A PROUD Territorian model has been forced to deny her roots in order to take part in a beauty pageant.

Victoria Hawkins, 20, could not enter the globally recognised Miss Tourism Australia contest as a Territorian and had to do the unthinkable — say that she was from New South Wales.

“It’s such a shame that I couldn’t represent NT as we are not on the map when it comes to this tourism pageant against all the other states in Australia, which is ironic as the NT plays such a big part in the tourism industry,” she said.

MISS UNIVERSE’S ICONIC SWIM SUITS

READY TO TAKE ON MISS UNIVERSE

The born-and-bred Darwin lass is a flight attendant but enjoys dabbling in modelling every now and then.

The Miss Tourism Australia website says the crowned winner will “focus on and contribute to the development of the tourism industry and strengthen the international knowledge of Australia as a sought- after destination for travelling, events and business to educate and help the growth of the tourism industry within Australia’’. Miss Tourism Australia did not return the Sunday Territorian’s phone call.

Coming from our Top End paradise, Ms Hawkins is, naturally, feeling hard done by.

“It’s really frustrating and it makes you really angry that whoever gets into the finals of Miss Tourism goes to Malaysia to promote Australia — why wouldn’t you have the Northern Territory there?”