- I've always copped
the "you're so pretty for an Aboriginal",
"you speak so well for an Aboriginal",
like "you're really well off for an Aboriginal."
And I'm like, I don't even understand
what those three things are."
(upbeat music)
My name's Allira and I'm a proud Yorta Yorta woman.
- Hello, my name is Phoebe Grainer,
I'm a Kuku Nyungkal and Muluridji woman
from Far North Queensland.
- How you doing? My name is Ben Russell.
I'm a Biripi man from Tara in New South Wales.
- And I'm Emily.
I'm a Barkindji, Wakawaka, Birri Gubba woman
originally from Broken Hill
but now living here on Gadigal Country,
and we'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners,
the Gadigal people of the Eora nation,
and pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.
- Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. (laughs)
- That's right.
- "Never have I ever celebrated Australia Day".
- (gasps) No! - I have. I did.
- (sighs) No.
- Our council had like...
It was phrased as like a multicultural event
and I would go to that celebration
and then I'd also go to Invasion Day at Yabun.
- Right, yeah, of course.
- But then I'd just run around
with my white friends at that park
and not even realize what I was doing.
- Yeah. - But I technically was.
- I was always brought up to be super conscious
and aware of that day and its true meaning.
I know that I was probably put in positions
where like my white mates would be like,
"Just celebrate Australia Day.
It's just to celebrate us as Australians."
And I'm like, "Get fucked, no thank you."
But it is Invasion Day and you'll see me protesting.
- "Never have I ever nearly accidentally dated a cousin."
- (laughs) Mine's not like dated-
- Three, two, one.
- No, okay, this is half.
(both laugh)
When you match with mob on Tinder,
you don't know where they're from.
Like put in your bio where you're from
so we know if we're related or not.
- "Where are you from? Who's your mob?" Straight away.
- Yeah!
- Because it happened to me.
I matched with a cousin and I was like,
"Oh, we're Yorta Yorta."
- Oh god. - Unmatch that.
- I didn't actually go dating.
We were just yarning for a while,
and the next minute we're like, "Oh shit, we're mob."
So we cut that off right there.
- "Never have I ever seen 'The Rabbit-Proof Fence'?
- Yeah. - Yes.
- That is like a given. - Definitely.
- 100%. - I cried all the time.
- I feel like it's the go-to for high school.
Like the Aboriginal history unit,
they just chuck on 'Rabbit-Proof Fence'.
- That's so true.
- That was really, really heavy to watch, I reckon.
And that was the last time I've seen it.
I don't wanna watch it again.
- If they actually, you know,
talk about Aboriginal history in this country.
- If they're bothered to-
- Which my school didn't.
- But I don't know about you,
but when I was in high school, they made us watch it
and like being the only Black kid in the class,
it's almost like when the movie finished,
all the white kids would turn around and be like (gasps)
waiting for my reaction, and it's like, I don't know
what to say right now. - Lucky for our school,
a quarter of our kids were Black fathers,
so you know, it was actually all right learning that stuff,
but you know, you always had the kids look at you
and say, "He should know."
- "Never have I ever played the didgeridoo."
- I have.
- Hell no, I don't wanna get sick.
Like I said, it's something I do when I'm down in Victoria.
I first learned how to circular breathe,
which is like the continuous breathing with a didge,
in year seven.
That is with a cup of water and a straw,
and it taught us to blow the bubbles
and keep it doing continuously.
I've also got my own one too,
so I've burnt my own patterns in it.
I wish I had it with me.
- I've seen it pop up recently
by people trying to tackle gender issues.
It's not the place for that.
- I've never, cause I'm a female,
and women shouldn't play it for multiple reasons,
but I'm not here to give a free education lesson,
that's for sure. (laughs)
Women just don't play it. It's that simple.
(Phoebe laughs)
- "Never have I ever whistled at night."
- Oh, uh-uh, no way. No way.
(Ben whistles)
That's too scary.
- I like getting reactions from people
about why you don't whistle at night.
- Explain why he can't whistle.
- Because when I was a little girl,
my parents told me that if you whistle at night,
you know, quinkins will come,
you know, monsters and spirits will come
and scare you in nighttime if I whistled.
- They look at you like you're crazy.
They're like, "Nah, it won't happen."
Next minute, I'll be laughing
when a ghost grabs him at night.
- I did it rebelliously as a child.
- Really?
- We probably shouldn't, but I have,
cause I feel like that's what most of us young kids
would have done growing up.
