Connection, it is something everyone needs. Whether it’s a connection to something, or somewhere, or someone, we thrive off needing it.
For me connection comes in a few different shapes. Being Aboriginal, I need my connection to my Country, to my Land, to my Sea’s and to my Family. Having these connections gives me a sense of purpose but it also gives me my Identity and makes me who I am. It gives me a sense of direction in life and a knowing of what needs to be done to stay whole.
Around 70-80% of people nowadays suffer from mental health issues and for a lot of people, they don’t know what their connection is, they struggle to find it and this leads them to being lost and suffering from mental health issues.
There has to be a way to change this issue surrounding these health issues.
Within Aboriginal communities, mental health issues come at a very high rate due to the ongoing impact of colonisation. Families who have suffered from generations to generations since British invasion have not been able to recover from the trauma, which leaves families unwilling and unknowing passing on these mental health problems to their children.
This cycle needs to be broken, but where and how can it be done when Governments don’t listen to what Aboriginal people and communities want?
They are always dictating and imposing what they think we need?
How can they know what we need when they haven’t experienced the trauma that we have had to face for over 250 years, when all the Government has done is hide the real truth on how this country was founded?
We need more people to speak up, we need more ally’s to help fight against the system, the system that is broken and set up to fail and diminish Aboriginal people from the moment of invasion.
Stand up
Speak out Loud
Offend your families
Offend your friends
Speak the Truth
And be heard