General News
10 April, 2026
Style speaks
A FIRST Nations fashion and design hub has opened in Cairns to inspire and ignite ideas.
The First Nations Fashion + Design (FNFD) community hub is at TAFE in Gatton St.
FNFD founder 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,” the Miriam Mer Samsep woman said.
“I hope this becomes a pathway and a stepping stone for people and especially mob so they can come here (and) 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 late last month, the space is airconditioned, with industrial sewing machines, design resources, free Wi-fi 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.
Ms Lee, as an artist and designer in her own right, has 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 are 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,” she said.
“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 Perina Drummond said that growing up on Waiben (Thursday Island) she was surrounded by fashion.
The Daurareb, Wuthathi and Yadhaykenu woman fondly 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.”
But 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.”
Ms Drummond and Ms Lee are the only two First Nations Australians to have received one of the highest accolades in the international fashion industry realm – a Business of Fashion 500 recognition.
The yearly recognition outlays 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.
Two artists-in-residence are also involved in the hub.
Ms Drummond said having the artists-in-residence meant knowledge would exchange at the hub.
She said the experienced screen printers were being shown how to print digitally through an 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 Trinity Bay State High School, through a program with FNFD, have been working on techniques to create their own fashion designs.
