I want to acknowledge the land that I am coming from today- the land of the Bunurong people of the Kulin nation. I want to pay my deepest respects to elders past, present and emerging and extend this respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that are joining us today. I want to acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded, and this continent always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
I am a Peer Worker at SANE (I use she/her pronouns) and something that has been really important part of my own journey is learning how to speak up- for myself, for people that I support, for my community of mental health consumers and for the causes that I believe in. I describe myself as a reformed people pleaser who really began a journey of assertiveness in my late 20’s. I think I will always be on this journey because I believe that speaking up, practicing assertiveness and connecting to my sense of agency have become very important parts of my recovery journey, and really my identity too.
I want to preface everything I share today as being my own perspective- while I’m a Peer worker, I’m not an authority on advocacy or activism- but I have tried my best to find the way to speak up that feels authentic to who I am. To me this feels like a big topic that show up in my own life in many different ways and I expected that this might play into our conversation so please feel free to ask any questions and share any of your own experiences and wisdom in the space tonight.
