DOWN-TO-EARTH
Samantha Harris and her mum travel to the remote Kimberley as part of the model’s exciting new role with World Vision.
Throughout her career as a successful model, Samantha Harris has always spoken proudly of her Indigenous heritage. She recently invited both her mum and Vogue on a remote trip to the Kimberley region as part of an exciting new role with World Vision aimed at empowering communities. By Danielle Gay. Photographed by Bec Parsons.
Samantha Harris and her mother, Myrna Davison, were on day four of their seven-day trip to a remote area of the Kimberley in Western Australia when they met with one of those moments that would come to define the trip in both their minds. Together, the pair had flown from Melbourne to Broome before driving the dusty two-and-a-half hours to Mowanjum Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre outside the tiny rural town of Derby, when Davison told her daughter that the area needed to be smoked. She was referring to the Indigenous cultural practice whereby smoke created by burning native plants cleanses an area. “I knew straight away,” Davison recalls. “We had to be smoked before we walked on this country.”
It was a moment of trust between mother and daughter that was one of the formative points of the trip. “When she said: ‘We need to be smoked’, I knew it was very important,” Harris remembers. “My mum wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t.”
The journey was put on hold while local World Vision staff searched for an Elder from the Mowanjum community to conduct the ritual and light a fire for the blessing. Speaking on the phone a few weeks after the sacred occasion, Davison explains: “It’s [saying to] the Elders: ‘I will walk on the land, on your country, with respect, deep respect, and obey the rules.’ They bless you with that and do a smoking ceremony to cleanse you.” Harris admits to feeling emotional as she watched the smoke billow into the air. “It was windy and that smoke could have blown anywhere and in any direction but it was just following us,” she says. “It was pretty special.”
Harris grew up in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales and like her mother is of the Dunghutti people. Throughout Harris’s childhood, Davison, who was part of the Stolen Generation, taught her daughter and three sons about their Indigenous culture. Harris, a proud Aboriginal woman, has long championed this throughout her impressive modelling career. Yet despite these connections, the 29-yearold admits she only recently discovered the work that World Vision is doing in remote Indigenous communities. “I had no idea that they were doing these things for the Aboriginal culture,” Harris shares. “But they’ve been doing it for 45 years.”
That’s how Harris found herself at an arts centre in the middle of the bush – a desire to see first-hand what the organisation is doing and to understand the challenges facing people living in remote communities. It marks her initial project as World Vision’s first female Indigenous ambassador and it seemed only natural to bring her mum along.
“Growing up, I knew all about my Indigenous culture but when we went out to these communities in the Kimberley, I saw how people live traditionally even to this day,” Harris says. “There’s not a lot out there but these people are so happy. You meet these women and you feel like you know them – you instantly feel comfortable, like you’ve known them your whole life.”
World Vision has been working in this particular region of Western Australia since 2011, when it was approached by the Australian Government to identify community priorities for Indigenous people along the Gibb River Road and surrounding areas. “The way we work is to go into communities and hear what their vision is for their communities to improve,” explains Claire Rogers, CEO of World Vision Australia. For instance, in the town of Derby, World Vision was able to identify early childhood education as a key focus, because, as Rogers explains: “They really want to address the early childhood challenges for their children under school-age, and also youth development.”
“One thing that was very confronting for me was that if we weren’t doing that work with those community leaders, there would be no early childhood programming,” Rogers adds. “That’s the beginning of socialisation and their learning experience, so it would be understandable if kids who didn’t have that would fall behind in schooling.”
Among World Visions’s initiatives are play centres as well as afterschool and holiday programs, which Rogers explains are run by the communities themselves. “We are enabling community leaders to have a role running the playgroup. We are facilitating and encouraging them and teaching them how to do it. We’ve helped them identify buildings they can use to put the playgroups in and helped them restore what was run-down to make them suitable places for children to play.”
