For the first time ever, the Northern Territory has plucked out an Indigenous woman to represent it at the national Miss World Australia pageant finals.
Magnolia Maymuru, 19, will duke it out against candidates from the rest of ‘Straya in July, with the ultimate goal of being the nation’s face at the Miss World finals in London.
If she takes that one? Well, we’ll have snatched the crown from 2015’s winner, Spain’s Mireia Lalaguna, and who doesn’t want to see that?
If she takes that one? Well, we’ll have snatched the crown from 2015’s winner, Spain’s Mireia Lalaguna, and who doesn’t want to see that?
Here’s an artist’s depiction:
Speaking to Mix 104.9, Maymuru said “it’s a very, very big opportunity to be given. I’m very privileged and thankful that I was chosen for this.”
“I just want to do my best, and hopefully be a good role model and inspire young people.”
TBH, she’s already looking like a gr8 choice. The talent scout who first scoped her out for the comp praised her focus, saying “her immediate response to me was ‘I’m really sorry, but I’ve got my Year 12 exams so I can’t do it.’”
One year later, after a chance meeting with the scout in a Darwin supermarket – like there is any other way to begin a career in this industry? – the novice Maymuru signed up and, by all accounts, slayed.
Now working as a community officer for kids in her original home of Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, Maymuru mentioned she’s already thinking of the young guns back home.
She said “hopefully, when you little girls are older, I can open up a pathway for you to get into this kind of [fashion] industry.”
Speaking to the ABC a lil’ later, she also repped her home, saying “I wanted to break the cycle of how people see life back in community.
“I hope it gives [people] a push to look at more women up in Arnhem Land. I hope it gives them an urge to come up and actually check people out rather than thinking, ‘There’s one and that’s enough’.”
