Sarah broke a shoot off a eucalyptus tree and weaved through the crowd. The sound of creek water and bell birds filled the packed pavilion, and in the black all you could see was her white wig and face paint.

It was the fourth and final night of the annual Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander drag pageant. Tonight, the winner would be crowned Miss First Nation 2019.

Eight indigenous drag artists travelled across Australia to compete in the pageant’s Melbourne debut.

Leonard “Lenny” Mickelo flew from Brisbane to enter the pageant as Sarah Moany.

“Life’s a ceremony with Sarah Moany,” Lenny said. “It’s so cheesy, but it’s kind’ve true. There is a ceremony when it comes to drag. It’s very ritualistic.”

Sarah is a vessel for Lenny’s hyper-feminine and hyper-sexual sides. Tight leather corsets and high-heeled boots hint at further transformations hidden from sight.

Sarah “tucked” using gaffer tape, Lenny said, “gives you a bikini wax every time”.

But despite their obvious differences, Sarah and Lenny share a sense of humour and way of moving.

“I think Sarah is just me times ten,” Lenny said.

During Miss First Nation Sarah was reborn into the contemporary world to a soundtrack of womb, water, and heartbeat, Lenny said.

She danced like the emu and the carpet snake, two of Lenny’s cultural totems.

“There’s always story telling behind my act,” Lenny said. “I’d be pretty bored if I was just wearing a pretty dress and parading around.”

Lenny’s been doing drag semi-professionally for eight years. Before that, he danced for Bangarra Dance Theatre in Sydney for 12 years, straight out of school.

Last year Lenny toured the country playing Jimmy, “the black falla”, in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

It was the second time in his life performing songs from Priscilla on stage in drag. The first was when he was ten at a dance eisteddfod in Queensland.

“I didn’t get any slack for it or anything,” Lenny said. “At eisteddfods it’s fine, but when you’re back at school people can be really mean.”

The first time Lenny felt persecuted for being gay was by the girls at his school, who he used to fight with over a white satin dress on dress-up days.

“I wanted to look like cinderella.” Lenny said. “I don't know, maybe they weren’t homophobic. Maybe they just hated that I would take the dress.”

But Lenny is nostalgic about the happy-go-lucky nature of his childhood.

“I feel if anything I could learn a lot from my younger self. I was so pure,” Lenny said.

When Lenny was seven, Paul Keating called him “a pretty little girl” during a visit to Barcaldine, Queensland, where Lenny grew up.

Lenny grew up in far North Queensland with his foster mother, who was an opera singer and his earliest inspiration. He was hypnotised by her performances and knew instantly he wanted to be like her.

“I remember thinking, ‘I want to have beautiful hair and up-dos, I want to wear make-up, jewellery, and sequin dresses’,” Lenny said.

As young as three, Lenny would put on her clothes in front of her duchess and sing in the mirror.

“My mum encouraged me to embrace my little free spirit, God bless her,” Lenny said “I was very lucky to be put into a good foster home, unlike the rest of my siblings.”

Lenny is from Bidjara country in central Queensland, and identifies with the Kalali, Gungulu, and Jarowair clans.

Lenny says aboriginal culture is very accepting of homosexuality.

“I’ve been to so many indigenous clans, especially up in Arnem Land where mob are proper black-ways and very traditional, and they only judge you on whether you’re a good person or not,” Lenny said.

“It’s not like I run around like some screaming queen when I go to those communities, but it’s obvious what my sexuality is. They don’t care,” Lenny said. “If there’s any homophobia in indigenous communities, it’s from the influence of Western culture.”

Society created a template, Lenny philosophised, and when those who don’t fit in the template succeed, they’re seen as a threat.

But in the costumes and stage lights, amongst the glitz and glamour of the Miss First Nation pageant, the success of those eight drag queens was met by hundreds of onlookers with infectious jubilation.

Sarah took home Miss Photogenic and runner up to Miss First Nation 2019.