Indigenous Beauty

Due to the lasting effects of colonisation, the beauty ideals and standards that are impressed up on most of the world repeatedly by the likes of Hollywood, the fashion industry, beauty pageants and so on, is notably Eurocentric.

This representation of white and nothing else as beautiful that we have suffered through for generations, I would imagine, would have damaging effects on the self esteem of any one who is not white. Basically being told that you can’t be beautiful because of your race/ethnicity from the moment you emerge into the social world would surely affect your confidence and how you see yourself; particularly for girls – who are told by society that being beautiful is the most important thing, that being beautiful is what makes them valuable.

                                                       

Say what you will about the institutions that impose these standards, particularly beauty pageants, I’ve probably said it all before too – but it is undeniable that they have an impact on society and the socially constructed opinions of everyone living in it.

So when Miss World Australia announced their first ever Indigenous finalist, 19-year-old Yolgnu woman Maminydjama Maymuru, this year, no matter how problematic beauty pageants are, that has to be good, right? Particularly in Australia, a country with such a damning history and present in terms of how the Indigenous population has been treated. Maymuru acknowledges that she made the choice to take part for young Indigenous girls to see themselves represented in the Eurocentric, mainstream media, stating “The main reason why I agreed to do it is that I don't want to do it just for myself, I want to do it for young people all over Australia.”

This representation of someone who does not fit the typical Eurocentric mould of what is beautiful, is hopefully an act of decolonisation that will continue on to chip away at these standards. And even if this has no lasting historical implications, at the very least, some young Indigenous girls will see someone who looks like them being celebrated for their beauty, and hopefully will believe that they are beautiful too, despite what society and the media usually tells them.

Maminydjama Maymuru is beautiful, and no matter my personal problems with beauty pageants, her presence in Miss World Australia is a mark of progress in the decolonisation of a Eurocentric society, and this deserves to be celebrated.