- Probably something's gonna happen to me later on.
- "Never have I ever climbed Uluru."
- Never. - No.
- I have never been to Northern Territory.
- Well, for like Uluru, there's tours that you can take
and they take you around the perimeter
and the beautiful landscape around it.
- I just know for like cultural and spiritual reasons
and respecting country and land, you do not climb Uluru.
- Yeah, I would never walk on it.
I think I've just known that since I was a kid.
- I have a very good story, right, cause it's actually true.
Like, five years ago, I was in Cairns for Laura Festival.
We go to this sacred site
and it had a little reception place there,
and this person dropped off
like a little container with dirt
and it had a letter with it,
and we were there reading it
and it was just a big sorry letter like,
"Oh, we didn't notice this was part of sacred country."
Apparently the dirt burnt their tent
cause they took it from the sacred spot,
and now everyone...
The dirt actually burnt the tent.
Like, I don't know, somehow spiritually, it heated up,
but I believe them if they return the dirt
back to the reception place with a sorry letter.
- "Never have I ever called a place its traditional name."
- All the time.
God is good all the time. - Yeah, all the time.
- I have. - I have.
- Yeah! - I do it quite often.
- I call it Taree, like where I'm from, by its name,
which is Jaree.
It's the place of mangroves,
like all the mangroves on Taree.
That's how it's got its name.
- I feel like it's getting more common now,
like even just referring, you know,
saying that you're in Gadigal Country,
if you're here in the city of Sydney.
- And I've seen on Facebook, which is good to see now,
they've put Aboriginal names on all the cities.
So when you arrive, it actually is good
to call it by its traditional name.
- So yeah, it's nice though, hey?
- The thing is, yeah,
it's more positive, I think, and people get more familiar.
- Definitely! People are interested, I'd say.
- They want to, yeah.
- I think our generation is definitely, you know,
opening up that conversation.
- It's not forced.
- Yeah, no, not forced at all.
- "Never have I ever had someone ask me
to educate them when it was easily Googled."
- Aw!
- We have this thing called the internet.
- (sighs) Yeah, but people don't know that
because they think that you're Aboriginal
and it's like free education.
- The worst thing is ever like,
"How do I say this in Aboriginal?"
(Phoebe sighs)
- This has happened so intensely, abruptly this year
with the Black Lives Matter.
You know, got the earrings on.
And people think because you have a platform on social media
that it's your job to educate them on Aboriginal culture,
and I'm like, "No, it's not."
- I just think that there were so many situations
where I was just like, "How do you not know this?"
You know?
Or like, it's not my responsibility to tell you.
- Wouldn't you be embarrassed, yeah?
- Yeah, like "Shame job!"
- Honestly, I don't take notice how much stress it is.
We're basically still young kids
still trying to learn our full culture,
and yet they expect us to teach
what we have and what we know,
and don't really take into consideration
what we can and can't teach.
Obviously, you've got the men's business, women's business,
stuff only the elders can teach,
only so much that they can know.
So they've got a whole internet platform there
and they wanna ask us these questions.
- Yeah, because it's easier and people want instant.
They want you to tell them,
so then they know it's like authentic,
from an authentic Aboriginal.
Like, no thanks, no thanks.
- Ooh, "Never have I ever had to explain my identity."
- Yeah, I have for sure.
- Every single day.
- Yeah.
- I think it's when someone tells me I don't look Aboriginal
or I had a lot of people tell me this year
that I looked Indian or Kiwi.
I just looked at them like, "What?"
- Is it true? - Where are you from?
Where you from from? - Yeah.
Why are you Black?
- I've always copped
the "you're so pretty for an Aboriginal",
"you speak so well for an Aboriginal",
like, "you're really well off for an Aboriginal",
and I'm like, I don't even understand
what those three things are.
- Cause they have an idea in their mind
about what, you know, Indigenous people are
and what they look like.
- But when I say that too, like they're saying that
as Aboriginal people are only like this one thing
and whatever they think it is, it's like we're not that.
The only time I'll explain my identity to someone
is when like we're at gathering round here
and you meet new mob.
- Black lives still matter,
and, I don't know, I just feel like the momentum
still needs to keep on going
from brands, businesses, people, organizations,
whatever it may be.
I think this year has really been amplified
for people of color,
and I just am like, I don't know,
I'm grateful for all the support that our community has had,
but I'm also conscious of it won't last forever,
but let's just put it out there
and put that reminder out there to people
like Black lives still matter.
(gentle chiming music)