Hey Friends,

I'm gonna get straight to the point.

This post was a tough one.

I wanted to say something about Black Lives Matter but I wasn't good enough.

That's not a putdown, it's just the truth.

I didn't have 'enough' knowledge, understanding, education.

I needed to be better.

I needed to do some thinking and exploring and putting-togethering.

So I made some discoveries and connections and began writing about Black Lives Matter... or trying to. And then i'd stop. I was afraid of 'getting it wrong'. As a white Australian I just so badly didn't want to get it wrong that I didn't say anything on my blog. At all.

'Your silence is deafening' they said.

I read and listened and followed and shared. I donated money and wrote letters and signed petitions. I checked in with Aboriginal friends. These are things I've done before, but it matters so much right now to do MORE. BLM is one of the most important global movements in our lifetime and there's no room for doing nothing if you want to be on the right side of history. We must engage, knowing others don't have the luxury of switching off.

But still I didn't write this blog post. Or any blog post for that matter.

'Your silence is deafening' they said.

Not wanting to 'get it wrong' is not a good enough reason to be silent on any platform one has.

And if you're thinking mental health has nothing to do with oppression and social justice (and BLM) then it might be you've signed up for my blog by mistake. It might also be why you'd really like to read this post.

This is it. And there will be more. I await any feedback on my mistakes as I live and grow and educate myself and try to be better. People's lives depend on it.

Intergenerational Trauma, Privilege and Racism: Understanding BLM and Shifting our Beliefs around How the World Works 

Have you travelled overseas and had a sudden deeply felt realisation you could live in that country forever and never really understand the people and the culture? That feeling is familiar to many folks living in Australia, including the traditional custodians of this land our First Nations people.

To fully appreciate how that might affect someone’s wellbeing, we need to understand white privilege, intergenerational trauma and racism. 

Privilege isn’t just about wealth and opportunity, it’s also about whose way of doing things we value the most.   

We live in an Anglo-dominated country and to some extent an Anglo-dominated world. White folks like me struggle to imagine existing in a world where almost nothing is in alignment with what we believe is important, is innate to us, or what our family and community value.

Our leaders, schools, screens and lifestyles reflect a hierarchy of who Anglo culture cares about the most. The more ‘successful’ by these standards you are, the more respected you are. We even judge others in accordance with these values, looking at each other through narrow lenses decided by those who want to control us.

We accept as ‘fact’ that ‘success’ is about money, work ethic, power and individual acclaim. We consume, compete and crave more and more and more.

This model of success is not correct. It’s just a construct.