Page143 - Week 01 - Thursday, 3 December 2020
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My first introduction to politics was around my grandparents’ kitchen table. My grandfather, president of the Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria for 13 years, led the cattlemen in a bitter dispute with successive state governments over grazing rights in the high country. As a child, I found this fascinating—how so many people could be mobilised around one issue, and the way the issue unified the community. I saw passion and enthusiasm channelled into intense strategy meetings and debates about ongoing developments. I deeply admired my grandfather and my uncles, who have, since the early 1980s, fought for sustainable land and fire management practices in the high country.
I loved growing up in Melbourne. I loved the sport—AFL in particular—and Melbourne was a city that prided itself on multiculturalism and diversity, which I embraced. I loved the busy and crazy that is a big city.
However, I always had a strong desire to find my own path outside my comfort zone and outside Melbourne. I was desperately seeking independence and ready for the world. I spent my first year out of school travelling overseas, for the most part working with a US youth volunteer organisation that engaged with aid projects in South-East Asia, India and Nepal. I had all manner of resilience-testing experiences on this trip. Ultimately, the experience made me very appreciative of what we have in Australia, particularly health and education. However, it also sparked in me a drive to show that because we were such a well-off country we could do better.
Following this, I went to Monash University to do an undergraduate degree in psychology and anthropology. Like most young people, I worked a variety of jobs over those years. I worked in hotels, bars and supermarkets. I sold credit cards for a very short time. I had one job for an entire summer doing data entry for a corporate clothing company, entering in Qantas’s new uniform orders.
I moved to Canberra in 2005 to study at the ANU. I came to do a Master of Applied Anthropology degree. I have always been fascinated in human behaviour: why people do what they do and how culture and society influence and interact. My particular interest was in mental health and addiction research.
Most of the people I met through my time at ANU had spent time living and working in remote Aboriginal communities. This spurred my interest and by the end of the year in my master’s program I moved to the Northern Territory. I lived in Darwin’s rural area and worked in a bar, serving beers to all manner of wild characters who would pull off the Stuart Highway.
Like many students fresh out of uni, I struggled to get a job. It was a few months before I was successful in winning a PhD scholarship to study at Charles Darwin University, to study gambling and the impact on remote Aboriginal communities. Within a short period, I moved out to a community called Maningrida.
Maningrida is located in Arnhem Land, at the very central northern tip of Australia. I lived in the community for about 18 months. My time there was a significant learning curve. Each day out there was navigating life and death. It was as beautiful as
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