What Does It Mean to Decolonize Beauty?

Sasha Kutabah Sarago distinctly remembers the moment she became self-conscious about her Yidinji, Jirrbal, and African American ancestry. Born in Australia, she was 11 years old and enjoying a friend’s birthday party when she was told, “You’re too pretty to be Aboriginal.” That sent her on a shame spiral that involved all but renouncing her mom’s First Nations ancestry and instead leaning into her dad’s Black heritage.

Inspired by Black supermodels in the industry and exposure to her mother’s beauty salon, Sarago pursued a career as a fashion model and beauty assistant. But eventually she realized she was chasing unrealistic standards rooted in whiteness, so she redirected her attention to reclaiming her identity and reconnecting with her culture.

Since, she’s been on a mission to decolonize beauty, including by giving a stirring 2020 TEDxSydney Talk, producing a documentary short on the topic, and launching Ascension, Australia’s first digital lifestyle platform celebrating women of color. Most recently, she shared her own inspiring story in her 2023 memoir, Gigorou: It’s Time to Reclaim Beauty; First Nations Wisdom and Womanhood.

Sarago spoke with us about upending prejudiced ideals, shifting the beauty paradigm, and recognizing our own unique, inherent value.

Experience Life: From your perspective, what does it mean to decolonize beauty?

Sasha Kutabah Sarago: It’s about redefining beauty to better serve us, creating a value system that celebrates our authenticity, and delighting in our sovereignty. I’m still in the process of breaking free from some of the mindsets I’ve held because of my own internalized racism, but I have worked hard to reconnect with everything I shunned about my identity and culture earlier in life.

What you see in the beauty and fashion industry is all tied up in capitalism. It’s built off these notions of how you should look and feel about yourself that are in such conflict with how we’ve been brought into this world, as sovereign beings with a purpose. So, am I meeting and nurturing that purpose? Not if I’m operating within Western beauty standards or the -isms, including colonialism, racism, colorism, and sexism. 

EL: How have Eurocentric ideals affected people of color, particularly Indigenous women?

SKS: In my experience as a First Nations Black woman, my time in the fashion and beauty industry was always about denying my identity and trying to alter my ethnic features, which is so common for women of color globally. That shows up in undertaking damaging practices, like skin bleaching and cosmetic surgery, in an attempt to approximate whiteness.

For me, it meant bleaching and straightening my hair, wearing contact lenses to alter my eye color, and contouring with makeup to give the appearance of finer features. I was trying to fit into this one-dimensional beauty ideal that I could never actually achieve.

Sadly, the first time I thought I was beautiful was when a white man found me attractive and I entered into my first interracial relationship. Now 20 years on, I can see how warped that mentality was — that if white society can see me as beautiful, maybe I can believe I’m beautiful too. Because I had come to believe everything about my Indigeneity was shameful and dirty. Being told I was “too pretty to be Aboriginal” at a young age left me with a complex that I tried to reconcile in all the wrong ways.

EL: Can you talk through your own journey to reshape your understanding of beauty?

SKS: I spent part of my childhood living in the United States, so I saw all the Black supermodels, like Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Veronica Webb, and Iman, dominating this industry [in which] their beauty hadn’t previously been glorified. That planted the seed in my head that my Black is beautiful.

When I moved back to Australia at the age of 9, meeting my [Aboriginal] extended family reinforced that I had two cultures to thrive in and made me feel really supported in my identity.

But then I stepped outside my community and into a world where whiteness was the benchmark of beauty. Throughout my teen years, I saw all these problematic stereotypes of Aboriginal people perpetuated by the media, and I was on the receiving end of racial slurs. That caused me to really abandon my Indigeneity as a young person.

I realized I couldn’t stay on that path of shame, which is why I left the modeling industry in my late 20s. At every turn, I was being told I just wasn’t good enough. So, I went on a journey to reclaim my identity, and I sat down with my elders to hear all the stories about what makes us beautiful. Culture was my savior in many respects. How can you not stand tall with your head held high when you see reflections of yourself through these people who make you who you are?

That led to my TED Talk and my memoir, Gigorou, which means “beautiful” in Jirrbal. In talking about decolonizing beauty, it was important to me to use my grandmother’s language, [which] we weren’t allowed to speak because of colonialism. So, my journey has been about sitting with my matriarchs, learning our creation stories, and understanding our value within our community.

EL: How does our beauty paradigm need to shift to focus on culture, spirit, and story?

SKS: Beauty through a Western lens is meant to profit off our insecurities and perceived inadequacies. But there’s so much to be gained from tapping into Indigenous wisdom, connecting with our culture, and nurturing that spirit. For a long time Aboriginal women haven’t been viewed as important in Australian society, but we are the backbones of our communities. Some of us have been deemed less beautiful because we have facial hair or gray hair, whereas in reality, those are signs that you’ve lived a beautiful life, you are wise and have stories to tell.

Now as a woman in my early 40s, I have completely changed how I relate to my body. It might not have the elasticity or collagen it used to have, but I am so grateful I can wake up, move around with ease, and hike to see my traditional country. Some of the women in my family are just around the corner from 100 years old. For Indigenous people — given our shorter life expectancies and health issues — that’s amazing.

EL: What advice do you have for those hoping to decolonize beauty in their own lives?

SKS: Decolonizing beauty is about coming back to yourself. How do you want to feel? What lifestyle do you want to live? If that brings up notions of enhancing yourself outside of who you already are, you need to ask if you’re in tune with your authenticity.

It’s also about having a community — that could be a gym community or a garden community — of people who reflect your values, which enhances every aspect of your well-being. I want people in my life who can see my beauty and whose beauty reflects onto me; then it manifests in me setting out on new adventures. These are the conversations I want to have about beauty — not about trying to get rid of my dark circles.

That’s not to say we don’t live in a contemporary world where we’re undertaking beauty and self-care practices. Let’s be realistic. But there has to be a balance of how we’re valuing ourselves and how we’re reflecting those principles onto the people we love. These things are inherent in us as human beings, but we’ve lost so much understanding of Indigenous ways of living and thinking.

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