Runway to Change
New York is gearing up for it’s biggest event of the year – the New York Fashion Week – and whilst their runways will be filled with gorgeous men and women from around the world, we’ve got something equally spectacular happening in our own backyard.
The Kimberley and Pilbara Girl program is an annual event that engages young Indigenous women between the ages of 16 and 25 in a unique leadership style program. Its ‘uniqueness’ is due to the unusual approach of using fashion and beauty as a platform for social development and change.
Sports is the most well funded area of leadership development for Indigenous youth, for example, the Clontarf Foundation receive more than $4 million annually to run its programs. The Kimberley and Pilbara Girl program offer an alternative to this and build leadership skills in young Indigenous women with a focus on increasing participants’ confidence, self worth and self image, as a conduit to developing their aspirations and life goals.
Kira Fong, Chief Operations Officer of Goolarri Media Enterprise and founder of the Kimberley and Pilbara Girl program says, “there are some very real limitations facing young Indigenous women in regional and remote Australia and we see fashion and modeling as something to offer as a way to skill up and mentor these women to follow their dreams.”
The program incorporates public speaking, job readiness, nutrition, relationships including, violence and cyber bullying as well as grooming and deportment. After working with the girls, the program culminates in a catwalk parade for friends, family, community, the media and increasingly, international audiences.
“Twelve years on, with 323 girls completing the program, you can safely say, the Kimberley and Pilbara Girl program has been a massive success. Starting out as a backyard style fashion show in 2004, it is now a real glitz and glam event that draws attention from around the world," said the photographer for the event, Michael Torres.
"Most importantly however, young women’s lives have changed for the better as a result of the program, " Michael went on to say.
In acknowledging their success, the Premier, Colin Barnett this month allocated $200,000 to help the program continue to grow. Mr. Barnett said, “Women are of the backbone of many Aboriginal communities and skills in leadership as well as deportment, public speaking, goal setting and team building are very important.”
The hunt for the 2015 Kimberley and Pilbara Girls program starts at the end of September.
CLICK HERE to follow their story.