BONUS: Marlee Silva – Aboriginal History Spanning 80,000 Years

SUMMARY

Isn’t it your lucky day? Because this week we’re dropping not one, but TWO episodes with Speaker, Author, Aboriginal Rights Advocate and Happow Ambassador, Marlee Silva!

When it comes to Aboriginal culture and history, Marlee is like a well-resourced library.  She’s incredibly knowledgeable. So we decided to take full advantage of this and ask Marlee a stack of questions, because to be totally honest, there was a lot we didn’t know about Indigenous culture and history. So we wanted to educate ourselves and others who too would love to learn more!

Marlee was so gracious and respectful of Gianna’s questions, and her answers and perspective were eye-opening and insightful. Gianna and Marlee spoke openly about some BIG issues that still exist today.

Fun fact. Did you know Aboriginal history spans 80,000 years! This is just one of the many facts Marlee and Gianna spoke about. Here’s some other stuff they covered too:

• Aboriginal Countries in Australia and Torres Strait Islands
• Skin names in central Australia
• Dreamtime
• The meaning of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags
• Why Uluru means so much to Aboriginal people
• The significance of the Southern Cross
• The 2005 Cronulla riots 
• The link between racism and fear
• How far we’ve come as a society and our hopes for the future

Hope you get a lot out of this chat just like we did.

…So, for the second time this week, let’s once again Power Up Life!

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CREDITS

Host: Co-Founder/CEO Happow, Gianna Lucas

Producers: Gianna Lucas, Marija Dukadinovska, Carissa Shale

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00:03
Speaker 1: I’m not just happy, I’m Happow.

00:00:11
Gianna : This is, Power Up Life, the podcast, I’m your host, Gianna Lucas co- founder and CEO at Happow, the social enterprise that powers this podcast. We help you slay life in high school uni and beyond. Each week on the show, you’ll learn epic life skills in a super chill way, hear from well- known legends, as they reveal their biggest setbacks of milestones to date, and you’ll find out what our Happow squad think about a whole stack of topics too, from epic challenges to super raw moments. This show has it all. So let’s, Power Up Life.

Isn’t it your lucky day, because this week we’re not dropping one, but two episodes with speaker, author, Aboriginal rights advocate and Happow ambassador, Marlee Silva. With Marlee, what you see is what you get she super authentic and kind. When it comes to Aboriginal culture and history, Marlee is like a well- resourced library. She’s incredibly knowledgeable. So I decided to take full advantage of this and asked Marlee a stack of questions, because to be totally honest, there was a lot I didn’t know about indigenous culture and history. And so I wanted to educate myself, and others who too wanted to learn more. She was so gracious and respectful of my questions and her answers and perspective were so eye- opening and insightful. We spoke openly about some big issues that still exist today, and I’m so grateful to have had this conversation with Marlee.

Fun fact. Did you know, Aboriginal history spans 80, 000 years? Yep. This is exactly right. And just one of the many facts Marlee and I spoke about. Here’s some of the other stuff we covered too. Aboriginal countries in Australia and Torres Strait islands, skin names in central Australia, Dreamtime, the meaning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. Why Uluru means so much to Aboriginal people. The significance of the Southern Cross, the 2005 Cronulla riots, the link between racism and fear, and how far we’ve come as a society and our hopes for the future.

Hope you get a lot out of this chat, just like I did. So for the second time this week, let’s once again, Power Up Life. I have such respect for you in the advocacy work that you do in the social platform, that Tiddas 4 Tiddas, that you’ve built and are growing. I just think you’re an exceptional young woman, and your sister, Keely, who runs Tiddas 4 Tiddas with you. Who’s, early twenties. She’s 22, I think I read, is that right

00:03:14
Marlee: Yes.

