CIAF 2026 OPENING NIGHT
Featuring Circa Cairns, Djawarray, Kaybee, Gimuy Walubarra Yidinji Dancers & Naygayiw Gigi Dance Group, the 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) 'Reclamation & Regeneration' will commence its 17th anniversary season with a spectacular Opening Night celebration across the entire Tanks Arts Centre precinct on Thursday, 9 July.
4.00 pm – 10.00 pm Thursday 9 July 2026 | Tanks Arts Centre Precinct | BUY TICKETS
Set against a tropical rainforest backdrop, the evening marks the beginning of CIAF 2026 and the 17th season under the theme Reclamation & Regeneration, bringing together performance, visual art, music and a collective gathering on Country.
Guests will move through the precinct as the CIAF Art Fair Showcase and Artisans Showcase open concurrently, presenting works by more than 90 Aboriginal and Zenadth Kes artists, collectives and art centres from across Queensland, alongside over 130 First Nations businesses offering fashion, design, jewellery and cultural artefacts.
Opening Night features a headline performance by award-winning Zenadth Kes dance troupe Naygayiw Gigi (Northern Thunder), alongside a dynamic line-up of First Nations performers spanning rainforest, Cape York and Zenadth Kes cultural traditions. Live music, contemporary performance, large-scale installations and digital projections animate the Tanks throughout the evening.
The night includes a Welcome to Country, curated feeds, activated spaces, and immersive cultural experiences across the site. Opening Night is the only ticketed evening event of the Fair and traditionally sells out.
Image: Projection Art by Cathy Snow. CIAF 2025 After Dark Program. Photograph: Blueclick Photography.
OPENING NIGHT ARTIST LINEUP
Circa Cairns
Theatre / Circus
Circa Cairns is a proudly First Nations–led contemporary circus based in Gimuy, regional Queensland. A Circa initiative, Circa Cairns creates bold, innovative work at the intersection of place, culture, and contemporary performance. Circa Cairns is committed to thrilling, challenging, and connecting audiences through groundbreaking performances and inclusive engagement programs.
Circa Cairns’ new female acrobatic duet will demonstrate reclaiming space for First Nations women’s strength, leadership, and cultural storytelling through a visually striking contemporary circus performance on a freestanding aerial tripod, while regenerating these narratives into a participatory, place-based experience that extends into youth workshops fostering confidence, connection, cultural pride, and intergenerational exchange.
This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and the Australian Government’s RISE Fund.
MUSIC
Kaybee
Musician/Band - Kuku Yalanji, Gubbi Gubbi and Goreng Goreng
Kaybee (Kirsty Burchill) is a Kuku Yalanji, Gubbi Gubbi and Goreng Goreng artist whose music is driven by story, truth and connection to Country. Having performed alongside Goanna, Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Briggs and BARKAA, and releasing her debut EP in 2025 with ARIA Award–winning producer Rob Amoruso, Kaybee delivers powerful live sets shaped by community-led practice, where voice is reclaimed, culture is activated, and the future is made visible on stage.
Djawarray
Musician/Band - Djabugay and Western Yalanji
Djawarray, led by Djabugay and Western Yalanji custodian and songman Bertie Riley, brings ancestral rainforest songlines of Far North Queensland into the present through voice, rhythm and movement. Backed by his 7–8 piece band Koahlition and joined by Mayi Wunba Dance Troupe from Ngunbay/Kuranda, this Opening Night performance promises to be a powerful embodiment of culture, grounded in Country, carried by community, and alive with reclamation, regeneration and collective strength.
CULTURAL PRACTICE (DANCE)
Naygayiw Gigi Dance Troupe
Saibailgal / Saibai Island dance troupe from Bamaga
Naygayiw Gigi Dance Troupe (Northern Thunder) is an award-winning Saibailgal dance troupe from Bamaga, renowned for bold choreography and performances across national and international stages. Presenting Dharb and Wathaw Woeyamal, the troupe brings Saibai Islander knowledge to the forefront—reclaiming gardening, seasons and elemental forces through language, movement and story, while regenerating cultural practice to speak to contemporary life, climate change and enduring connection to land and sea.
Gimuy Walubara Yidinji
Gimuy/Cairns
The Gimuy Walubara Yidinji dance troupe represents the Traditional Owners of Gimuy/Cairns and the land on which Tanks Arts Centre stands. Through song, movement and rhythm, their performances honour Yidinji law, Country and cultural continuity. Drawing on rainforest Bama traditions, including cassowary-inspired dances, their practice speaks to ancestral knowledge carried forward and enduring connection to place.
Master of Ceremony
Dizzy Doolan
Dizzy Doolan, also known by her birth name Charmaine Armstrong, is a dynamic First Nations hip-hop artist whose roots trace back to the Takalak, Agwamin, Gureng Gureng, and Wakka Wakka peoples. Born in Gurambilbarra/Townsville, Far North Queensland, and raised in Gimuy/Cairns, a place she continues to call home, Dizzy embodies the spirit and resilience of First Nations culture through her fearless and authentic musical expression.
DJ Marcus Pedro
DJ Marcus is the stage name of Mark Pedro, a proud Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait Islander from St Paul’s Village on Moa Island and a veteran selector whose story reaches from remote island community to packed dance floors across Queensland.
With more than four decades behind the decks, Marcus began his DJ journey in Gurambilbarra/Townsville in 1983 at the legendary Bank Nite Club, building a reputation for feel-good sets, sharp musical instinct, and an unmistakable ability to move a room.
Rooted in disco, funk, soul, Motown, old-school reggae, R&B, hip hop, and timeless Top 40, DJ Marcus brings authentic old-school energy to every performance. His sets celebrate music as connection, memory, culture, and pure joy.
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