gesture and appreciation for our hard work.
Launching the calendar
When SESKKE had the final prints of the calendars, it was time to sell them. I was tasked with setting up the Trybooking event page and developing all the backend logistics for our community to be able to order these beautiful calendars for 2026. There was also a need to talk about these calendars and create social media content around them. One Sunday, for several hours, Esmée Okamoto and I got together to shoot a range of videos, to add to our social media, to get folks interested and to purchase the results of our hard work. This day was so much fun with a blooper reel yet to come.
A celebration of Estonian folk costumes in Australia
The 2026 calendar is a combination and collaboration of a number of SESKKE projects, come together to celebrate and showcase Estonian folk costumes in Australia. Lots of hard work and dedication from a number of people, with the same goal – to celebrate Estonian folk costumes throughout the year.
There are still some calendars left, shipping all over Australia. Get yours now, a little piece of Australian Estonian history. Aitäh (thank you!) SESKKE and all the dedicated folks who produced this wonderful calendar.
To purchase one of our beautiful calendars, please click here and don’t forget to add postage at checkout for shipping all over Australia. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your home.
