She might not have been performing at the Sydney Opera House, or alongside Rhonda Burchmore, but being on home turf with family in the crowd was a welcome career highlight.

The audience was kept in fits of laughter with her tongue in cheek political commentary tied seamlessly into her sassy jokes.

Those who weren't in the know, were wondering who she was.

While Mambali, an Indigenous nine-piece band from Numbulwar was preparing for their set back stage, Constantina was onto her last song for the night, Black Bird.

She had already announced the winners of the Junk Festival sculpture awards and fashion contest.

"I don't know whether Paul McCartney found a little black bird with a broken wing and a busted eye," she said to the audience.

"Or whether he was using black bird as a metaphor for black people to rise up, rise up and kill all the white people."

This is Constantina Bush.

"A girl from the bush, who can sing, knows how to work a crowd and isn't afraid to say it how it is," Kamahi Djordon King said, just a few days after the festival.

"She's cheeky, and when she's on stage she really turns on the sass."

Born in Katherine, Kamahi has played the Northern Territory queen, Constantina Bush, since 2008.

She's based on the strong women he knew in Katherine growing up.

Already an actor, he said he fell into it when a drag queen pulled out of a Melbourne project and the director needed someone to step in.

"I thought 'how hard can it be?'"

"He made me audition and I thought I had it in the bag.

"Apparently, I got it all wrong, the hand gestures, the miming.

"So I said, 'what if I sing?'"

Too rugged for drag and not quite able to nail the over-the-top theatrics, a show girl was born.

"I ran with her to see how far she could go, and to be honest she has surpassed me by miles," Kamahi said.

When he puts on the hair, the make-up and the dress he embodies a confidence he doesn't have in his every day life, he said.

"Being dressed up really separates me from her. When I am on stage as her, comedy comes naturally, whereas I have boundaries.

"She just gets away with so much."

"It's the facade."

Despite the rising success of Constantina Bush Australia wide - she has been headhunted by reality TV shows like the Amazing Race as well as Australia's burlesque queen Moira Finucane - there is no rivalry.

"She's a black superwoman, but at the end of the day, she's still me."

Kamahi's greatest achievement to date is hosting the last Walking with Spirits Festival at Beswick and being accepted by the Indigenous community.

As an Indigenous man part of the Gurindji Mudburra people, the acceptance within the community far exceeded acceptance in the mainstream, he said.

"It made me feel like I didn't have to run away down south with her."

Growing up in Katherine and part of one of the oldest Indigenous families in the town, he said he feels a deep connection to the land, although he left for boarding school in 1986 and stayed away up until four years ago.

Heavily involved in the arts, he worked at galleries in Melbourne during the day and performed cabaret and burlesque at night.

But as of late, Kamahi has taken Constantina Bush in a slightly different direction, towards acting in theatre productions and TV.

Seeking both a challenge and anonymity, Kamahi said he has been extremely selective in which roles he takes on.

"I don't want to be famous," he said, "I want to be able to take off Constantina and walk through a crowd unknown."

But he also wants to be on par with Barry Humphries.

"I must pay respect to drag queens everywhere, simply for their polished make up and their pride in their appearance, but that isn't what I do.

"I'm too rugged, I wear minimal makeup, no fake nails," he said.

"When a straight man puts a dress on, he's playing a character, but when a gay man puts on a dress he is mistakenly called a drag queen and that is offensive to drags."

Back in Katherine and working with art at the Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre, he said it seemed right the large crowd at Junk Festival had no idea who was sashaying across the stage in a bright white wig and high heels.

He's not there for accolades.

"I do it because I love performing and sharing and seeing a reaction," he said.

"I do it because there isn't much black and gay representation of cross dressers on the stage or on TV.

"I am happy to challenge white privilege ... and I when I speak Kriol, that is a statement of how Indigenous language is dying out."

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