“I’m so proud to be a part of the oldest culture in the world and to have Aboriginal blood in my veins. My mum didn’t have the chance to be a proud Aboriginal woman. She was part of the Stolen Generation; it was so wrong. Mum dreamt of being a model herself but never had the opportunity."
"When I first started out in the industry [15 years ago], there weren’t very many Aboriginal models. I’ve been told that I’m ‘pretty for an Aboriginal’ and received racist comments on social media. It’s sad. It feels like a step backwards, when we should be moving forwards."
"I think we’re making progress towards diversity, though. I’ve had young girls tell me they were so proud to walk into a supermarket and see someone who looks like them on a magazine cover. I’m forever telling young Indigenous girls to follow their dreams and don’t listen to the haters. For me, constitutional recognition is so much more than a piece of paper. It makes my blood boil that we’re the only [major] Commonwealth country that doesn’t have a treaty with its Indigenous people. It’s been 250 years; it really is time. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.”
This article originally appeared in the February issue of marie claire Australia.
