Working to help create change in the fashion industry, First Nations Fashion + Design have opened a new community hub in Gimuy / Cairns, Far North Queensland.
First Nations Fashion + Design (FNFD) founder, Meriam Mer Samsep woman and globally recognised artist and designer Grace Lillian Lee, said she wanted to create a safe place for mob to connect, learn and share.
"It's creating that place that inspires and ignites ideas," she said.
"I hope this becomes a pathway and a stepping stone for people and especially mob so they can come here, feel safe.
"Come in, share the space and connect with the community... this community that I definitely didn't have when I was growing up."
Opened this month, the space - located at the TAFE in Westcourt - is air conditioned, with industrial sewing machines, design resources, free wifi and a lounge and tea area.
Ms Lee said FNFD had become a unique powerhouse in the industry, leading showcases at Australian Fashion Week and overseas.
As an artist and designer in her own right, had been making her mark on Paris in recent years and even worked alongside French couture fashion designer, Jean-Paul Gaultier.
She said her trailblazing team, who would also work out of the hub, had a wealth of industry knowledge they wanted to share.
"We have an all-Indigenous team that is working within this hub," she said.
"It's really about giving the opportunity to (mob) to be seen and given the opportunity to have leadership roles within this space.
"I'm tired of us always just being a cultural program or always having to focus on a 'First Nations element'.
"There's such a big scope of the sector that we can be involved in, and I hope that's what First Nations Fashion + Design does for the nation."
FNFD program manager, Daurareb, Wuthathi and Yadhaykenu woman, Perina Drummond said that growing up on Waiben, Thursday Island, she was surrounded by fashion.
She recounts the days of playing with the fabric and lace her family used to make their own dresses.
"I was fortunate to have my akas and my aunties and my mum - they all knew how to sew - they all had trunks of fabric in their house," she said.
"They knew how to bead [and] the fabric paints back then were the little tubes that you can't find anymore. The sewing machines were the old singers... I remember playing on them."
As Ms Drummond's love of fashion began to lead her into the mainstream fashion industry, she realised First Nations representation in those spaces was lacking.
"I was there when there was no First Nations Fashion runway shows, there was hardly any First Nations talents [and] there were hardly any designers," she said.
"I had to really look far and wide to put together three designers, whereas now there is an absolute influx."
Drummond and Lee are the only two First Nations people from Australia to have received one of the highest accolades in the international fashion industry realm - a Business of Fashion 500 recognition.
The yearly recognition lists the top 500 most influential people in the industry globally.
Ms Drummond said that from the pair's humble beginnings, the industry had grown phenomenally over the last few years.
"So, it's really cool that we get to bring it back to community," she said.
FNFD has also partnered with EPSON printers to utilise their facilities and bring on two artists in residence to the hub.
Drummond said having the artists in residence meant knowledge would be exchanged at the hub.
She said the experienced screen printers were being shown how to print digitally through the EPSON program, but were also happy to share knowledge with the community.
"Traditionally, both are screen printers that have dabbled with fashion and textile designs over the last few years of their career," she said.
"This digital formation [has] been a really great new chapter for both. It'll be really cool to see what they finally come up with as an end of year showcase for them."
Students from the nearby high school - Trinity Bay - were also in attendance at the hub opening. Through a program with FNFD, they'd been working on techniques to create their own fashion designs.
Torres Strait Islander student, Jahnesta Nona, said she wanted to learn more about her culture and found fashion and textiles was a nice way to explore that.
She said that she was also inspired by her mum, who knows how to sew and would always sew her clothes.
"[My fashion piece] didn't really have a meaning at first," she said.
"But then I was thinking about water because I like anything in the ocean [and the] crocodile which is my totem, and I really like my totem.
"I was trying to go for something leaning towards Torres Strait culture."
Torres Strait Islander young person from Bamaga, Tassiana Riorden, said she enjoyed learning about opportunities in the industry and techniques for fashion creation. Her creation features a traditional Torres Strait Islander cultural headdress and traditional language.
"It's inspired by my older brother who is a dancer," she said.
"I was asking my grandfather what the meaning was and it basically means 'I love you'."
Some of the design was also inspired by her fathers Irish heritage.
"In a lot of Irish or Celtic artwork they include the spirals," she said.
Artist in Residence Ivy Minnecon talks to students and the community at the opening of the FNFD community hub. (Image: Carli Willis)
Ms Nona and Ms Riordan were both thrilled that through FNFD, their work would be showcased at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.
"It is great to show our culture and represent how it is," said Ms Riorden.
"We're all really diverse in our own way so it's really great to have this opportunity."
For Ms Lee, it was a pinch-me moment to see the young artists her team had been working with at the hub.
"It's really beautiful to see the students from Trinity Bay come here and see this space," she said.
"We're finally creating a space that's a welcoming creative hub for First Nations people to feel seen and inspired and hopefully spark that interest in a creative."
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