Ella Badu
PROJECT
Ase ama (pronounced ‘ah-shey armour’) reinterprets talismanic traditions from precolonial Ghana through a contemporary lens. A wearable vessel for protection, concealment and cultural continuity, the design features hidden compartments, reversible forms and Adinkra symbols like eban (fence) and nkyinkyim (twisting) to evoke sanctuary, transformation and fluidity. Informed by a research collaboration with artist Lilah Benetti, the work affirms that queer history is central to African history. It redefines adornment as a form of contemporary Indigenous spiritual technology, whereby ancestral knowledge remains active, shaping the conditions of our present and futures.
The acquisition of this artist’s work is supported by the Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists
ABOUT
Ella Badu is an emerging jeweller whose practice brings together traditional West African craftsmanship and contemporary approaches to sustainable design. Informed by her Ewe heritage, she draws on Indigenous fabrication techniques grounded in ancient Ghanaian goldsmithing, beadwork and symbolic pattern systems, in which design and toolmaking are intrinsically linked to ancestral knowledge passed down through generations. Working across jewellery and object-making, Badu creates pieces intended for adornment and ritual, through which she tells stories of memory and cultural continuity. Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Badu trained in chemical engineering with a focus on metallurgy and sustainability alongside jewellery and object design. In 2023 she undertook a four-month residency in West Africa, apprenticing with traditional Ashanti goldsmiths in Kumasi, Ghana. Her wearable practice, A’Sika, founded in Ghana in 2018, centres slow-crafted jewellery made from recycled and responsibly sourced materials. Badu’s work has been exhibited at Craft Victoria in 2023, and she was a finalist in the NGV’s Rigg Design Prize in 2025.