An Aboriginal mother says that a woman racially abused her 3-year-old daughter for being dressed up as Elsa, telling her "black is ugly" and that "Queen Elsa isn't black."
Rachel Muir, from Ballarat, says her daughter Samara cried after she was subjected to the racist attack at a Disney-themed event at a shopping centre in Melbourne earlier this month.
Muir and her daughter, who was dressed as her favourite Frozen character Elsa, had been waiting in line for a children's snow pit for two hours when the woman and her two daughters confronted them.
In a Facebook post, Muir wrote: "A mother and her two daughters told my daughter they didn't know why she dressed up as Anna & Elsa aren't black and that black is ugly. Racism is alive & well in the next generation."
Speaking to the Ballarat Courier , Muir said: "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'."
Muir said that her daughter was so deeply affected by the incident that she pointed to her skin and asked her mother why she was black.
Muir replied: "I told her 'because God gave you that skin colour, because you're a proud blackfella like mum'."
Samara's mom later made an official complaint to the shopping centre's management, who said that the woman's behaviour was "unacceptable."
But despite the incident, something wonderful happened to Samara. Shocked by the attack, Australians have since crowned Samara a "queen".
The young girl was even featured on the front page of The Courier newspaper and she's received fan mail from people around the world.
One of the happier front pages in a long time: http://t.co/PTdSxYPFaD #Ballarat @FairfaxRegional