Vogue model and mentor Elaine George’s enduring legacy

Elaine George was scouted at 17 and soon after became Vogue Australia’s inaugural First Nations cover model. On the issue’s 30th anniversary, she reminisces about that time.

Elaine George's early modelling work.

Elaine George is even-handed when she reflects on the enormity of the moment that was being the first ever Indigenous Australian to front Vogue. After all, she didn’t stay in the industry for long, finding it was, in the early 1990s, still very much a place that foregrounded a narrow, predominantly white, version of beauty.

Three decades on though, she’s sanguine about it all, knowing she set in motion something to celebrate — First Nations now taking their rightful place front and centre of the fashion industry. She hasn’t shied away from the weight of that legacy, instead embracing it, becoming a mentor for younger models (some call her “Aunty Vogue”), passing on knowledge in the tradition of her Elders. In her case it’s on how to navigate the industry and why visibility matters.

George at Vogue Australia's May 2022 cover shoot with (from top) Magnolia Maymuru, Charlee Fraser and Cindy Rostron.

Today, she lives authentically, juggling a renewed modelling career — she has recently walked in the last two Australian fashion weeks, and become a mentor for younger First Nations models — with her day job as a social worker. A joy to encounter, her infectious optimism and serene beauty is unmissable. Not much fazes George, including being a cover girl, but she enjoys it all taking it in her stride; one that’s going forward proudly as a changemaker and true leader.

Elaine George on the September 1993 cover of Vogue Australia.

George's early modelling work.

She reflects on that cover shoot and her career today. “It was my first time on a plane and full-on as soon as we landed – like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to go to the studio.’ When we arrived, everyone’s so lovely, saying, ‘Oh my god, you are beautiful, look at your jaw bones, look at your eyes!’ I looked at [photographer] Grant Good going, ‘Are we serious? I’m sure they’ve seen girls with green eyes and dark skin,’ and Grant said no. That was quite a shock because I’ve grown up with it my whole life … how could the industry not have another Aboriginal person like me?

Elaine George at the home of Diana Finke and Grant Goode who scouted George as a teenager at Dreamworld in Queensland.

They said it wasn’t a given I’d be on the front cover. So it wasn’t anything for me until I went to the shop to get some stuff [weeks later] and a little Murri boy says: ‘Hey sis, is that your big face at the newsagency?’ It was a whirlwind for everybody, including myself.

“I did not realise the massive impact it would have. Mostly positive — we didn’t have social media back then, or people saying, ‘She doesn’t look Aboriginal, her skin is fair.’ It was just, ‘This is Elaine. This is the first Aboriginal on Vogue.’ When my next cover came out [in May 2022], all over social media was everyone having their own opinion. I always remind everybody, ‘What does an Aboriginal person look like?’ You have an image in your head that is not correct.

“On reflection, it did take 17 years for the second one [model Samantha Harris on the cover of Vogue Australia in 2010]. But like I try and tell the up-and-coming young people, when we’re about to change history, it takes time.

George's early modelling work.

“I always knew I was going to do work in child protection. We’ve all grown up with history of Stolen Generations, and not-so-great outcomes, not only for my own family, but friends and cousins I grew up with. I knew as a person that instead of complaining about something, have the solution. I got the opportunity to be a receptionist for child protection. Once I met all my cultural mentors, and [decided] what I wanted to do with life to make a change, I deliberately started in reception, because if you can’t support a parent who’s just had their child removed over the phone, then what good are you going to be face-to-face? I started at the bottom … I was there for about two years before I got my very first child protection case, also in ’93. I’m still doing it today.

“[Young people] are the next generation, and I need them to start educating as well, and not leave it to us Elders, because there’s a lot of them passing. We need to pass on that cultural history in a respectful way. There’s a saying: ‘As a strong Aboriginal woman, I will continue to make a change and break the cycle. My ancestors didn’t die for me to be silent.’ I remind all my young people of that.”

This article appears in the September issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.