[Music]
I want to tell you a story this is a
story about a little girl who grew up in
a domestic-violence household losing her
mother at nine years of old 18 years of
age and growing up in confusion this
little girl had a resilience that no one
had ever seen before she had big dreams
this little girl after losing her
parents actually was rehomed to live
with her paternal grandparents in a
remote country town in Northwest New
South Wales living as a non indigenous
Australian she attended school and this
is all she knew now that little girl had
grown to a 40-year old woman who was a
MOT wife and mother and an entrepreneur
she was living the dream until one day a
package arrived in the mail inside that
package was a pile of information that
would change her life it was a story of
her family history not one story but two
there was a story of her paternal family
which came at no surprise and then there
was the story there was something else
it was her indigenous story it was her
mother’s story about her family heritage
this was something the little girl had
never known about and as a woman she had
to process it
reading about her mother’s family
brought a lot of emotions to the stage
she read about her grandfather who
served in the First World War as a
soldier she read of her grandfather who
was one of Australia’s first indigenous
soldiers to serve in that war and she
read of his story of coming home with
medals and how he returned hurtin to
flighted and all the emotions
than he went through as she sifted
through the paperwork and read of the
story something shifted in this woman
there was a sense of spirit and
belonging that she’d never actually felt
before it was a feeling like coming home
looking at the photos seeing the images
there was family stories that she was
able to understand that had once been
unexplained there was questions that
were left unanswered but looking at the
pictures and understanding the stories
it all began to fit and the puzzle of
her new world began to make take shape
during this time she had built herself
up without the identity and the
assistance of her heritage and she had
worked and built businesses and created
opportunities for her family and seen
things come forward but during this
discovery something had to change
she was now indigenous and this is
something she had to do for herself so
the research began and she started to
understand what she needed to find the
answers to life’s purpose she started to
connect with those around her and find
the questions that she needed answering
living in Canberra Australia’s capital
she was able to connect with those that
she needed to tell her story and finally
she was able to identify as a proud
Camilla a woman and this is my story I’d
like to acknowledge the none all people
where we meet today and pay my respects
to the elders past present and future
I’m blessed because I can see both sides
of this nation
and I’m able to work in both arenas with
great comfort my dream is to become a
voice of my people and see the message
go out and
educate the world on the messages
there’s a great sense of achievement
that comes from this process and there’s
a feeling of the jigsaw finally being
able to fit through this journey I have
been able to become strong and proud the
interesting thing is when people meet me
a lot of them say you don’t look
Aboriginal you look Greek maybe Italian
perhaps European but fellow sisters and
brothers of my indigenous heritage can
pick it and straightaway they say to me
what mod are you from there’s a great
sense of relief that comes with that
because it’s amazing when you feel that
sense of belonging but it’s funny how
statements like this can make you feel
so differently from each perspective but
to the doubters I always say there’s a
simple explanation if you drink tea its
tea
whether it’s strong black weak or white
it’s still a cup of tea
the other question people ask me is what
percentage are you and I say with
kindness
we either actually identify fully or not
at all which leads me to think which
body parts what I labeled black which
body parts with our label wise learning
my history has been strong for myself
and given me that strength that I’ve
needed an understanding my culture has
given me purpose there has been tough
times along the road where I’ve had to
understand different journeys and have
awkward conversations like those
annoying percentages to educate the
world on the indigenous culture and the
community and the messages of these
people is my life purpose and I’d like
to see us all be able to embrace all
cultures especially embrace the love and
have the love and the strength within
our indigenous culture and for the first
first world people First Nations people
in the past I’ve heard stories of you
know indigenous people are on welfare
they want the land they have free money
from the government it just made me
realize how naive I was in growing up
and what I actually didn’t really know
the key to this is that we actually
don’t have favorites within this system
and for me I’m just ambitious and driven
anyway I always strive for what I
believe in and do the best that I can
I’ve been in business since I was 19
years old and trying to understand these
two worlds and how I can become a
potential leader within my indigenous
community
has been on the forefront of my purpose
so how can I stand up and be noticed how
can I bridge the gap what can I do to
introduce us as an indigenous community
to the world so I create an indigenous
product range and I love that range with
that range we actually introduce raw
suppliers that are approved by
indigenous communities we only work with
those that provide economic
sustainability back into those
communities the flow of funds back into
communities is very important it
actually helps them rely on their own
economic independence in truth five
percent of the true value of the
products or the worth of those
communities and the resources only feeds
back into those communities we need to
change it’s our choice as consumers and
business people to make that difference
we need to ask and respect the
indigenous suppliers that we use on a
recent trip to Arnhem lands I was able
to experience his firsthand I was able
to play with the aunties and the sisters
when we had our women women’s business
and were able to create beautiful
jewelry from seeds and nuts and I was
able to learn how to basket weave and
create this beautiful necklace that I
wear today
this necklace took me six hours to
actually make can you imagine how long
it takes to make one of the baskets this
is a valuable lesson that I’ll be taking
home to my multiple networks and to
teach them of the understanding of the
value of community and that people pay
the correct price for all the resources
and products from community
and we’re able to feed into economic
independence into those communities we
can buy authentically indigenous
products when we search it out we can
ask other products socially responsible
to feed back into those communities are
we helping future generations in those
communities I’d like to leave you with
this thought my dream is to see a lot of
our children all of the children in
Australia learn culture in the school
system wouldn’t it be great if it was
part of the actual curriculum in our
Australian education system imagine if
they could learn indigenous language
this would be a valuable addition that
we could pay forward to the next
generation we could also help close the
gap and create something for us in the
future we can all learn from each other
through economic language and healing if
you find this valuable please follow it
up talk to your schools talk to your
teachers talk to your peers see what we
can do about bringing our culture’s
together thank you
[Applause]
I want to tell you a story this is a
