Welcome to First things First, I'm Brookglett, and my pronounce are she and her.
Yeah, I'm Maady Meals. My pronouns are he and him. And before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge the custodians of the land on which we record. For me, it is the gaddigle people of the urination.
And for me it's a under people of the cooler nation. Let's get into it.
Let's get into it.
So someone's looking a bit wiser, a bit more sexier, juicier.
You know what. It all comes with age, doesn't it.
Yeah, I'm going to doing your wise old.
Age twenty nine and feeling fine, except I don't know if I believe that you get wiser with age. I'll tell you why. Last night I went out for my birthday, my birthday dinner. It's been my first sober birthday. I'm going to say this on air. It's been my first sober birthday in thirteen years since I started drinking. I feel like it's a different me. It's a new me. But I want to talk about last night because my birthday dinner. When you say you're getting wiser, I'm like,
I feel so dumb. I literally went out for dinner last night to this restaurant with my boyfriend and we had been there six months prior and we loved it and we were like, Okay, we have to go back here at one point, so I was like, let's go for my birthday. Great. We walk in, we choose the set menu. It's like eight different dishes. They're coming out one by one. We're enjoying this food. We get to the end and I taste this taco. So it's a Mexican place. I taste this tarco and a chicken tastes
like it's not cooked. And I was like, wait, is this chicken cooked? It doesn't really taste like chicken has that weird texture. And then I said to the lady, so is this chicken? And she goes, no, everything is vegan. And I had no idea that we were sitting in a vegan restaurant and we ate vegan food. And I'm so like pro meat, you know, gay, but like I love my meat and gay, and I just was like, okay, why are we ate? Like I literally had no idea that I was in a vegan restaurant eating vegan food.
Props to that town good food, super early though, but great food. Yeah.
Wow, I've tried vegan food once and it did not agree with me. But I I have eaten something and not known what it was and then later been like, well, I don't know if I would eat that again knowing what it was, you know what I mean.
Well, yeah, there was some little hints on the menu, so like the tuna was no finn tuna and I thought that was just a type of tuna. And then the chicken was chick apostrophe en and I was like, oh, that's cute how they spelled chicken.
And ah, you said, it's just like an old like marketing thing.
Like I totally thought that this was just them trying to be cool with their words on a menu. Next minute, I've had a vegan meal for dinner and I've been sober on my twenty ninth birthday. I feel like I'm a changed man.
You're a different version of yourself. Actually, that was good. That takes me back to a video that I made on social was a couple of weeks ago. I just kept having this like ugly error where I was like kept looking at myself, yeah, and I was like I hate the way that I look. And then you know, I think, you know, as you get older, you notice
things about yourself. And I try not to pick myself apart, right because I'm trying to, you know, lead by example, per se, and and that if you know, I'm teaching other girls to have this confidence, they and I don't have that confidence, you know what I mean? And I guess confidence is contextual. But you know, if I'm saying, oh, like, don't pick yourself apart, and I'm picking myself apart, I'm a walking contradiction, right, So I try not to. But this, honestly,
this is a couple of months. I was just like looking at myself and I was like, I don't recognize her, Like I don't like her, I don't know her, and then the only thing difference is there. I'm joking, but yeah, I just kept looking at the in the mirror being like,
I don't know who that person is. And then just one morning I did a therapy session and I kind of expressed this can't this confusion, and my psychologist pretty much just like bluntly had said, did you ever just do you ever just think that maybe you're just a different version of yourself and you've grown so much that the person that you look at now is just not the person that you were and looked at, you know, ten years ago, a decade ago. Yeah, I mean I.
Think that's evolution, it's growth exactly.
And I'm like, well, why do I want to be that person as well? Because that girl or that person, that girl actually she was a girl. I'm a woman now even though I look like fucking Edna from the Incredibles today, I am a woman, Like I'm adulting, you know.
And how did you feel to put that on social media? Being that vulnerable?
Oh? You know what, I I just don't think about anything these days when I'm putting on socials. I just try to be my most genuine self. And if I think I would post it and send it to you per se, I would put it on socials. Like I just I don't try to blow the lines like yeah, of course we have put our shiny selves on yeah, you know, for show on social media. But I've just I'm learning to just not give a flying.
