Inside this year’s Cairns Indigenous Art Fair fashion performance

For the first time the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair will include two showcases highlighting First Nations designers as part of its annual fashion performance.

CIAF fashion co-ordinator Lynelle Flinders and First Nations Fashion + Design founder Grace Lillian Lee. Picture: Brendan Radke

For the first time the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair will include two showcases highlighting First Nations designers as part of its annual fashion performance.

The showcases, titled Look and Listen, will spotlight the work of 12 First Nations designers who will be mentored by not-for-profit Indigenous Corporation First Nations Fashion and Design ahead of the performance.

The founder of FNFD, designer and Meriam Mir woman Grace Lillian Lee also founded the CIAF fashion performance back in 2013.

Ms Lee, who is based in Cairns, is about to embark on a three month residency at Cité Des Art in Paris and was one of four Australians chosen in 2025.

“The CIAF fashion performance is always something truly special, it’s mob coming together to create something that’s self-determined and it’s our stories and run by mob, which is really important,” Ms Lee said.

“It’s not just to sell something, it’s to share our stories, it’s to preserve our stories, it’s to celebrate who we are … you won’t see anything like this around the nation.”

Ms Lee will also independently showcase her designs at Paris Couture prior to her residency. Picture: Brendan Radke

Ms Lee said it was “incredible” to mentor the chosen designers through a series of professional workshops ahead of the showcases.

“What’s really beautiful about this relationship is that we’re able to provide these workshops around how these designers can evolve from their concept and ideas that they’re creating at home, to then moving into an economically sustainable business for themselves.

“I hope the local fashion designers can see that you don’t have to relocate your lives, and that we have what it takes to make magic happen from Far North Queensland.”

CIAF fashion co-ordinator, Lynelle Flinders, a descendant of the Dharrba Warra Clan from the Starke River area, said the performance had been split into two showcases so each theme could be individually explored.

Ms Flinders and Ms Lee. Picture: Brendan Radke

“Look and see that we’re loud, proud, bold, or just start taking a look at what we’re doing, and listen to what we’re saying,” Ms Flinders said of the two themes.

She said some the designers will have spent up to six months preparing their work, and many are former artists who are now exploring the design space.

“It’s not a fashion parade per se, it’s a performance, from the lighting to the music to the movement, it’s part of the whole story of ‘well, look and listen’ this year.

“I think it’s important because it’s getting (the artist’s) story on fabric for everyone to see, rather than on one picture on someone’s wall where only a few people see.”

Look and Listen will be performed on Thursday, July 10 and Friday, July 11.

Tickets are on sale now via ciaf.com.au

Originally published as Inside this year’s Cairns Indigenous Art Fair fashion performance