Gigorou
Sasha Kutabah Sarago
IT’S TIME TO RECLAIM BEAUTY. FIRST NATIONS WISDOM AND MOTHERHOOD
‘If you’ve ever dimmed your light, hated how you look or searched for your beauty in all the wrong places, this book is for you.’
Gigorou (jig-goo-roo) means ‘beauty’ or ‘beautiful’ in Jirrbal, the language of Sasha Kutabah Sarago’s grandmother. Growing up, Sasha didn’t feel gigorou. At a young age, she was told, ‘You’re too pretty to be Aboriginal’. Since then, she’s been on a journey to reconcile her conflict with beauty.
In this intimately fierce, funny and reflective book, Sasha retraces her footsteps as a beauty assistant, model and magazine editor to find the answers she’s searching for. Through conversations with her matriarchs, and the creation stories gifted to her, Sasha unlocks an ancestral wisdom – the key to healing and reclaiming her femininity.
In a time where the patriarchy obstructs women from the divine feminine, and sexism, racism and ageism violate our sovereignty, Gigorou invites us to explore the interconnectedness of Aboriginal culture to resolve our relationship with beauty and ourselves.
- Release
- Mar-2023
- ISBN
- 9780645476736
- RRP (AUD)
- $34.99
- Pages
- 320
- Format
- Paperback & ebook
- Category
- Memoir
Sasha Kutaba Sarago
Sasha Kutabah Sarago is a Wadjanbarra Yidinji, Jirrbal and African-American woman with a passion for redefining beauty and sparking conversations around femininity and womanhood from a First Nations perspective.
A former model, Sasha grew frustrated by the invisibility of multicultural women in fashion and media. In 2011, she founded Ascension, Australia’s first digital lifestyle platform for women of colour. As a speaker, Sasha raises awareness around culture, diversity and equity in the business, media and lifestyle sectors.
Sasha’s TEDx talk, ‘The (de)colonising of beauty’, was selected as TED.com 2021 Editor’s Choice and has fuelled her passion for redefining beauty and sparking conversations around femininity and womanhood from a First Nations woman’s perspective.
As well as appearances on NITV Awaken ‘Black Is Beautiful’, SBS Insight ‘Growing Up Mixed Race’, and ABC TV’s The School That Tried to End Racism, Sasha has featured in BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, 10 Daily, Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie and Fashion Journal magazines and her writing has been published in the Guardian and SBS Voices. Sasha has also written and directed the documentaries Too Pretty to Be Aboriginal and InsideOUT, which premiered at the Melbourne Women’s Film Festival 2020.
Pantera Press
Pantera Press is a young and enthusiastic publisher of titles that spark imagination, conversation and change. We publish fiction, non-fiction, illustrated non-fiction and a growing list of children’s titles.