I'm on that I am on that same wavelength. Like recently, my social media has sort of gone from being like, you know, shiny pictures and perfect images to me really showing how I truly feel. And what like the funny thing is is that I'm still putting like the shiny image, but then as soon as someone slides across or swipes left, it's like them having insight into how I really feel.
And one of those I've been loving this. By the way, well, the.
First post that I did was all about representation because I'm so frustrated at you know, I'm twenty nine now and I'm continuously fighting for opportunities and reaching out and trying to get you know, more opportunities, not just for myself,
but for First Nations people in media. And so I wrote, I put up this image and this meme, and I wrote the caption how I feel after continuously pushing for First Nation, for more First Nations representation in mainstream media, and then I swipe across and it's like.
No, I want to see it. Notice it this It is nay and it won't fucking do right.
Why do I doing it like he's doing this way? Like no, I'm fucking trying to strain it down like no, like going like whoop doodle, and like like to me, that is exactly how I feel when I'm pushing for First Nations representation. I'm like, I keep on like knocking on these doors and keep on being like, hey, where's the opportunities at And constantly I'm seeing white people be promoted and putting these positions, and it's frustrating to me.
And it's like, how much more do we need to accept in this country that, like, the media is where you're seen and where you're represented. And you know, if you're just showcasing one demographic in this country, you're really, you know, flexing your white privilege.
And but also what is that telling young who you know, young children and younger generations who don't fit into that demographic.
Or that yeah, that doesn't look like them. And what I love about podcasting is if you look across the board, in podcasting, I feel like there's an authentic voice on this platform. There is a lot of diversity, But in other areas in media it really lacks. And I'm talking radio, TV, the arts, not just on screen, but also behind the scenes too. You know, I'm sick of walking into buildings or walking into meetings and having to just be the
only person of color in that room. It's happening continuously throughout my career. Whenever I'm seeking an opportunity. It is constantly me going to meet with a white person and appealing to them and asking them for an opportunity. That is legit the experience of mine since I started. Every room that I've walked into, that they that they have the power to make the decision for me to have an opportunity or not is normally a white man. Yeah, it's frustrating to me.
No, No, I equally feel the frustration. And I think the previous conversations, I mean, you know, maybe maybe a decade ago or and maybe still now where we're like, you know, people in these massive organizations were saying, oh, like we don't know any First Nations people who can take these roles. So they didn't, you know, have these
roles filled. It's like, well, you don't need a delegated role for a First Nations person, you can, you know, And like there's the thing is there are so many other there's so many First Nations people out there that you can delegate not just a specific First Nations role too that they can and have and be taking up space in these major roles, these in executive roles, of
these director roles. Yeah, and moving into these spaces I mean, I've been having a lot of these conversations as well around getting on boards and having a voice on boards, because that's where change happens, and that's where your voice is not most heard, because I don't think, you know, there is a place where it's like really taken into consideration all the time, like do you know what I mean?
Like fully, like I think you have to sort of keep breaking down these barriers, these walls, entering into these spaces, taking up seats. But the best thing about you, and I love this about you is one you call it out and I think that's a huge It's admirable because you have the confidence in yourself, your capacity, your strengths, your everything that you like you're You're like, well, I deserve this, and I'm confident in my own capacity, in my capability of this type of role, and I'm going
to go for it. And it's I think, you know, on the other side of that, I think a lot of First Nations people lack that kind of forwardness and lack that kind of confidence.
I wonder why, you know, like of course oppression, oppression, but also these places aren't you know, especially in the media, these big organizations that you know, I'm going and knocking on doors and meeting with big executive producers who have been in their positions for twenty years. You know, I'm talking about men, white men who have held, you know, this power. It's really hard to go in and pitch yourself as a black fellow, especially as a queen black man, you know.
And then socile is it's run by patriarchy, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, who runs patriarchy exactly?
And I feel like it's been like the mission of my life really to be able to like just be confident enough to go in. And it's not because I think I'm the best or think that I can do a better job than anyone. It's because I know what is needed for my people to see themselves and to feel proud of who they are. And that's representation. Representation, isn't you know. I always go back to this saying where people say, oh, you can't be what you can't see.
