Pantera Press has acquired Gigorou by Sasha Kutabah Sarago

Pantera Press has acquired world rights to Gigorou: Are You Ready to Redefine Beauty? by Sasha Kutabah Sarago, represented by Benython Oldfield at Zeitgeist Agency

Sasha Kutabah Sarago is a Wadjanbarra Yidinji, Jirrbal and African-American woman. A former model, Sasha grew frustrated by the invisibility of multicultural women in fashion and media, so in 2011, she founded Ascension, Australia’s first digital lifestyle platform for women of colour.

In 2020, Sasha gave a TEDx talk (selected as TED.com’s 2021 Editor’s Choice) titled ‘The (de)colonising of beauty’. In this talk Sasha shared her experiences of being told ‘You’re too pretty to be Aboriginal’ from a young age, and how she reclaimed her femininity by redefining beauty.

Sasha’s book Gigorou, meaning ‘beautiful’ in Jirrbal, her grandmother’s language, is an extension of this conversation. In this intimately fierce, funny and reflective memoir, Sasha retraces her footsteps as a beauty assistant, model and magazine editor to where beauty began over 60,000 years ago. It is through the voices of her matriarchs, the creation stories of Oolana, The First Rainbow and Majal, and the spirit of Barangaroo, Truganini and Patyegarang, that her healing begins and authenticity arrives.

In a time when the patriarchy obstructs women from the divine feminine, and sexism, racism and ageism violate our sovereignty, Gigorou invites us to explore the interconnectedness of Aboriginal culture to resolve our relationship with beauty.

‘Gigorou is a coming-of-age memoir: intimate conversations around beauty and femininity told to me by my matriarchs. A universal saga where one finds themselves at the crossroads of conformity and authenticity.

‘I wrote Gigorou as a love letter to Black women and my younger self, but it’s also a reminder that social constructs are illusions waiting to be reimagined. Beauty is one of them.

‘I hope this book acts as a remedy for healing the wounds we hide so well — an invitation to find your way back to self through the wisdom of First Nations women and culture,’ said Sasha Kutabah Sarago

‘Joyful, generous and utterly uncompromising, Gigorou takes us on a journey to completely redefine the problematic, commonly held concept of beauty. This book is a revolution, with Sasha Kutabah Sarago as our fearless guide,’ said Pantera Press publisher Lex Hirst.

Sasha Kutabah Sarago is a speaker, writer and filmmaker. As a speaker, she raises awareness around culture, diversity and equity in the business, media and lifestyle sectors. As well as appearances on NITV Awaken ‘Black Is Beautiful’, SBS Insight ‘Growing Up Mixed Race’ and ABC TV’s The School That Tried to End Racism, Sasha has featured in BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, 10 Daily, the Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie and Fashion Journal magazines, and her writing has been published in the Guardian and SBS Voices. Sasha has also written and directed the documentaries Too Pretty to Be Aboriginal and InsideOUT, which premiered at the Melbourne Women’s Film Festival 2020.

Gigorou will be released in March 2023.

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For media enquiries, please contact: Talie Gottlieb Ph: 02 8096 5192 E: taliesyn.gottlieb@panterapress.com