00:03:15
Gianna : Yes. (crosstalk) You are her sister. So the two of you are very different, but you are both obviously from the same area. So you said you’re a Gamilaroi and Dunghutti woman. So, and I was explaining before we went on air, that I’m from the (Wundree) area in Melbourne. And I’d love to ask a question, in the work that you’ve done in the advocacy you do, you’ve learnt a lot about this stuff, and of course of your dad being Aboriginal. Can you tell us, we’ve got states all around Australia, New South Wales, ACT, Northern Territory, Tassie, how many areas are there of Aboriginal country, in comparison to the states that we have? Is there a lot more areas that are Aboriginal in the sense that, are they considered like towns? How does that all work?

00:04:03
Marlee: The easiest way to explain it is we really truly are a continent and there are over 250 Aboriginal countries. So we call them countries, because if you Google a map of Aboriginal Australia, or go into AIATSIS, which is our premier research body, they have this beautiful map and it’s interactive, and you can go into it and you see all the borders. And it looks like how Africa looks, with all the different borders of the countries, but we have 250 and some of them are quite little. And as much as I know the countries of the major cities and a few other, mostly in New South Wales, obviously, because that’s where so many that I wouldn’t be able to memorize them all. And then you add on top of it, the Torres Strait islands as well. There’s so, so much. Every time you meet an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person, they will introduce themselves by their country or clan name.

So that’s why, when I say, ” My name’s Marlee Silva. I’m a Gamilaroi and Dunghutti woman,” what I actually am saying is that my bloodlines come from those countries. So traditionally, because my people are matriarchal, I first and foremost say that I’m a Gamilaroi woman, because that’s my grandmother’s people. So you take that, and you’ll find that a lot of people will just identify with the one group that comes from their female part of their bloodline. But I also acknowledge the blood ties that I have to Dunghutti country, which is through my grandfather. So this is so complex. Honestly, there’s so many different variations of our identity, and how we talk about it. People talk, in the central desert area, they have skin names, Which is a whole other kettle of fish-

00:05:36
Gianna : Skin names? That literally mean like shade of skin? Like, what are skin names?

00:05:39
Marlee: No, no, no.

00:05:41
Gianna : No, I was going to sound like one of them-

00:05:41
Marlee: No, no, no. Skin names essentially dictate how you’re connected to everyone else in the group, and the way that it was used, it’s obviously been around for 80,000 years and that’s how you understand your role in a clan. So there’s still people who adhere by the skin names. And there’s instances where, if you share a skin name with someone, you can’t talk to them or you can’t marry them, or you can’t have anything to do with them, in some cases. And then it also dictates who you can marry in the clan group. And then it also creates weird things like this. I’ve met girls from that area whose uncle is a two year old boy and they’re 35, but that’s the way that those skin names dictate family things. It’s very, very complex.

And it’s not part of where my people are from. It’s very much a central desert area. It’s got a thing, but it’s super complex. There’s so many different facets of it. And that’s something that people underestimate and misunderstand about our culture, is that it’s like a mono culture. It’s why I always get comments that I don’t look Aboriginal, or people talk about percentile and that sort of stuff. And there’s so many ignorant, wrong connotations that come with that because we can’t be reduced to a skin color. We can’t be reduced to a certain way of life. In high school I had kids ask me about whether I believed in Dreamtime, and they don’t even understand what Dreaming or the Dreamtime is, and they sort of- (crosstalk)

00:07:12
Gianna : It’s barely touched on. It’s barely touched on in school. I remember in high school, we did study Aboriginal history, but not in depth. It was very much top line sort of the, and we did, I remember, we did look into Dreamtime stories, but how could we possibly understand Dreamtime in a class? When there’s, as you said, 80, 000 years of Aboriginal history in Australia, which is why I’m so excited to have you on the Power Up Life show, because this stuff, I know me and my team were so interested in learning about, but we also, we want to educate other young people, so we’re better equipped with this knowledge. So when we go and have conversations with our mates, we can say, ” Hey, did you know this?” So when things like the 26th of January pops up, we actually have a go, ” I understand this now,” rather than going, ” Oh, it’s just a day of having fun with your friends and having a barbecue.” There’s so much more complexities to it. So it’s really, really interesting that you say that.

