Veialu Aila-Unsworth

Raya loves makeup but her family does not. She’s torn between her secret dream of being a makeup artist and her family’s strict religious beliefs. In a nightmare, she receives a profound message from her Papua New Guinean ancestor who encourages her to look at her Indigenous culture for answers.

This re-imagining of the ubiquitous blue and white ‘willow china’ ceramic pattern tells a tragic story — supposedly derived from an ancient Chinese folktale — of lovers fleeing an angry father.

A fairytale about three women of colour forced into absurd stereotypes by a magical curse infecting men — “the male gaze” — until one man’s transformation offers a different way of seeing.