How fashion is helping high school students find healing

When 17-year-old Tassiana Riordan was tasked with creating a piece of art, she knew exactly who she would dedicate it to.

Her eldest brother Samuel, a talented dancer, musician and artist, died from a rare brain tumour late last year.

"He was a big impact in my life," Tassiana said.

"I think he would be really happy that I was able to dedicate this art piece to him."

The Trinity Bay State High School student created a design that was turned into a wearable piece of art, which will be included in a performance at this year's Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF).

In previous years, CIAF has engaged other school classes to be involved with set design and other elements of the show.

Her design centres on a photograph of Samuel holding a traditional headdress he once wore while dancing.

She surrounded the image with Samuel's initials and four frangipani flowers, his favourite bloom, and a wild yam vine — the totem of her clan from Saibai in the Torres Strait.

Each flower also carries the initials of her four brothers.

The Trinity Bay students also viewed their blood cells under a microscope, and the resulting image became the background onto which each design was printed.

"My family's very cultural and has a lot of traditional art practices like dancing and singing and the traditional art styles," Tassiana said.

"My grandfather and my older brother, Sammy, really inspired me because they have a lot of pride in our culture."

The collection is part of a partnership between Trinity Bay State High School and Cairns's First Nations Fashion and Design Hub, where students are using fashion to tell their own stories.

Finding identity through fashion

CIAF fashion coordinator Lynelle Flinders said storytelling had always been central to Indigenous culture, but fashion offered another way for young people to explore where they came from.

"Everybody's got a story, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. It's giving a message," she said.

Ms Flinders said many young people lost the chance to learn family stories when elders passed away, a loss of cultural identity that could make them "restless".

"A lot of people don't even know half the stories that they should know or even where they're from," she said.

But by using modern forms of artwork, young people "can start to explore their own stories", she said.

"Once you know who you are, you're going to love yourself," Ms Flinders said.

"When you love yourself, you're going to be a better person."

Cairns designer Grace Lillian Lee, who has helped connect dozens of young people to opportunities in fashion, said she wanted Indigenous creatives to have opportunities she never had growing up in Far North Queensland.

About two-dozen Trinity Bay students spent months creating original designs before textiles students transformed them into garments for the CIAF runway.

Visual art teacher Natalie Masters said the project encouraged students to explore their identity through creativity.

"When I ask them, 'Who are you, and can you show that in an artwork?' it just flows naturally out of them," Ms Masters said.

Healing through art

For Tassiana, that question led her back to her brother, her family and her culture.

Moving from the remote Cape York communities of New Mapoon and Bamaga in 2024 to study in Cairns, she did not want to forget her roots.

"It was louder in the city, and I was having to learn to speak more English than broken English," she said.

"I'm really proud of my culture and I would love to show it."

Part of her artwork also pays tribute to her father's Irish side by employing commonly used symbols like swirls.

Her proud father, Miles Riordan, said he was grateful to see how Tassiana's school and the art hub had helped her heal and grow.

"They wouldn't be doing the fashion parade without the support and the guidance," he said.

For Tassiana, the artwork became more than something to wear on a runway.

"It was really healing, this journey through my art," she said.

"It's like keeping [Samuel] alive. It really helped me cope with it," she said.

"He really loved us."