Aboriginal pin-ups bid to end beauty bias

SYDNEY - At first glance it looks like any other glamour shoot - topless and bikini-clad women in a range of sultry poses.

But these girls are unique - they are the subjects of Australia's first indigenous pin-up calendar.

The models, who appear in various states of undress, regard themselves not as sex symbols, but as role models for other Aboriginal women.

"We are naturally very beautiful, and that's because of our spiritual connection to our land and culture," said Liza Fraser-Gooda, one of the calendar's creators.

She and her business partner Dina Paulson were inspired last year after supermodel Naomi Campbell said there were few Aboriginals on Australia's catwalks.

Twenty top modelling agencies were later asked how many indigenous women they had on their books. Nineteen said they had none, the other just one.

Fraser-Gooda and Paulson met by chance a year ago in Cairns, Queensland, and have since devoted their lives to producing the calendar and setting up Australia's first modelling and casting agency for indigenous people.

They raised enough cash to produce the calendar, and say they will put any profits back into their new business.

The models, all Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, were chosen from more than 100 applicants and photographed in Queensland. Their tribes and totems (animal families) are also detailed.

The models hope the calendar will act as a turning point for indigenous women who, until now, have had few role models to look up to.

Fraser-Gooda said Aboriginal women wanting to become models suffered from two stereotypes. The first was the industry's bias towards blue-eyed blondes, and the other was the stereotype of indigenous people as low income, addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Fourteen models are featured on the calendar - one for each month of the year, and a front and back cover.

It is being sold only through the internet, at Jinnali.com, a website averaging 1000 hits a day.

Fraser-Gooda, 26, who ran a tourism agency in Cairns, and Paulson, 32, have moved to Sydney where they aim to base their model agency.

Their goal is to see an Aboriginal supermodel strutting the catwalks of Paris, Milan and New York.

Paulson is the calendar's cover girl.

"I used to do promotional work and people would ask me where I was from. When I told them, they would say no: You can't be Aboriginal, you're too beautiful. That really hurt, and comments like that drive me to make this work."

- HERALD CORRESPONDENT


Links


Jinnali 2001 Calendar