Sasha Kutabah Sarago on the Indigenous ideal of beauty and her journey to understand it in 'Gigorou'

Good Reading Podcast

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 this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Sasha Kutabah Sarago about how beauty and wisdom together are the true foundation of beauty, her journey from beauty salon to the catwalks of the world, and finding places where women of all colours can discover and celebrate their own sense of beauty.