Travels From New South Wales
Speaker Topics
Authenticity Is The Blueprint
Sasha Kutabah Sarago knows the challenges of turning frustration into inspiration. In 2011, Sasha launched Ascension - Australia’s first digital lifestyle platform for women of colour. Stepping into the world of entrepreneurship without a blueprint, Sasha shares her start-up journey, taking you behind the scenes: how to turn passion into solutions, having the audacity to take up space and creating a business that evolves with you.
Lifestyle and Wellbeing
In a time where 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.
Are you ready to embrace your gigorou?
Set Your Pace. Win Your Race
Is the story you're telling yourself letting someone else set the pace in your life or business? We can get swept up in the day-to-day operations of our business or simply trying to balance our sense of self, family and relationships.
The stories we tell ourselves profoundly impact what goals we create and the pace we set to achieve them. But if they are not authentic and do not serve us, why do we possess them?
Sasha Kutabah Sarago
Empowering Cultural Narratives while Redefining Beauty and Identity
Sasha Kutabah Sarago is a proud Wadjanbarra Yidinji, Jirrbal, and African-American woman, born in Victoria. As an 80s baby and middle-child generation, Sasha has navigated a transformative journey from analogue to digital eras, deeply influenced by her multicultural heritage.
Formerly a model, Sasha's frustration with the lack of representation for multicultural women in fashion and media led her to establish Australia's pioneering digital lifestyle platform for women of colour, ‘Ascension’, in 2011. Her advocacy spans business, media, and lifestyle sectors, where she can be seen passionately raising awareness around culture, diversity, and equity in her speaking engagements.
Sasha's impactful TEDx talk, "The (de)colonising of beauty", was handpicked as TED.com's 2021 Editor's Choice, amassing 1.6 million views. Her memoir, "Gigorou: It’s time to reclaim beauty. First Nations wisdom and womanhood" explores her journey as a beauty assistant, model, and magazine editor. In "Gigorou", Sasha invites readers to confront issues of sexism, racism, and ageism, reclaiming sovereignty through Aboriginal culture's interconnectedness. Her memoir promises to be a transformative narrative, bridging personal experiences with broader societal challenges, and drawing profound lessons from the world's oldest living culture. Through conversations with matriarchs and ancestral wisdom, Sasha conveys profound insights into femininity and cultural identity from a First Nations woman’s perspective.
She has appeared on NITV's "Awaken Black is Beautiful", SBS's "Insight Growing Up Mixed Race", and ABC’s "The School That Tried To End Racism". Sasha's insights have been featured in BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, and more, with her articles published in The Guardian and SBS Voices.
Additionally, Sasha is a prolific filmmaker, having written and directed documentaries like "Too Pretty To Be Aboriginal" and "InsideOUT", which premiered at the Melbourne Women's Film Festival 2020.