And I’d love to ask you, as well, with the Aboriginal flag, which I love by the way. I know that [inaudible 00:08: 13], I’m sure we’ve all seen it because it’s everywhere, but there’s black, there’s yellow and there’s red. Now, can you tell us what each of the colors and the symbols mean on the Aboriginal flag?

00:08:24
Marlee: Yeah. So when it was put together, the three different colors meant, or continue to mean, three different things. The black being representative of the people, of Aboriginal people, the red being representative of the red dirt of the earth, of country, and then the sun, the yellow being the sun, or the giver of life, creator. So it represents our collective being. And it’s something that I take great pride in. And when you see it out and about, thankfully we in an era where a lot of the time I walk into offices all over the country and there will be a little plaque out the front that has the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags on it, recognizing the country that you’re on, which is nice. And it instantly just puts a bit of an ease on top of you, as you walk into, particularly quite foreign areas.

00:09:14
Gianna : Yeah. And the Torres Strait Islander flag, is that blue, white and green, is that correct?

00:09:20
Marlee: Yeah. And there’s a bit of black in there as well.

00:09:22
Gianna : Yeah. So what does that one symbolize? Are you familiar with that flag as well?

00:09:25
Marlee: Yeah, so the black is the people, again, the white, there’s the white head dress, which is really significant cultural head wear that represents the chiefs of the islands, from my understanding, the leadership in the islands, and then there’s the star in the middle, which is the North Star, and then the blue and the green are the islands in the waters around it.

00:09:44
Gianna : That’s beautiful. See, hearing you describe them. I just feel that they’re, it’s like a holistic approach to creating some kind of identity, you’re grabbing both the physical, the spiritual and almost the emotional connection to land and to humanity. It’s absolutely beautiful. So thank you so much for telling me that.
And I actually, goodness, I think it was in 2013, I went on a family holiday, also with my partner and my parents, to the Northern Territory. And we spent about a week, we flew into Alice Springs, so that’s where we stayed. And then we went to Uluru, [ Kata Tjuta 00:10: 23], and we just spent time with elders. And we went on a walking tour around Uluru, and I’ll never forget, I remember sitting back at sunset, on a chair, just quite a distance away from Uluru, and watching that sunset. And it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. And I just, it was very spiritual, as well for me. And I just was so in awe of the beauty of this place, and the tranquility of Uluru, and learning about the meaning of what it is to Aboriginal people. I have so much respect for that.

And even going through Kata Tjuta, and for those who don’t know, Kata Tjuta, actually, I probably should get you to describe, Kata Tjuta, but for me, I remember the beautiful rock formations and unlike Uluru, you can walk through Kata Tjuta. Can you tell us a little bit about the significance of Uluru, particularly to Aboriginal people?

00:11:22
Marlee: I think in a lot of ways it’s positioned, I can only talk about me personally-

00:11:25
Gianna : Yeah. Yeah. Your feelings.

00:11:29
Marlee: Yeah. It’s the spiritual center of the country. I’ve unfortunately never been-

00:11:35
Gianna : You haven’t been. Oh, wow, I’m so shocked.

00:11:38
Marlee: No, I haven’t had, I’ve just had a crazy, yeah, it’s so crazy because I have actually traveled more internationally than domestically in my life, mostly because my mom works for Qantas, which is a very scary time, as you can imagine.

00:11:54
Gianna : Yes, God.

00:11:54
Marlee: So I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been to so many different places, and interacted with so many different cultures or whatever, but every time I return, there’s something so special about the continent that we live on, and each country that makes it up is so unique and beautiful, and has a different connection, and a different feeling and purpose. So I can’t even imagine how special it is to stand in front of Uluru. I think it’s probably for the best that I haven’t been there, and now can go when it’s not being climbed on. I think there’ll be much more, less distressing actually, because I think it would have been pretty difficult to watch people do that, if I had been there when that has happened. So yeah, no, I look forward to getting there eventually, I think, especially because of the period that we’re in, I’ll have to focus on any kind of travel being within Australia. So it’s a good opportunity. Silver linings. Right?

