While it was difficult to not be warmed by the sight of Johnathan Thurston's daughter clutching her dark-skinned doll during her father's celebration of his NRL Grand Final win, it's worth pausing to ask why this image resonated so much with viewers?

Why would a black doll, belonging to a little girl with a high-profile Indigenous father, who lives in Townsville, in a region with a large Indigenous population, be newsworthy not just here, but also to organisations like Britain's BBC and Independent?

The moment: Johnathan Thurston with daughter Frankie after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final. Credit:Cameron Spencer

One explanation could be it's just so rare to see a positive or, at least, uninflected image of an Indigenous person in mass media. If you live in a major city, it's a good chance you have little or no contact with Indigenous people because 65 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders live in outer or inner regional Australia or remote or very remote areas, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

I'd bet my own daughter's favourite doll, the majority of people tweeting about "how cool" or "inspirational" it was to see a black doll being held by an Indigenous child have never witnessed an Indigenous person buying a bottle of milk, picking up their kid from school or going fishing either.