You absolutely can be what you can't see. You've got to go and do it. So it's much easier when you see it. But if you can't see it and you feel like that, you know, you see an opportunity go and create that that you know that job, or go and knock on that door so that other people can see it. It makes it easier for them. You don't have to wait for someone else to do it. And that's always been my little motto. But I think representation
in you know, in the media is changing very slowly. Yeah, it's like every year it's feels like, you know, we see more you know, small steps. But the reason they set steps are so small is because people are so scared to relinquish the power.
And power comes from that patriarchy that we were talking about, and that's been very when you think of that as a power source in some way, it's very an aggressive and very direct kind of power. Like it's not uh, it's not been very it's been very harmful, I think is the word. And so I think that's why I think a lot of people like stray away from it because it's like it's intimidating and they don't realize that
they really is. They don't realize their own power. But the thing is with power is that there's there's really negative stereotype of power because it comes with like arrogance, it comes with manipulation, like it just comes with like these really negative views. But when you look at power and power of good like let's per se, like change it, it's there's masculine and feminine. I think of ways of
distributing power per se. And I think when women distribute power, like when they I guess, like say, let's use the word maybe it's not enforce, but that type of when they, ah, I don't know.
Use their power when they use it.
A lot of women have a more subtle approach around using their power, and that in this subtle way is like empowering, but it reaches so many more people. Right when a guy or when a man aggressively uses his power, it will reach a certain group of people, but not a lot. It's kind of a scare tactic in some say this is this is such a Also, this power is so nuanced and like can be so there's so much complexity is to it and how you use it
for good and for bad. But yeah, I think that's what comes into play when First nations people have this is what they've been taught or this is what we've been taught. Sorry, is that we don't have any power, and so imagine that and obviously the intergenerational trauma of that no wonder why people are scared and obviously don't step up and don't take space and are scared to take spaces because that's what we've been taught. And so we need to remove that mentality. That's a limiting belief
that we don't need, right that's stopping us. And like we can look at our history, and we can look at from a perspective like this is I and I like, don't I use this phrase lately lightly? But that was then and this is now, and it's not acknowledging where you've come from to where you're going. And I think I use this a lot when I'm speaking to young kids because it's fine to acknowledge where you've come from. And I use this all the time in my day to day life because it keeps me grateful and it
keeps me humble. But where I'm going is the most important right now, Right where I'm wanting to be is most important. Yeah, Like, yes, that all those experiences they're like historically, intergenerationally is there. No one's going to take
that away from me. But I'm going to use those experiences to better myself and to put myself in a position of where I need to go and where I want to be, and people get so wrapped up into then or like where I was and what happened to, not where I want to be and where I need to be.
I agree with you. I feel like people live in the past a lot, and their past experiences or their past traumas become who they are. And I feel like I've over the years, I've developed a way of thinking where it's similar to what you just explained, where I've had to come out of that world of thinking that my past experiences or you know, my experiences through my childhood are who I am now. Stop you, always stop you,
But you can use them. You can use them as inspiration and motivation and fuel to the fire to get
to where you want to go. And like, I've only just started to really unpack that in myself, and that took like therapy to get to that point, because especially when you're a person who shares your story a lot, it's living in those moments that can be a little bit you know, confronting, and also it can hold you down a little bit because you fighting the belief of you know who you are now versus who you were then or what you went through then and it's like
you're not that person, You're not your past. Your experience has created who you are now, but you do you can use them for good. And I always see, like, especially traumatic events as currency and the word why I use currencies because everything has a price, you know, everything in this world has a price, and whether it's like a sacrifice or I always think of.
Should cost you doing day to day things should cost you in a way.
Well, I just think that you know, the traumatic experiences in my childhood and the stuff that sort of made me really resilient has been the way that I've been able to sort of pay for opportunities or get through moments. That's my currency. And it's a weird way to look at it, but I see it as like the fire currency, and yeah, I just and that's the reason why representation to me so on my heart and it continues to
be no matter what I always think. You know, one thing that really sticks to me, and it's always been in the back of my head, is that you know, when you're on the way to the top or when you're on your way to doing you know what you want to do and success like the fight of like how much do I bring with me or how much do I go solo and make it to the top and way from the from the top of the mountain and tell everyone to come on up, because like that
idea of like you're trying to make it, you're trying to make it, You're trying to make it, but you're trying to bring everyone with you. It's fucking hard. Especially, it really is, you know when it comes to family.
