Your Stories - Samantha

Content Warning: These stories contain mentions of body dysmorphia, body image struggles, pregnancy loss, fertility struggles and gendered violence. If you find any of the below triggering, please find a list of helpful and free resources below:

DV/SV: 1800 RESPECT

Mental Health: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

Eating Disorders and Body Image Issues: Butterfly Foundation 1800 ED HOPE

Everything about Samantha coming to Crooked was fate. When she found Crooked, it was by accident. Lost in East Perth walking her dog Marley, wandering past the studio sign like the universe was nudging her toward something she didn’t even know she needed.

When Sammy speaks, everyone listens. Even before any of us knew her story, she had that presence that makes you instinctively lower your voice and pay attention.

She’s a veteran. The first woman to complete a hydrographic survey across all three Australian Antarctic stations. The first woman allowed to deploy with an all-male crew. Multiple overseas operations. And yet she told her story softly, almost reluctantly, as if these achievements belonged to someone else. She’s also a woman who’s been dismissed, underestimated, talked over, and told she wasn’t a “real” veteran. A woman who was met with “sweetheart, there are blokes with more important issues” when she reached out for help. A woman who has had her medals questioned as though her own service couldn’t possibly belong to her.

And then there’s the trauma buried underneath all of that. The parts she doesn’t offer easily. The violence she escaped. The exodus from Cairns to Mandurah with nothing but her dog and a car packed in quiet survival. The surgeries. The rebuilding. Speaking at the Royal Commission. The tattoos that tell the truth when words won’t.

Her shoot day was gentle in a way that felt sacred. No rush. No noise. Just her, Marley by her side, and a team who understood that bravery doesn’t always look loud. Sometimes bravery is walking into a studio with shaking hands. Sometimes it’s letting another woman hold space for you. Sometimes it’s allowing yourself to be seen without armour.

She didn’t say a lot on the day, but the way she breathed out when the camera dropped said more than any words could. The same thing happened in her viewing. She was overwhelmed, emotional, and kept forgetting to breathe until she noticed her new tattoo reminding her. And god, the photos. Strong. Quiet. Resolute. Vulnerable. Hers. Not the military’s. Not the system’s. Not the men who failed her. Hers. 

Since the shoot she’s stepped into leadership at the Narrogin RSL, building a contemporary, inclusive branch from the ground up. A veteran-led space that honours the people who serve, not the stereotypes. She told us she never would have taken that step without the confidence spark this experience gave her.

Samantha is proof that courage isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s soft and deliberate. Sometimes it walks in with a service dog. Sometimes it arrives because you got lost on the wrong street and accidentally found the right place.