00:12:53
Gianna : Yeah, a good excuse. And I think you will absolutely love it. It is remarkable and I think it’s so good that people can no longer climb Uluru, because to be honest, I always never agreed with that. Even though I didn’t understand the complexities of this, like how spiritual Uluru is, I thought to myself, ” If someone started climbing on a church that I go to, that’s just disrespectful.” And so I would immediately go, ” Okay, well, if this rock is like church to Aboriginal people, then how rude it is that people are climbing it? Yes, people are adventurous and they want to say, ” I’ve climbed Uluru.” Great. I just couldn’t understand why people would do it, because I’m like, “Well, you wouldn’t want someone to climb on your house, don’t climb on someone else’s.” So that’s how I always thought, even growing up. So I just think it’s awesome that it’s legislation now, and that it is illegal. And it’s a wonderful thing. So yeah. And you’ll have to go, you have to go and see it. I think you, and I look forward to hearing what you think when you return.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: You’re listening to Power Up Life, a Happow podcast.

00:13:58
Carissa: This week we asked you, what part of indigenous history and culture you want to learn more about? And here’s what you had to say.

00:14:06
Speaker 5: I’m quite a spiritual person and feel pretty connected to the land. And that’s something that has always piqued my interest is, how the indigenous people have connected to the land. And obviously there’s such a rich history there and cultural significance in their connection to the land. And I just certainly would love to learn a bit more about how that stemmed, and the history behind all of that.

00:14:28
Speaker 6: Part of indigenous culture that I would love to learn more about is knowing the issues that indigenous people face today. In particular, the issues that young people face, and how we can work alongside them to help them with those issues.

00:14:42
Speaker 7: I am extremely interested in the human body. There are some tribes of indigenous people who, up until 50 years ago, had no idea of the concept of any sort of vascular disease, like diabetes, or heart attacks. And of course these are diseases that have plagued modern societies for centuries. I think that’s something I really, really want to know more about.

00:15:10
Speaker 8: I would like to learn more about the stolen generation. And it is so unfair to see the children torn away from their families. They had no right.

00:15:19
Carissa: I’m Carissa Shale, and that’s this week’s top topic. Got something to share? Drop us an email, yoursay@ happow. com.

00:15:29
Gianna : Learn Epic life skills in a super chill way, sign up for free at happow. com.
So I’d love to ask you as well, the Southern Cross. That is iconic, you can see it in the sky. It’s often used in movies, in Australian literature, everywhere, really, and it is on the Australian flag as well. Can you tell us, what does the Southern Cross mean, and why is it so significant to Aboriginal people?

00:15:56
Marlee: Yeah, it’s so crazy because it is arguably the most important constellation. If you look through our history in terms of navigation and Dreaming, it is the foot of the great Emu in the sky.

00:16:10
Gianna : I didn’t know that.

00:16:11
Marlee: There’s an Emu constellation that you can’t really see in cities. I have seen it.

00:16:15
Gianna : Hashtag pollution. Although (crosstalk) now you probably can.

00:16:18
Marlee: Again, maybe you could, yeah.

00:16:20
Gianna : With no cars on the road.

00:16:22
Marlee: I’ve seen it clearly up in Nhulunbuy. So in East Arnhem Land, and it is absolutely spectacular, because it looks like this tear in the sky, but it’s the body of an Emu, it’s very clear. And the foot of it is the Southern Cross. And like I said, every country has different stories and different Dreaming, but a common denominator in a lot of them is the use of the Southern Cross, that has different names, from different areas, to navigate and to map country and things like that. So it’s very, very culturally significant and has been important for a long time, but it’s been tainted from ultra examples of nationalism and patriotism, and has become a symbol for white racists in a lot of ways, which is so crazy. There’s a great documentary by Warwick Thornton, who’s an Aboriginal filmmaker, called, We Don’t Need a Map, and it’s all about the Southern Cross. Highly recommend it. It’s quite funny as well, but so-

00:17:25
Gianna : When did it come out?