story about a little girl who grew up in
a domestic-violence household losing her
mother at nine years of old 18 years of
age and growing up in confusion this
little girl had a resilience that no one
had ever seen before she had big dreams
this little girl after losing her
parents actually was rehomed to live
with her paternal grandparents in a
remote country town in Northwest New
South Wales living as a non indigenous
Australian she attended school and this
is all she knew now that little girl had
grown to a 40-year old woman who was a
MOT wife and mother and an entrepreneur
she was living the dream until one day a
package arrived in the mail inside that
package was a pile of information that
would change her life it was a story of
her family history not one story but two
there was a story of her paternal family
which came at no surprise and then there
was the story there was something else
it was her indigenous story it was her
mother’s story about her family heritage
this was something the little girl had
never known about and as a woman she had
to process it
reading about her mother’s family
brought a lot of emotions to the stage
she read about her grandfather who
served in the First World War as a
soldier she read of her grandfather who
was one of Australia’s first indigenous
soldiers to serve in that war and she
read of his story of coming home with
medals and how he returned hurtin to
flighted and all the emotions
than he went through as she sifted
through the paperwork and read of the
story something shifted in this woman
there was a sense of spirit and
belonging that she’d never actually felt
before it was a feeling like coming home
looking at the photos seeing the images
there was family stories that she was
able to understand that had once been
unexplained there was questions that
were left unanswered but looking at the
pictures and understanding the stories
it all began to fit and the puzzle of
her new world began to make take shape
during this time she had built herself
up without the identity and the
assistance of her heritage and she had
worked and built businesses and created
opportunities for her family and seen
things come forward but during this
discovery something had to change
she was now indigenous and this is
something she had to do for herself so
the research began and she started to
understand what she needed to find the
answers to life’s purpose she started to
connect with those around her and find
the questions that she needed answering
living in Canberra Australia’s capital
she was able to connect with those that
she needed to tell her story and finally
she was able to identify as a proud
Camilla a woman and this is my story I’d
like to acknowledge the none all people
where we meet today and pay my respects
to the elders past present and future
I’m blessed because I can see both sides
of this nation
and I’m able to work in both arenas with
great comfort my dream is to become a
voice of my people and see the message
go out and
educate the world on the messages
there’s a great sense of achievement
that comes from this process and there’s
a feeling of the jigsaw finally being
able to fit through this journey I have
been able to become strong and proud the
interesting thing is when people meet me
a lot of them say you don’t look
Aboriginal you look Greek maybe Italian
perhaps European but fellow sisters and
brothers of my indigenous heritage can
pick it and straightaway they say to me
what mod are you from there’s a great
sense of relief that comes with that
because it’s amazing when you feel that
sense of belonging but it’s funny how
statements like this can make you feel
so differently from each perspective but
to the doubters I always say there’s a
simple explanation if you drink tea its
tea
whether it’s strong black weak or white
it’s still a cup of tea
the other question people ask me is what
percentage are you and I say with
kindness
we either actually identify fully or not
at all which leads me to think which
body parts what I labeled black which
body parts with our label wise learning
my history has been strong for myself
and given me that strength that I’ve
needed an understanding my culture has
given me purpose there has been tough
times along the road where I’ve had to
understand different journeys and have
awkward conversations like those
annoying percentages to educate the
world on the indigenous culture and the
community and the messages of these
people is my life purpose and I’d like
to see us all be able to embrace all
cultures especially embrace the love and
have the love and the strength within
our indigenous culture and for the first
first world people First Nations people
in the past I’ve heard stories of you
know indigenous people are on welfare
they want the land they have free money
from the government it just made me
realize how naive I was in growing up
and what I actually didn’t really know
the key to this is that we actually
don’t have favorites within this system
and for me I’m just ambitious and driven
anyway I always strive for what I
believe in and do the best that I can
I’ve been in business since I was 19
years old and trying to understand these
two worlds and how I can become a
potential leader within my indigenous
community
has been on the forefront of my purpose
so how can I stand up and be noticed how
can I bridge the gap what can I do to
introduce us as an indigenous community
to the world so I create an indigenous
product range and I love that range with
that range we actually introduce raw
suppliers that are approved by
indigenous communities we only work with
those that provide economic
sustainability back into those
communities the flow of funds back into
communities is very important it
actually helps them rely on their own
economic independence in truth five
percent of the true value of the
products or the worth of those
communities and the resources only feeds
back into those communities we need to
change it’s our choice as consumers and
business people to make that difference
we need to ask and respect the
indigenous suppliers that we use on a
recent trip to Arnhem lands I was able
to experience his firsthand I was able
to play with the aunties and the sisters
when we had our women women’s business
and were able to create beautiful
jewelry from seeds and nuts and I was
able to learn how to basket weave and
create this beautiful necklace that I
wear today
this necklace took me six hours to
actually make can you imagine how long
it takes to make one of the baskets this
is a valuable lesson that I’ll be taking
home to my multiple networks and to
teach them of the understanding of the
value of community and that people pay
the correct price for all the resources
and products from community
and we’re able to feed into economic
independence into those communities we
can buy authentically indigenous
products when we search it out we can
ask other products socially responsible
to feed back into those communities are
we helping future generations in those
communities I’d like to leave you with
this thought my dream is to see a lot of
our children all of the children in
Australia learn culture in the school
system wouldn’t it be great if it was
part of the actual curriculum in our
Australian education system imagine if
they could learn indigenous language
this would be a valuable addition that
we could pay forward to the next
generation we could also help close the
gap and create something for us in the
future we can all learn from each other
through economic language and healing if
you find this valuable please follow it
up talk to your schools talk to your
teachers talk to your peers see what we
can do about bringing our culture’s
together thank you
[Applause]
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