Claiming space in the fashion world

TWO months away from becoming a mother, Australian model Samantha Harris glows, even over the phone.

From her Northern Beaches home base, the joy in her voice is palpable.

“It’s my first baby, and I’m having a little girl. I’m very excited,” she said.

Tweed-born and bred, Harris is one of Australia’s most recognisable faces and has just released a memoir co-written with her mother, Myrna Davison.

Role Model, published this month by Murdoch Books, tells the stories of two proud women who claim their space and pave the way for greater representation. Their early journeys were vastly opposite.

Harris came from a large and loving home, growing up with siblings and cousins.

She entered beauty pageants from the age of four, continually coming second to girls with blonde hair and blue eyes, and later also finding resistance from the Indigenous community for her modelling pursuits.

Davison spent her earliest years on the Aboriginal mission at Bellbrook, near Kempsey.

At the age of six, with her two sisters, she was taken to the Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home – known as the birthplace of the Stolen Generations in NSW.

Harris has graced Australia’s most prestigious magazines, including Vogue Australia, and walked the runways for designers such as Alex Perry, Lisa Ho and Carla Zampatti. Harris said her love of modelling was seeded early on.

“Tweed City would have these little runway competitions, and I was entering them when I was about four, and I think that’s where my love of modelling started,” she said.

“The older I got, the more aware I became through magazines of the beautiful models and fashions, and that’s where it grew.

“This sounds dorky, but I even used to stick my school photos in magazines so I could see myself in them, flicking through the pages.

“I was serious, and I didn’t have a plan B. All I ever wanted to do was be a model. I had no backup or any other options. Thank God, it worked.”

Approached to work on the book 10 years ago, Harris said she initially delayed the opportunity.

“I had a few more stories to get under my belt first, but last year they asked if Mum would be involved, and I was so proud that they wanted to share her story.

“But I was also aware that it wasn’t just a phone call saying, ‘Hey, they want you in the book’. It was very hard to approach that conversation.

“For me, it was nice to go back in time and see the wonderful things that I’ve achieved. I remember thinking I should be really proud.

“For Mum, obviously, unpacking her life was a completely different prospect.”

Now 35, Harris has been in the industry for 22 years and is gratified to see the changes.

“We see so many more beautiful Indigenous models, and also designers, photographers – all the people within that creative space,” she said.

“I’m so proud to have watched it all evolve, but at the same time, it’s sad we had to, because it never should have been an issue; it should have always just been there.”