[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 that 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
deflated
and all the emotions that 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 a nun or 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 destination 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 mob
were 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 it’s
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 wires 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 verse the
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 5% 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 supplies that we
use on a recent trip to Arnhem Land 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 were
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 cultures
together
thank you
you
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 that 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
deflated
and all the emotions that 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 a nun or 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 destination 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 mob
were 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 it’s
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 wires 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 verse the
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 5% 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 supplies that we
use on a recent trip to Arnhem Land 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 were
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 cultures
together
thank you
you
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