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By Ali Mc

Melbourne Fashion Festival was recently treated to an expose of cutting-edge First Nations fashion at the Beyond Blak Runway, curated by Mob in Fashion.

Now in its fifth year partnership with Melbourne Fashion Festival, this year’s runway featured both established and emerging designers and models and provided a unique and highly visible platform in the packed Royal Exhibition Building.

This edition features an insert from the Torres News, which appears quarterly in the Koori Mail.

By Jillian Mundy

Little black trackers that look like tiny mobile phones attached to mutton birds are giving rangers and scientists vital information on the birds foraging patterns while rearing their chicks. Mutton birds, specifically the sub-species known as short tailed shearwaters are Australia’s most abundant sea bird, many would say the most the fascinating and also tasty – they are the traditional food of the Palawa in Tasmania. An estimated 23 million birds migrate from the northern hemisphere to islands and coastlines in south east Australia, mainly Tasmania each year.

Carbon markets rewarding the recovery of degraded environments risk penalising long term Indigenous stewardship, according to the coalition of experts writing in Natural Climate Change. The article highlights growing frustration among Traditional Owners who often find their lands ineligible for carbon credits by restoring them. In contrast, landholders whose predecessors degraded ecosystems have opportunities to generate credits by restoring them.

Bangarra Dance Theatre has been recognised with the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance by the Biennale Danza 2026, the dance division of La Biennale di Venezia, becoming the first Australians to receive the esteemed award since its inception. The Golden Lion acknowledges a lifetime body of work and artists who have transformed, evolved and brought new urgency to the language of dance, infusing it with the vital force of their cultures.

By Peter Argent

Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer – was an athletic ruckman whose tap work and handball transformed the game of Australian Rules football when he arrived in Victoria from WA. Born in WA, he was placed in the care of Sister Kate’s Orphanage in Queens Park in WA, a home for ‘half-caste’ children. After countless awards, he was recognised with a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1971.