Yeah, yeah, we feel that. I definitely feel like you and I feel the way of that a lot. And you know, I spoke to about fifteen year old thirty eight fifteen year old girls on Thursday, and you know, one of the girls said, like, how do you deal with the pressure or the responsibility that you have to carry that comes from your family? And I looked at her and I said, I'm still learning this, so it's
always going to be a learning journey. But you also can't take on something that is not your responsibility, and that's taking on someone else's life. You have to take responsibility for your life and what you do. And yes, you can empower them and bring them up with you, but you don't have to take responsibility for their choices and what they want to do, and I think for
years I definitely did that. The word power came back into my mind because it's like, well, you're using your power to empower other people, Yeah, and that I think that's a difference between using your power just for you and to cause harm and using your power to empower. And I think that's the difference between good.
He's reminded me of, Yeah, the difference, yes, good and bad people, but also black fellows and white fellows. White fellows never go into a meeting with the hope that they can empower their people outside of that opportunity because they need it, absolutely not. It's very about themselves. It might be about their family, but it's not about their culture.
And this isn't having to go White fellows, but it's when I walk into a meeting, I'm going in there with the hope that somebody is going to give me an opportunity that then is going to filter down to a community that needs to see themselves in a positive light because mainstream media for decades have put us in such you know, deficit when it comes to representing who
we are. So like, for me, when I go in there, it's like a wait, it's like, I'm going in here because I want an opportunity, not for myself so I can walk out of this building and go, you know what, I'm the best I can do it. No, it's for my family, it's for my community, and it's for black follows in rural and remote communities where there's a lack of opportunity. It's so much bigger than who we are,
you know. It's like if somebody can see on social media or can see on the TV, or can hear on the radio or hear a podcast where they see other black fellows talking about their experiences, that opens their mind, that creates a bigger world for them. Then like we're doing our job correctly. And I don't know if people outside of you know, marginalized communities have that same way. I really don't feel like they or know what that feels like.
No. I mean, there's some really good programs out there at the you know, doing the work that are trying to provide those opportunities, but they're really not noticed or really elevated. And I think we need to do you know, more of a job as a society, as in government actually to support those programs or grassroots programs because yeah, that's where the most growth happens. I mean, there's Shooting
Stars program that I've been affiliated towards. I can't really say too much about it, but it's a WA program and you know, they've got twelve hundred girls in WA and now into Adelaide who have an opportunity to explore, you know, industries, whether that's art, sport, beauty, you know, music, and giving that opportunity to them is to help encourage their dreams and then to inspire themselves to put themselves in those places and that they so wholeheartedly deserve to
be in. But if they didn't have those grassroot programs per se, then they would have not really that much opportunity in their towns. And these are all in remote rural areas by the way. It's the same with my mix kids having the opportunity to come to Melbourne, getting exposure to all of these crazy and wonderful things that they've never seen before, and learning how to communicate and learning how to deal with the pressures of moving away from home and living off country. Like that's a lot
to take as a kid. But I know that these programs and grassroot programs are going to be so beneficial to their future and their success because they're getting exposed to so many things, but they're also taking up space where they deserve to be, and they're also meeting other mob and people that have that same comp confidence to do that as well and showing them, yeah, like they can be that and as Yeah, I don't really love the saying like, you can't be what you can you
can't be what you can't see, because I have preached that over the time of being the Bachelorette, and I feel like that was just kind of a thing.
That a known slogan. You know, Yeah, I think it's a bit of a way to block someone from being able to achieve what they want if they can't see it. It's like, absolutely, you can be what you can't see. It's much easier when the whole world looks like you. When you're you're a white person and you're seeing every white person on the front of a magazine, white and TV present, a white radio host, it's much easier to see yourself and think, oh, I can do that because
everyone is doing it who looks like me. Yeah, much easier.
