Role Model

A story of resilience, hope and how a mother's love fuelled the ascent of Australia's first Indigenous supermodel.


Samantha Harris has one of the most recognisable faces in Australia's fashion industry, but her success was anything but expected. In an industry built on European beauty ideals, her breakthrough as a finalist for the Girlfriend cover model search was a testament to dreaming big, perseverance and the determination of her mother, Myrna, a survivor of the Stolen Generations.


In this mother-daughter memoir, Samantha and Myrna each share their journeys of breaking down barriers and the redemptive power of love. For Samantha, she attended beauty pageants from the age of four and continually came second to girls with blonde hair and blue eyes, then later had to learn to connect with the camera. For Myrna, she was taken to a girls' home at the age of six with her two younger sisters, making her fiercely protective of her children and grandchildren. 


Inspiring and honest, Role Model is the story of two proud Dunghutti women claiming their space and the path to greater representation, highlighting just how much can change between two generations.