Proud Gamilaroi and Dunghutti Sistergirl, Felicia Foxx says she feels amazing at being asked to walk in the nation’s most prestigious annual fashion event.
“Being visible and being up there is empowering for other youth, it’s empowering for other Indigenous people who thought they could never ever do this sort of thing.
"So, for me it’s incredible that I’m up there, representing, being a role model.”
Foxx will be walking for First Nations Fashion and Design, an Indigenous owned and run organisation supporting Aboriginal fashion designers, textile artists, jewellery designers, and other fashion industry employees.
Speaking of the challenges she faced growing up, of never seeing anyone like her in the media, Foxx is proud to be challenging conventional beauty standards and breaking down barriers.
Born Wendell French and growing up in the South Western suburbs of Sydney, Foxx says having nobody she could relate to made her feel alienated.
Foxx admitted to NITV that realising her sexuality and finding the drag scene changed her life.
“Growing up, Wendall was this bottled up angry little boy who didn’t know how to express myself and didn’t know my sexuality and didn’t know anything about who I wanted to be. Coming to terms with my sexuality really helped me find who I was and what I wanted to do with my life.”
Wendall French, aka Felicia Foxx Source: Jennetta Quinn-Bates
Fox says she’s proud to be able to share her story through art, painting and dance just like her old people and ancestors have done, just in her own unique way.
Foxx recently made headlines after a social media post calling out another drag queen for racism and cultural appropriation went viral. Foxx says she will continue to use her platform to break down stereotypes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as other minority groups who face bullying and discrimination.
Felicia Foxx Source: Instagram
“It was like, this person has this stigma in her head and this stereotypical thing, of Aboriginal women. And at that time, I thought 'this is what this person has in her head about my mum and my aunties and my grandmother'.
"That’s why it got to me so much,” said Foxx.
The drag queen at the centre of the racist posts is a contestant on the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
While the show has more than a dozen seasons under its belt, this is the first to be cast in Australia and New Zealand.
“I didn’t want her to be cancelled from the show I didn’t want her to be casted off the show, I just wanted her to use her platform to speak out and to really get in touch with community and to know why it was so hurtful and it wrong to do what she did.” Felicia said.
At twenty years old, the performer says she wants to be a Matriarchal figure for black queer people and to continue doing things that people thought impossible for black people.
