Over recent months, TFFF staff have spent time across Far North Queensland, reconnecting with long-standing partners, meeting new collaborators, and witnessing first-hand the extraordinary work happening across Far North Queensland's education, arts, and community sectors. Visits to the FNQ Brain Healthy Schools Forum, ICPA Qld Conference, and Cairns Indigenous Art Fair were all reminders that there is no substitute for showing up in person. Across every conversation, the strength of local leadership and the value of long-term, collaborative investment in people and place came through clearly.

Senior Program Manager Katie Norman spent four days in Cairns, Kuranda, and the Atherton tablelands in early June to attend the 2026 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association (ICPA) Queensland Conference and a series of partner visits linked to the Brain Health in Queensland Schools initiative. The itinerary brought together educators, community leaders, government representatives, philanthropic partners, and rural families to explore opportunities to improve outcomes for children and young people across regional Queensland.

A highlight of the visit was the Far North Queensland Brain Healthy Schools Forum. The third such forum, and the first held in Far North Queensland, it was hosted by the Child Health Research Centre and drew 60 attendees from state, independent and Catholic schools. The forum showcased local examples of excellence and created space for new connections to form between people championing student wellbeing and learning, reinforcing the growing momentum behind brain health approaches in Queensland schools.

Alongside the forum, Katie visited several TFFF partners. At Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG), she met with the leadership team in the organisation’s new home in Manunda to discuss its future direction and ongoing focus on strengthening opportunities for First Nations young people. Jodie Gosel from the John Villiers Trust joined the visit, a sign of the collaborative funding culture growing across the region, and the DIYDG team openly recognised the value philanthropy offers in pursuing their self-determined strategic priorities.

Katie also met with Sheryl Batchelor from Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation and the First Nations Justice Office team, who brought welcome news that the first round of Queensland Justice Reinvestment Grants was almost settled, with $5 million to be distributed to First Nations place-based work in Queensland in the near future. Conversations with Youth Cre8 Kuranda, Cape York Partnership, and local schools, joined by travelling partners Dr Georgia Dawson from the University of Melbourne, Alisha Chand from Queensland Kids Partnership, and Susan Hornbeck and Monica Mudderidge from the Shepherd Family Foundation, offered further insight into the innovation and commitment driving community-led solutions across the region.

Katie’s visit concluded with the ICPA Queensland Conference in Atherton. Ningana Trust supports ICPA Qld State Council Members to attend each year’s conference and participate in delegations with state government and peak body representatives. As always, the conference was an opportunity to deeply listen to the priorities of rural and remote families, with discussions covering educational access, workforce challenges, the growing pressure on early years infrastructure in the bush, and agricultural pathways for young people. It reinforced the vital role organisations such as ICPA Qld play in advocating for equitable educational opportunities for children growing up outside metropolitan centres.

A month later in July, Program Manager Hannah Barr landed on Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Country for the 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF), curated to the theme Reclamation and Regeneration. As CIAF Artistic Director Teho Ropeyarn explains it, “Reclamation is the active retrieval of what was taken, lost, archived or forgotten; whilst Regeneration is the renewal and transformation of that knowledge into vibrant, living cultures.”

Queensland’s vibrant, living, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures were expressed in full throughout CIAF’s four-day program across the Tanks Art Centre, new Fashion Performance venue at The Mill, and satellite venues including the refreshed Cairns Art Gallery Precinct and Bulmba-ja.

Hannah’s visit began with the Cairns Art Gallery's 'On the Lawn and Live' event in recognition of NAIDOC Week and CIAF. Five significant Queensland First Nations exhibitions were curated across all three Precinct galleries, showcasing diversity and excellence in weaving, printmaking, painting, and multi-modal installation practice.

The infectious energy of CIAF’s Opening Night on Thursday 9 July set the tone for a successful Fair, with thousands taking in the Art Fair Showcase (90 artists with 800 works) and Artisans Showcase (130 artists across 36 market stalls), and attending powerful dance, music, and cultural storytelling performances. TFFF partner Circa Cairns premiered Nurture, a new female acrobatic duet exploring women’s strength, leadership, and storytelling directed and co-choreographed by Kukuyalanji and Waanyi woman Marilyn Miller, with original music by Yalanji man Luke Briscoe.

TFFF-supported Fashion Performances on Thursday and Friday platformed 24 collections from emerging and established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders designers and Art Centres and facilitated Indigenous cultural exchange with international guest designers from Taiwan and New York for the first time.

The visit allowed Hannah to connect with many more of TFFF’s past and present peer and partner organisations across the arts sector, including Aboriginal Art Co, Umbrella Studio, artisan, Dancenorth, QAGOMA, JUTE Theatre Company, QIC, and Arts Queensland and Regional Arts Advisors through the Regional Arts Services Network. It was particularly heartening to see the leadership of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation cheering on the CIAF team and Queensland’s Indigenous Art Centres and independent artists.

Hannah was fortunate to experience various additional events as a delegate in CIAF’s expanded ‘On Country’ Program hosted by artist Tony Albert and supported by Perina Drummond. Through artist talks and shared meals, artists, curators, collectors, and CIAF supporters built new connections with artists and each other, and learned more about Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Country. The TFFF thanks CIAF’s leadership team, Tony Albert, and Perina Drummond for their hospitality, and encourages everyone to bookmark next year’s CIAF dates: 8-11 July 2027.   

Both trips underscored something the TFFF team knows well: there is no substitute for being there in person, and there is real strength in funders travelling and working alongside one another. Whether meeting with educators, youth leaders, artists, or community organisations, conversations highlighted the power of local leadership and long-term investment in people and place, and reinforced the value of taking time to listen, learn, and strengthen relationships.

Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good, Youth Link (Youth Cre8), Circa Cairns, and the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair are supported by TFFF through the Resilient funding stream. The Brain Health in Queensland Schools initiative is supported though the Futureproof funding stream.

The Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Queensland is supported by Ningana Trust.