‘I’VE EXPERIENCED moments of not
getting served first when I’m waiting in
line at a shop or a supermarket. I once had
a kid say to me loudly in a shopping centre
that I was “very, very black”. For me it
wasn’t necessarily what the child said;
it was that the mother hadn’t taught
the child that people come in all
different colours. There have been
times I haven’t been able to catch
taxis, and I’ve been told that my
presence in a certain shop was
“not OK”. Racism makes me so
angry and the fact that we’re in
2017 and we’re still dealing with
this issue is frustrating. Fighting
racism and fighting the way people
perceive you and the Indigenous culture
can be tiring. It’s hard but it’s something
that we need to do as a community. We
as Indigenous people can’t do it ourselves,
and that’s the wonderful thing about
having friends from other backgrounds- we can teach each other about our
culture and where we came from.
The thing I love most about my
culture is the fact that I’m a part of the
world’s oldest living culture. We are not
just one country; we are many countries.
We have so many different languages, so
many different ceremonies, dances, and
LEILA GURRUWIWI, 29:
‘I’M INDIGENOUS’
now we have so many beautiful colours
of brown, so to speak. I think it’s really
important that people understand that
Aboriginality is not the colour of your
skin. People have this weird perception
that to be Indigenous you have to be a
certain colour, but you can put milk into
coffee and it’s still always going to be
coffee. It doesn’t matter if you’re blonde
haired and blueeyed, or have freckles; if
you have Aboriginal lineage and that’s
what you’ve been brought up as and that’s
what you’re proud to be, then you are
Aboriginal. It makes me really sad to see
that Aboriginal people are still treated
badly on a wider scale. I’m nearly 30 years
old and in relation to where we sit in
health, I’m essentially supposed to die in
the next 1015 years – there’s a huge gap
in our healthcare system.
My hope for the Indigenous people of
Australia is to be fully acknowledged, and
be respected. And not just in cliché ways
like, “We need to do an acknowledgment
to country because we have to”, but just
becoming a part of who we are as a
community and embracing Indigenous
culture – being allinclusive. Indigenous
culture and history is Australian history.
It’s a part of your story if you consider
yourself Australian.’ #NITV sports presenter Leila is
proud of her Indigenous lineageAS TOLD TO SHARI NEMENTZIK. PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAUL SUESSE/BAUER. HAIR & MAKEUP BY RENEE SAYED USING MAC COSMETICS AND MOROCCANOIL. HAIR & MAKEUP ASSISTANT: VICTORIA FORRESTER
. SHOOT COORDINATOR: CASSIE LONGWORTH. GETTY IMAGES
COSMO
CELEBRATES
DIVERSITY