We also we also know, I don't know if you've ever read into this, but statistically and psychologically in adolescents mainly just I'm going to use young people as an example because they're obviously our next future in our and you know, as much as I would love to take place, I have had my time of taking a lot of space in the Australian media and I won't ever not stop doing that obviously, but I feel like I want to inspire the younger generation too, and I think this
is more aimed at them or even you know, similar age millennial whatever gen z. But psychologically and statistically that when people feel seen and can see themselves in places, So if you want to use the Australian media landscape, or you want to use school, or you want to use community program or even music, dance acting, when a young person feels represented on a diverse cultural or even in a body type, then they are less likely to
experience They experience less psychological distress if anything, and they feel seen and they feel heard, and they also feel like they belong and their identity is actually more like their identity is stronger within themselves, which obviously we know that when your identity is strong within yourself, you're less likely to you know, feel not less likely, but you'd
probably experience less anxiety and distress and social anxiety. And that's all comes down to belonging, and that all comes down to identity and feeling seen in this world, and that can be a ray of things. But I think representation is a very very very powerful tool that we probably don't take advantage of in the Australian media landscape.
Yeah, totally. I think what you see can efect your mental health immensely, you know, And I think that mental health in our community in particular is something that I'm really passionate about. As you can see today actually I'm wearing my Push Up Challenge t shirt really focus on there's a big focus on mental health for me, but also there needs to be more investment in mental health.
But what you see, what you read, how you you know, articulated within the media as a blackfellow, all effects to how we feel about ourselves, and there's a flow on effects. But representation, as you said, like, is something that we you and I have, you know, I will say, the power to keep pushing to change. And I think that we you know, we do it in our own ways. But then you know, some of us are a bit of a hurricane. Like me, I just go in and ask.
You are like a bull in a china shop, is what they would say.
I seriously just don't care anymore. I think what's the worst you can get to know what this is?
Also, the thing is like if you don't know, you won't know. Yeah, And I think the.
Fear is take the leaps of faith sometimes.
Yeah, and you know, don't believe everything you read as well. I think this is another thing. It's you can always rewrite your story, your narrative, change the narrative, like, don't always believe in what everyone else says. You know what, be de Lulu if you really want to.
Live in La La Land. Literally, It's my twenty birthday yesterday and I wrote a status saying everything is going to be new. I want new experiences. I don't want anything to be the same. Like what I mean by that is that I want to experience life differently. You don't have to stay in the same cycle. You know, you don't have to. You don't have to be a stereotype. Push every day to be opposite to that. And yeah,
that's like my new direction. I'm like, you know what, Like I'm going to keep pushing with the representation thing. And I'm talking like I really want to do international stuff because there has to be one black fellow who makes it in Hollywood.
Like, come on, Charlie Frazer just made it in Hollywood from Furi What is she doing? Well, she was just in the Furiosa as there you go. And Clayton Bales is in the same movie and he's a black fellow and he's like ten years old.
So you need that. We need that, you know, international representation where people you know, outside of our community, you know, that's it, that's where there is. That's how they respect people. It's like you make it that big and then there's respect with that. So it's like, you know, I'm pushing for the fucking stars. I'm going, I'm going.
I say, you know what, shoot for the stars. If you land on the moon, that's still good.
Yeah, all right, well let's I love that.
Yeah. I feel like that's We've just spoken about such important topics and I feel like this, you know, if you haven't learned from this episode, I don't know. Fuck you kidding, No, I guess you know. I feel like all of our points are valid in that conversation. And if you are a white person, you know there's more work to be done. And I hope you have been listening, and I feel like I hope you have been taking into account what we're actually saying, because you can also contribute and help.
Positive discrimination when it comes to employing black fellows is something that I would say is needed. So if you don't think that you need a role, you know, you don't need to specifically advise for if you're looking to hire someone, look specifically for a person of color. It'll change, It'll change your business.
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, Well that's all we have time for today. Thank you so much for listening to First things First, if you love us and like what you hear, leave us a rating and a review.
And if you think that representation is needed, make sure you do the.
Work or if you want us to cover anything, And.
If you want us to cover anything on the pod, reach out via our social Brooks handle is at brook dot Bloton, mine is at its Meadie Meals, and you can follow all the Nova podcasts over at Nova podcast Official. Alright, Blots of Love.
Bye,