Creation Station: Púuna Sanctuary by Lia Pa'apa'a

Date: Sunday 17 May
Times: 9.00am - 2.00pm
Location: Cairns Botanic Gardens - Flecker Lawn

Cost: Free


Púuna Santurary offers a vibrant, culturally grounded creative space for children aged 0–12 and their families.

Púuna is a living, breathing environment where culture, imagination and belonging meet. Designed with a deep commitment to inclusion, the space welcomes children of all abilities, backgrounds and identities, creating room for every child to participate in ways that feel safe and joyful.

Rooted in diasporic, First Nations and Pacific cultural practices, Púuna centres storytelling, sensory play, making and collective art as pathways to connection. The space is gently facilitated by trained young people, empowering the next generation as creative leaders and mentors while fostering intergenerational exchange.

Púuna is more than a drop in space, it is a cultural gathering place. Here, children are invited to explore, create, rest, express and belong. Through art and shared experience, we nurture confident, culturally connected young people and celebrate the power of creativity in shaping thriving communities.

About the Artist

Lia is the lead artist, creative producer, and mama behind the Púuna Project. She is a proud Samoan and Luiseño woman living on her partner’s ancestral homelands in Gimuy (Cairns), Australia. Through her diasporic experience of motherhood, Lia has developed meaningful creative programming that supports mothers and families. This includes the Carers As First Curators workshops, festival installations, children’s festivals, professional development opportunities, and more.

Púuna—which means to grow in a circle in Lia’s Luiseño language—centres on the revitalisation, reclamation, and reimagining of ancestral practices to nurture parents, families, and communities. Its programming explores themes such as Carers as First Curators and Intergenerational Wealth, delivered both in person and online.

As an artist, Lia works across disciplines, weaving together textile, fibre art, and food with placemaking and community event design. Her methodology is rooted in creating spaces where communities can gather—with nourishing food, weaving, and a place to rest always at the heart of her practice.

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