00:17:25
Marlee: Only a couple of years ago.

00:17:27
Gianna : Oh, so it’s a recent film.

00:17:28
Marlee: It’s pretty recent. Yeah. So I’m from Sydney, but I actually live in Cronulla.

00:17:34
Gianna : Oh, that’s the beach area.

00:17:35
Marlee: Yes. (crosstalk) So it’s famous for race riots-

00:17:38
Gianna : I know, that’s what I was going to say. I know Cronulla’s to have a very good, or not so good, I should say, party-

00:17:45
Marlee: Yes. Naturally beautiful, beautiful environment, the most beautiful beaches in the world. I’m very, very biased, but it’s famous for the race riots that we had in the early 2000s. And in that documentary, by Warwick Thornton, he actually interviews a tattoo artist who is from the area. And after the riots happened, he said his books were booked out for weeks in advance because so many men came to get Southern Cross tattoos after it, to be like, ” This is our country, and this is for us. And you’re not welcome here,” to the people that they were against.

And it’s so funny because I grew up in Cronulla and I remember the riots so distinctly. I was very young, but I have, obviously I have my Aboriginal family, but on my mom’s side of the family, even though her family’s white, we were also super multi- cultural. I have Lebanese cousins and Filipino cousins and we’re like the United nations. And so, one of my cousins is Lebanese and was at high school during the time that the riots happened. So she was getting text messages from both sides, to go down to this thing and it was, I just remember it so distinctly.

And from that point, because of the tensions that were residual in Cronulla, and how brown people didn’t really feel welcome there, ever, from that point, that I associated racism with the Southern Cross and the flag, the Australian flag. I’ve never felt super comfortable with it because of what I saw in that time. And that has so much less to do with my Aboriginal culture and more to do with what my cousin went through, and what I saw happen to a big chunk of the community during that time. And it’s so weird because it was watching that Warwick Thornton doco that I went, ” Oh my God, that symbol should be cultural. It should be something that I can go, ” That’s an awesome thing. And that’s something that’s been so important through my people’s history,” but it’s being tainted by this.”
So it’s weird, it’s a weird thing. And it’s quite interesting, because I don’t think I’ve ever been asked about the Southern Cross before in an interview

00:19:51
Gianna : Really?

00:19:52
Marlee: Yeah, never. But I think it’s a really interesting discussion, because we talk about what is Australian identity is all the time. And I think we can’t really answer that question, but a big symbol in it is the Southern Cross. And maybe it is about reclaiming it as something that ties in both parts of the story. You’ve discovered something quite powerful, I think.

00:20:17
Gianna : I feel like this is an exclusive on the, Power Up Life show. No, it’s great to have this discussion. And as you know, I’m not Aboriginal. I am actually, for those who don’t know, I am Italian. My grandparents, all four of them, some of which have passed away now, but they immigrated to Australia from Italy. And I could tell you, when they came to Australia, that there was a lot of racism, even with my husband’s, Brendan, who’s in the Happow business as well, his great grandfather is Greek or was Greek, he’s now obviously passed away. And when he came to Australia from an island called Ithaca, his last name was Lucatsis. And because there was such terrible racism in Australia, he felt he had to change his last name just so he could sound more Australian, inverted commas, so he changed it to Lucas, which is now why all the family are Lucas. But technically we should have a Greek, long, Greek last name, but we don’t, it’s Lucas.

