Zachary Smith

That we’re not a monolith. And that basically means that we’re all different cultures, we all speak different languages, we all have different belief systems. But at the centre of that is still land and it’s still care for land and it’s still community. But yeah, our experiences are all very different. Our views are very different. But it still comes back to land and love for country and love for people.

Well, yeah, it’s a matter of not only, you know, our children, but our children’s children and their children’s children’s children. And I think one of the things that mob do really well is think seven generations ahead. And that’s where a lot of my own work is kind of placed in that centre of like, understanding that not everything is going to change in my own lifetime and maybe even in my children’s lifetime, but hopefully 100 years from now, we’re all in a very different place, like in regards to like land, sky and water and even like in our spiritual dreaming and healing and stuff like that.

It’s rain. It’s rain. I’m saltwater person and like just water, rain especially, I think something cleansing for the spirit. I think it’s also kind of an experience where, you know, land, sky and water are all connecting, so yeah.

I think the ultimate goal of, like all Indigenous movements is land back. You know, land back in community controlled hands just so that we can, yeah. Like, I think the connection and the distinction between health of Aboriginal people and the health of the land, I think we really mirror each other. When blackfellas aren’t well, the land usually isn’t well. When the land isn’t well, blackfellas usually aren’t well. And it’s 10 that relationship that just isn’t acknowledged or celebrated. So we actually really need to, you know, prioritise those knowledges, especially in the forefront of the climate movement and that type of thing. And where do we as mob find ourselves? What is our responsibility? You know, these are the kind of questions that, you know, we’re currently asking ourselves.

So, I’d love to see, like, a complete transformation in like the education, justice and 25 health spaces. I think especially for young mob, these are the areas that kind of fall flat in delivering the services that our young people are entitled to. As you know, young blackfellas living in Victoria, but also just their rights as Indigenous people in the first place. Yeah.