A three-year-old Aboriginal girl who was traumatised after she was racially abused in Melbourne tried to scrub her body to remove her black skin.
Samara Muir, from Ballarat, was dressed as Frozen’s Elsa at a Melbourne, Australia, Disney event at Watergardens shopping centre in Taylors Lakes last month.
As she was lining up for the snow pit with her mother Rachel Muir, another mother and her two daughters began to verbally abuse the young girl.
“The lady in front of us turned around to Samara and said ‘I don’t know why you’re dressed up for because Queen Elsa isn’t black’,” Muir told The Courier.
“I asked the woman what she meant by the comment and then one of the woman’s young daughters screwed up her face, she pointed at Samara and said ‘you’re black and black is ugly’.”
Samara became upset and started to cry. She refused to attend Aboriginal dance classes and starting taking baths daily in a bid to scrub off her black skin.
“She was requesting to bath every day and she was soaping up to make herself look white,” Muir told NITV News.
“She got the loofah glove and scratched herself until it was red. I had to tell her skin colour isn’t going to come off. You are born that way and you’ve just got to stand up and be proud of that,” she said.
“She had her Aboriginal dance classes to attend but she didn’t want to attend them. I asked her why and she said, ‘because black is ugly.”
Muir said Samara, who appeared on Channel Ten’s The Project on Friday, is no longer ashamed of the colour of her skin.
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“She now tells people, if you scratch your skin it won’t come off. You have to be proud of who you are. She sure is proud of her culture, and tomorrow she will go back to her dance class after a month to do some dances for NAIDOC.
“She has encouraged other indigenous girls to stand up and wear their Elsa dresses and be proud of you they are.”
Muir and her daughter have received a flood of messages of support, with rapper Adam Briggs posting a short clip with Samara on his Facebook page and inviting her to feature in his new film clip. Samara will play a young Cathy Freeman.
She has also been invited to feature in the Disney on Ice Dare to Dream show.
Samara told The Project: “I love being a princess, Elsa’s the best princess because she really is strong
“I just thought it would be a story people would click past and forget. To know that she has touched so many people … that they see her how I see her, is just incredible,” said Rachel.
“After every message Samara smiles and says: ‘Thank you your majesty’.”
“She is back to her proud, beautiful Aboriginal self.”
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such a beautiful little girl!
she’s barely black lmao but just so people can know it nuh matter what shade of black u be u still black
Poor thing, hope her parents find a way to instill in her that she is beautiful and that she should be proud of the skin she is in. Dem people down undah can be the worst kind of racist…dem nuh easy. So terrible for her..poor thing.
This is the world we live in….We need to teach our children as this mother has done that black is beautiful and you are who you are…..I love stories like this because it shows us what others are experiencing in the world when it comes to racism. Sad but happy story at the same time…..
These racist white people know the truth of how special black people are that is all,that is why they hate us so much.