Acknowledgement of Country and an invitation to celebrate National Reconciliation Week with me on Beyond Blue.

[Gruffudd]

I want to start with acknowledging I am writing to you from Wiradjuri country, I acknowledge elders past and present, and pay my respects to all Aboriginal people and those who are reading this now.

Where are you? If you are not sure check it out on this map here  I'd love to have a roll call of country (Just the country from the map and not the name of the settlement you live in).

Here on Beyond Blue we make no shame out of mental health, we are all people with our own story to tell. We talk, and yarn, and support each other. I have been incredibly lucky in life to be here in Australia and to have had the opportunity to be friends with and learn from people who are Aboriginal. If ever I need some listening and a bit of direction I have Uncles and Aunties that are there to help. I love how they make me laugh, how they work with me in my professional life, stand up for Aboriginal people in our community, and how they unwind with me on a Friday night.

Being proud Welsh (Cymro am byth!) I love talking my culture and other cultures too, it is what keeps me strong, I care about what has happened in our history. We have just recently observed National Sorry Day, it is a difficult day for me knowing families who are still working things out from the generations of their family taken away. I work with families for a living and have had to face up to what was done and the ongoing impact. But those very same people give me hope for the future we share together.

I recon reconciliation is about the stories of our country being told. Some are hard to hear, others are uplifting. All of them are about people, family, and culture. Let's celebrate our stories.

Rob.

[Stephanie_bb]

Hi Rob

What a great post! I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the lands from which I am writing, the Wurundjeri people and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I'd also like to acknowledge other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Aboriginal people on the forum.

I work for beyondblue as the Project Manager - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and started just over 5 weeks ago. I’m a non-Aboriginal person, my background is English and I was born and raised on Ngarrindjeri and Nganguruku country in South Australia. In approaching my role as a non-Aboriginal person, I want to support appropriate engagement and relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations so that we can walk in partnership and be effective in our work.

I’ve always been passionate about contributing to equity, people sometimes ask me when I first started doing work in this space. When I reflect it has always been there, I like to think it might have been after I was born my Mum was working at the Lower Murray Nunga’s Club and she would to take me to work with her and that made an impression on me! Either way my Mum and Dad have instilled in me a critical social view and valuing all people. I’ve been lucky to have met and be taught and guided by some great Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Aboriginal people too. Relationships are everything!

We have done some really good work at beyondblue, and I’m excited to assist with some of this work this and look for other opportunities for stronger engagement and representation in our activities and operations . If you haven’t seen the Stop Think Respect Invisible Discriminator campaign that ran two years ago, please check it out. It was fantastic!

Hope everyone is enjoying Reconciliation Week. There are lots of activities on this week. If you are interested in seeing what else might be on for the next couple of days,check out this link.

Kind regards

Stephanie

[Gruffudd]

Thankyou Stephanie,

Lovely to meet you, and absolutely we all need to walk together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal agencies. I really like the Stop Think Respect campaign because I relate to real people telling their stories.

I just want to point out one of the Beyond Blue resources we have been using in Playgroup as a check in with our mums. It is being really well received by all of the mums who come from a range of cultural backgrounds and a few different Aboriginal countries because of the old resettlement program. I find it helpful to reflect on myself, It is called KEEPING STRONG 

Rob.

[hayleynew]

Hi Rob!

I am on Kaurna land however my family are from the Wotjaboluk language group. Unfortunately due to the one ancestor that knew about our family connections dying, I don't know much more than that. But I too identify as an Aboriginal Australian and am very proud of that so much so I studied Aboriginal studies as my major at university and hope one day to teach it (I'm a qualified teacher). My cousin works for Linkup, an Aboriginal organisation reconnecting Aboriginal families with each other as a result of the Stolen Generations. The stories I can only imagine she has had to deal with and how much it has affected her own beliefs about her own ancestry as well as my own is unfathomable.