Mayor Elsie Seriat is proud to share the beauty and challenges of life on the Torres Strait Islands. Photo: Lewis James Media.
From cultural dances and storytelling to talks of politics and the final parade, the streets of Waiben (Thursday Island) came alive for the 2025 Winds of Zenadth Festival.
The four-day biennial event in celebration of Torres Strait Islander culture, identity and community pride brought together hundreds of residents from across the Islands and Cape, as well as visitors from around the country.
Torres Shire Council Mayor Elsie Seriat said she was proud to see the festival grow in popularity while staying true to its roots. The event was founded in 1987 by respected community leader and linguist Adhi Ephraim Bani.
Families celebrated this year’s theme, Connecting Past, Present & Future.
“The festival is about bringing together families from the Zenadth Kes region (Torres Strait Islands) to help celebrate our culture, whether it’s through singing, dancing, storytelling, or arts and crafts,” she said.
“It’s definitely grown over the years for us, especially with the joys of having social media in your hands and being able to share this kind of stuff.
“We get to see more tourists who come up to this part of the world to see and experience our culture, our ways and means of living; we’ve had people here I’ve spoken to from as far as Broome, Western Australia and Adelaide, South Australia.”
Ms Seriat said she was just three years old when the iconic event became part of the Torres Strait calendar – and had always loved it. Now, as a politician, she also had a newfound appreciation for it as an opportunity to share the challenges of her people.
“As a politician, being able to talk about the struggles that are a priority for us in our regions, such as the high cost of living, climate change, and all these things we face up here has been important,” she said.
“We’ve been able to have all these media outlets covering these stories for us, and gaining the attention of mainland people – but also other politicians.
“Just to be able to talk to the world and the nation through sharing our culture, but also our key issues up here, has been great.”