World Vision also offers education on pre- and post-natal care and provides networks to encourage all young people to enter education and employment. The idea might even be as simple as enabling infrastructure for a basketball court, which can have a huge impact by encouraging young people to participate in sport while also giving them somewhere to go after school.
“What we want to see is healthy Indigenous communities that have a good sense of their culture, and have a positive identity around their
culture,” says Rogers. “We will be there for as long as it takes to build those strong, healthy communities and bring kids through who are going to be the leaders of those communities in the future.”
The trip allowed Harris to witness these programs in action. “World Vision is there to support the Aboriginal people; they’re not trying to tell them what to do,” she confirms. “They’re giving them the tools they need to carry on with their everyday life while also living in their traditional ways.”
In the minds of many Australians, World Vision is known for its international aid. As a goodwill ambassador, Harris is set on championing what World
Vision is doing at home. “We wanted someone like Sam who could be an inspiration to the children in our program as well as be a voice that these strong communities would respond well to,” Rogers says. “She can bring an authentic voice and is able to speak both on behalf of her own culture and on behalf of the quality of the work she will see.”
Rogers appreciates that not all Australians are aware of the work World Vision is doing domestically and may not understand why it is necessary. “It’s a big question and a number of things are at play here,” she explains. “One is that Indigenous communities for nearly 200 years have had policies and programs done to them. We’re only just now, as a nation, starting to work alongside them and empower them. I think the second thing is that because of that lack of empowerment, and the things that have happened in the past, they’re working in a context where there are systemic disadvantages now and really confronting social challenges. That’s why we’re here working in Australia with Indigenous communities, at their invitation, in the same way as we are in say Cambodia. Because they see us as being able to help them achieve their vision for their communities.”
Included in the itinerary for the special mother-daughter Kimberley trip were stops at schools in the area. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Harris explains. “The first place we pulled into I was told: ‘This is the community.’ And I asked: ‘Where is it?’ And they said: ‘This is it.’
“It’s really remote,” she continues. “If they get sick and have to go to the doctor, they can’t – it’s a five-hour drive. They can’t just go to the chemist. If they travel to another community for a funeral, they can be stuck for months because they can’t get home. We met a woman who had just arrived back – she was gone for three months. It’s the little things we take for granted.”
Talking to students at the local school also proved to be seminal for Harris. “When I met these girls, I wanted to relate to them. I wanted them to know me and not think: ‘Here is this girl from a magazine.’” She set out to encourage them to pursue education and ultimately inspire them to follow their dreams, whatever they may be.
“For these kids, if they want to continue their schooling they have to go away, they have to leave their families. That was one of my challenges [with modelling]. I know what it’s like to be away from your family and to do something that might be intimidating.”
On a wider scope, Harris wants the trip to magnify the work that World Vision is doing for First Nation people. “I hope that they understood from the experience that I’m here to raise awareness. Out there, the Aboriginal culture is so strong and it is just so amazing to see how proud everyone is.”
For Davison, watching her daughter instil hope in young Indigenous women was a personal highlight. “The kids adored her. It was an experience I will take with me until the day I go. I will never, ever forget it – especially sharing that experience with my daughter.”
As for World Vision’s role, it took the proud mum a period of reflection to find the right way to describe it. “I knew there was a very strong word, but it just wouldn’t come. The word I overlooked was empowerment. [World Vision] are empowering the community and empowering women. The people want to hold on to their culture, their language and their homeland. [World Vision] are just there to support them.”
For Harris and World Vision, the partnership is just beginning. “What we know from other Indigenous young people is that these leaders are a huge inspiration,” offers Rogers. “That’s really why we chose her.”
“In terms of how far I’ve come in my career, I am so proud of that,” adds Harris. “But now I have a voice to be able to raise awareness of my culture; to give other Indigenous people hope to follow their dreams and to pursue their goals.”
To help support children through World Vision, go to www.worldvision.com. au/donate/help-children/ways-to-give.
“They’re giving them the tools they need to carry on with their everyday life while also living in their traditional ways”