And even for me, and that was going back in the early or mid-1900s, for me, I remember growing up, I’ll never forget this. So we have, in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula, which would be like Cronulla kind of thing, and everyone goes there. A lot of people live there, but a lot of people travel from Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula during the summer holidays. And I remember one year probably in maybe the early 2000s, I remember walking down the street with my cousins, because we’d go there every summer holidays. And I kid you not, I saw men or younger, I’d probably say in their early twenties, wrapped in Australian flags, topless. So they had their board shorts on, which were also Australian flags, with the Australian flag, cap or hat of some kind. And they had, I won’t, it’s very vulgar, but they had basically, imagine the more vulgar version of go away walks, ” You’re not wanted,” and they will chanting, ” You’re not wanted, go away,” along the street that was full of people-

00:22:16
Marlee: Ugh, that’s awful.

00:22:17
Gianna : From all walks of life. Yeah. And I will never, ever forget that because that was the first time I realized, or made me question, ” Am I different?” But I remembered in that moment, I thought, ” Am I different?” And that was a horrible feeling for me because I’m going, ” No, we are such a multicultural nation. How dare you tell me that I’m not from here.” And I thought to myself, ” Well, technically you’re not from here either. All of us, except for Aboriginal people, that have been here for 80, 000 years, everybody has immigrated to Australia at some time, in their ancestors.” And that really hurt me.

And probably if I look back, it’s probably why I’m so passionate about having you on the show. Because even though I’m not Aboriginal, I’ve experienced racism and it’s a horrible feeling to have. And I believe racism comes from not being educated in that area. Maybe they don’t have a full understanding of both sides to a story. They’ve probably only been heard one story all their lies. And so they bring forward and go, ” Well, that must be right,” without hearing another side. And that breaks my heart too, because I think if we are able to connect with people, educate and empower people with knowledge, then we can be more united and go, ” Yeah, we’re one and the same.” That’s what I think anyway.

00:23:40
Marlee: Yeah. Yeah. And I think it also comes from fear. Racism comes from fear of things you don’t know, or you don’t understand. And to a certain extent it comes from, I think in a white Australian context, the fear comes from this rhetoric that people who are different, who are immigrants, or Aboriginal, or just not white, they’re trying to steal something from you, when they are asking to be treated in the same way. So I think because of the way that Australia was, as we know it today, was sped up. It was that positioned British white immigrants as the power holders, and it means that anyone else who doesn’t fit that, and even, to an extent, a British white male descendant, if you’re not that, then you’re trying to take the power away from them. So it becomes, this wall comes up, and it’s like, ” Just because I’m asking to be treated the same as you, that’s not taking anything from you. It’s actually giving something to all of us.”

And trying to explain that and get people to hear you when you talk about that is really hard, because a lot of the time it is that whole thing that you’ve been ingrained in you for a long time. And you can’t see anything different, because it’s all you’ve ever known. So that’s when the fear comes in. And we see it, unfortunately, we’ve seen it really rear its ugly, ugly head with the Coronavirus stuff against the Asian Australian community.

00:24:55
Gianna : Yes. It’s happened again.

00:24:57
Marlee: Some of these stories, I’ve heard, I honestly, I am very aware of how racist this country is, but I can’t believe that people have the audacity to treat other human beings like that. I just, it blows my mind. I saw a horrific video on the news last night, of two young sisters who were Asian, and just in the streets of Sydney, and someone was spitting at them and screaming at them, saying, ” It’s your fault that we’re in this position.” I was just, I can’t believe this is real. I can’t believe that, I can believe it, but I don’t want to, I don’t want to believe that that happens. And it comes from that thing that, looking for someone to blame when something goes wrong and yeah, fearing that these people are trying to take something from you.

00:25:48
Gianna : I think you hit the nail on the head. It does come down to fear, fear of the unknown. And I think, generally speaking, anxiety in people, no matter how old you are has increased so much because of COVID- 19 and the ramifications of social distancing and being allocated certain times to go to work, or go to the shops, or work from home. And I think everybody is more stressed, and that can sometimes bring the best out of people, in the sense that they unite, come together. ” How can I help you? How can I support you?” And then in others, they go, ” Ah,” they freak out and they just start attacking and accusing people of things, because they can’t cope.

