When Cleonie Quayle’s daughter became addicted to ice and was incarcerated, her grandchildren were placed in her care and she had to stop full-time work. “I had to rethink my life,” she said. “I’ve always made things, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, I’ll make jewellery.’” She started selling earrings at markets and eventually developed her own business.
On Wednesday evening, the Malyangapa Barkindji woman won a National Indigenous fashion award (Nifa) for her first piece of clothing: a dress made from hundreds of gold-tipped jacaranda seed pods, inspired by the resilience and recovery journey of her daughter, Chloe – AKA rapper Barkaa.
Barkaa performs King Brown during Country to Couture wearing a gold jacaranda seed top designed by her mother, Cleonie Quayle. Photograph: (A)manda Parkinson/The Guardian
Quayle was one of many First Nations artists and designers celebrated as part of the awards, across seven categories including fashion, traditional adornment and textile design. Quayle won this year’s wearable art award, with a $5,000 cash prize.
Accepting the award with her daughter by her side, in a ceremony at Darwin’s Deckchair cinema, Quayle was moved to tears – and then laughter. “I’m really blessed to have such an amazing model to work with,” she said.
Bunungku model Cindy Rostron won the Cecilia Cubillo young achiever award. Photograph: (A)manda Parkinson/The Guardian
Quayle’s dress, which she estimated took three months of work – including gathering seed pods with her daughter from streets and car parks in western Sydney – was originally made for Barkaa’s video clip We Up, an anthem of female empowerment. The night before the Nifa ceremony, the rapper wore a different version of her mum’s piece – a top – while performing her hit King Brown on the runway of Darwin Aboriginal art fair’s First Nations fashion showcase, Country to Couture. Quayle watched proudly from the front row.
Quayle said the jacaranda seed pod was chosen as a symbol of her daughter’s journey. Incarcerated in Emu Plains correctional centre while she was pregnant, Chloe hoped to be admitted to a centre for mothers and babies called Jacaranda Cottage, but was denied; instead, Quayle took care of her grandson while her daughter was in custody.
“Chloe decided there and then that she wasn’t going to go back to that life. She was going to be with her babies,” Quayle said in a prerecorded video played at the ceremony. “So that’s the symbolicness of the dress: it’s jacaranda for Jacaranda Cottage, and it’s gold, you know, to be about her empowerment. The blackness coz we’re blackfellas.”
Speaking to Guardian Australia after the ceremony, Barkaa said: “I’m so proud to call this woman my mother. The reason why I got clean, and the reason why I found recovery and the reason why I believed in myself and thought I could create my own business, was because of my mother.
Models wear pieces from the winners of the National Indigenous fashion awards in Darwin. Photograph: (A)manda Parkinson/The Guardian
“She’s won law awards and worked in law and family and criminology, but it’s beautiful to see her come back to what she loves, and something that she puts her whole heart into and that makes her happy.”
The Nifas, run by Indigenous Fashion Projects in conjunction with the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, are now in their sixth year.
Clair Helen Parker, winner of this year’s fashion designer award, said it was a timely boost of confidence after more than a decade of hard work.
The fashion designer award went to Clair Helen Parker (right), who said her label is a one-woman operation. Photograph: (A)manda Parkinson/The Guardian
“Sometimes you’re doing it for so long and you just feel like, ‘Am I going anywhere?’ Those self-doubt thoughts that come through. And so winning this award just kind of gave me that push and said, ‘Oh, you are doing the right thing.’”
Since graduating from Whitehouse Institute of Design in Sydney in 2016 as its first Aboriginal female graduate, the Tiwi woman has created gowns for the Logies and Oscars red carpets, presented collections at Australian fashion week, and in 2024 created her first online capsule.
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Tiwi Artists won the community collaboration award for their collection Parlini Jilamara Parlingarri, which used historic screen prints on a capsule collection of resortwear. Photograph: (A)manda Parkinson/The Guardian
She did most of it alone, a one-woman operation. “I do everything – I reply to all the emails, I pack everything, I do it all,” Parker said. “Sometimes I almost felt like giving up, and now I’m going to put my award on the wall in front of my sewing [machine] and it’s just gonna drive my motivation.”
Parker draws design inspiration from Larrakia country (Darwin), where she was raised. “When we had sad times, we’d always go out into the bush and spend time with family, and that would give us a lot – I guess it would help our mental health,” she said. “So I kind of want to emulate that in my designs.”
2025 National Indigenous fashion award winners
Textile design award
Rhonda Sharpe, Yarrenyty Arltere artists
Traditional adornment award
Rena Ngalinggama Guyula, Gapuwiyak culture and arts
Wearable art award
Cleonie Quayle
Community collaboration award
Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association x Tiwi artists
Business achievement award
Miimi and Jiinda, Melissa Greenwood
Fashion designer award
Clair Helen Parker
Cecilia Cubillo young achiever award
Cindy Rostron
Highly commended
Djilpin Arts artists x Kate Sale & Fiona Gavino
