Having launched as an Australian clothing brand at Australian Indigenous Fashion Week in 2014, Wild Barra has developed into a broader creative venture with the release of a new fragrance line.
Speaking at Supply Nation's annual flagship event, Connect 24, last month, Wild Barra founder Shaun Edwards said he was excited to showcase the first Indigenous fragrance launched by an Indigenous brand.
"I'm here promoting and launching my brand new fragrance, two actually, Kongk Kur and Kongk yok," Edwards said.
"They are both fragrances that I have put together over the last six months up in North Queensland."
The two fragrances offer a unique yet niche smell, both sharing links to Edwards' Cape York heritage.
"I am a Koko Berrin man from the Staaten River in the West Coast of Cape York Peninsula," he said.
"And I live and work on the lands of the Gimoy Wallabarra Yidinji people in Cairns."
Kongk yok is a fragrance that embodies the timeless beauty of Pinarinch's gardens in Cape York. Its aromatic herbal notes are more woody and warm with a touch of spice.
Kongk Kur, a fragrance inspired by the man's body "Kur" meaning: that strong and rough protector that shields the fragile. Kongk Kur is often described as woody yet sweet.
Designed to appeal to a broad range of consumers both fragrances have been created as genderless.
"We want reach to an international market and put First Nations fragrance on the map," Edwards told Style Up.
With culture heavily integrating into this new range of fragrances, Edwards was passionate about ensuring cultural safety was at the heart of Wild Barra.
"The cultural safety around Wild Barra is our DNA. It's who we are. We are investing in our people, in our identity," he said.
"That is important to me as an Aboriginal man from Cape York. Naming the fragrances in my language is extremely important because it connects me and whoever buys the product with a part of Australia, a part of earth that have had people in civilisation for millennia.
"My language is connected to me, It's connected to Cape York, It's is connected to Australia.
"... and we share our culture with people who are willing to learn and experience our rich culture."
Pinpointing his culture as the inspirational backbone of the new range of fragrances, Edwards is eager to convey this to his consumers and community through the brands messaging and values.
"We have a saying at Wild Barra that there's a Wild Barra family and people have hash tagged that over the years, and it's really nice to see that people, they get it," he said.
"I think the important thing about brands is that people feel comfortable with a brand that gets it. They're conscious, they are doing the right thing. They are not polluting the earth and they're really just care about other people.
"They want to make people feel good and in a way that's respectable and sustainable, and I'm really honoured to be able to present something that works to that standard."
Looking ahead, Edwards says he would like to expand the brand with future plans to venture into room sprays. He also hopes to see consumers invest in the brand as a lifestyle.
"So what's next is to really transform these fragrances into room sprays, to international resorts across the world," Edwards said.
"When you enter some of the huge resorts, there's a smell, there's a fragrance that you smell when you walk through those foyers, and it automatically connects you to a place and a time and an experience and a lifestyle.
"And that's what Wild Barra is, it is actually a lifestyle…It's about making people feel comfortable, making people feel glamorous and loved and expensive and thoughtful, demure… all of the things that make people feel amazing."
For more fashion, beauty and lifestyle news subscribe for free to the Style Up newsletter.