And there have been some wonderful stories that have come out of COVID. But it’s just so sad to hear that there are stories, like you said, on the news last night, and it does happen. And I try to pretend it doesn’t because I’m such a big believer in positivity and empowerment, but the reality is, it does happen in our community. And what I’d love to ask you is, do you find that we have grown, though, as a society in terms of being more inclusive, especially of Aboriginal history? And I think I’ve seen in my, as I get older now, in my twenties, that there is a lot more inclusiveness and less segregation, which I think is a beautiful thing. What do you think?

00:27:06
Marlee: Yeah, I think that the prime example that we have at least is around our discussions and particularly around January 26th, I think it is the perfect barometer of where we’re at. And a big moment, I think, was Triple J’s decision to move the Hottest 100 from the day, and the response that, that got from the younger generation, so, my age group was, ” Okay, sweet. I don’t care. I just want the Hottest 100.” That’s it, and that’s as simple as it can be. That’s as simple as it can be.

And I think that the generation coming up has far more education, has far more examples of what Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people are and what they do. You’ll just have to turn on the TV, Channel Nine, every weekday morning. Who’s on there, Brooke Boney, right? You look at that, someone like her, who’s amazing and who I love a lot. And she’s an example for who we are, and where we’re at, every day. Turn on Studio 10, if you’re into watching that, there’s Narelda Jacobs, right? Narelda Jacobs, Aboriginal gay woman, on mainstream television as well. Another amazing thing. Obviously I’m very biased, talking about women, but-

00:28:22
Gianna : You’re exempt from the rule. You’re our standard Tiddas 4 Tiddas, so it is okay-

00:28:26
Marlee: This is my jam, right? But where we find Aboriginal people, where we hear our voices now, has changed so dramatically and it has become far more mainstream. And yes, there are very big things we still need to overcome. And there’s a lot of education that’s missing, in the gap between seeing Aboriginal people and understanding our situation, and how we’re going, and where we need to go. But it’s a really promising start. I think that it ultimately needs to start in education. How, we’ve been talking about understanding Aboriginal history, and the two periods you do in your eight are not enough.

00:29:05
Gianna : Agreed.

00:29:06
Marlee: And we still start talking about Aboriginal history as if it started in 1788. And it’s just absurd because this period between, it’s so tiny on the spectrum of how long we’ve been around, and what’s happened and what we’ve achieved, and that story. Ultimately, what I want is for all Australians to feel connected to that story, and understand, you walk on Aboriginal land every single day, you are connected to the story of resilience that has built this land, and you should be proud of the founding culture because it’s amazing and it’s beautiful.

And there’s so many things that we can all learn from Aboriginal knowledge systems and ways of being that I think, if we embraced, it would make us a far more united and positive community that really did back each other.

00:29:57
Gianna : What a way to finish off this bonus podcast episode. What I love is Marlee’s outlook on life. Despite all the stuff that has taken place over the years, not to mention this year alone, Marlee still envisions a bright future, an inclusive one for all, as do I, Marlee is only 25. Can you just imagine where she’ll be when she’s 50? Hashtag world-changer much? Marlee has just published her first book, My Tidda, My Sister. I bought myself a copy and it’s really beautiful, filled with inspiring stories from indigenous women of all ages. If you’re keen to get your hands on one, you can do so by heading to booktopia.com.au, or other good bookstores.

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This episode of, Power Up Life was produced by me, Gianna Lucas, Marija Dukadinovska, and Carissa Shale, for the Happow Podcast Network.Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of, Power Up Life, a Happow podcast. If you loved this episode, be a legend and leave us a quick rating and review on your fave podcast app. Dive into the show notes for all episodes on our website. Catch you next time and remember to, Power Up Life.