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Former Miss Australia fires back after being stormed with racism accusations.

Former Miss Universe Australia contestant Ranae Ayris has defended herself after being slammed for comments on Indigenous Australians, which were aired in the a trailer for SBS’s First Contact program.

The 26-year-old joins five other Australian celebrities for the second season of the Logie-award winning show and was accused of racism after saying she believed Aboriginal people should “move on”.

“I know a lot of Aboriginal people believe they’re owed something, but I just feel like everyone should be treated equally,” the model said in the teaser video.

“They kind of need to forgive whatever they think has happened, and move on, and just try and be equal with everyone.”

Ranae Ayris will appear in Season 2 of First Contact. Source: SBS

The premise of First Contact is built on the troubling statistic that six out of 10 Australians have had little or no contact with the nation's first people — even those in high profile occupations.

In order to challenge perceptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people it takes six well-known Australians into Aboriginal Australia for the first time, with varying levels of success.

This year's participants include singer Natalie Imbruglia, ex-One Nation politician David Oldfield, TV personality Ian 'Dicko' Dickson, comedian Tom Ballard and actress Nicki Wendt.

Ayris' remarks are clearly ignorant and were understandably derided by viewers as such.

"This is offensive and ignorant on so many levels I don't even know where to start," one Twitter user wrote.

"I'm sure that advice is super useful..." another said.

Whether she has learned from her experiences on the show however, won't be clear until it airs on November 29, but in the meantime she has defended herself to critics on her public Facebook page.

"It took a lot of courage for me to decide to do this show," she wrote, admitting she was nervous about doing because of how little she knew of Aboriginal people and their culture.

"I admitted I had been ignorant on the topic and it's something I was ashamed of. The whole reason for me doing the show was to change this and to learn," she said.

She then went on to called for an end to "trolling", which she labelled "pathetic" and "disgusting".

"I'm a strong person and I won't let these get to me. But some people aren't as strong, and one of your thoughtless comments could tip them over the edge. So next time, think about what you are writing and imagine it being someone you love and care about."

First Contact will air over on SBS over three night's from Tuesday November 29.

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Top Comments

Axiomsense 8 years ago

Her best asset & selling point, possibly the source of her ignorance...

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

sam 8 years ago

What a fox!!!


Rush 8 years ago

It's a couple of lines in the trailer for the show. How about we wait and watch the whole show before we judge? Perhaps by the end she might have an entirely different view. Lets not jump down her throat until we have all the information.

Zepgirl 8 years ago

But that's not conducive to online outrage, come on!

squish 8 years ago

Exactly. Isn't that the whole point of the show - to change mindsets?

sam 8 years ago

aaa