Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the Podcast Millennials who Want Financial Freedom. I'd like to make space for Auntie Manya Andrews to give an acknowledgment of country.
Lunga man Lardi, nunger Man Lardi Amba, nunger Man Lardi Oran, Nunga man Lardi, Umbora, Newboroh, nunger Man Ladi, Waddy Waddy Darawa Boro. We say hello, Nunga man Lardi, and we acknowledge all the traditional owners right across Australia. We say Lungermen Ladi Mbora, Newborow and of course acknowledge the wady whatddy people of the Darawah nation where we live and work. So Nunga man Lardi, She's on the money.
She's on the money.
Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the Podcast for Millennials who want Financial Freedom. This week we are breaking the bias and we are throwing out all of our regular programmed episodes to really embrace International Women's Day, which as a team we are now calling International Women's wik Today we are going to be joined by Auntie Manya Andrews and Karla Rodgers, who are the living embodiment of this year's International Women's Day theme, breaking the Bias.
We're the founders of Evolve Communities and you might have seen Auntie Manya floating around in her Ask Auntie video series where she works really hard to share some cultural insights that we might not be privy to you and to educate in the space of allyship.
Auntie Manya and Carla share a belief that absolutely everyone has a value and that all people have wisdom to offer. Their work is all about spotlighting the unique wisdom indigenous culture has to offer, and we are so privileged to have them on the show today.
We're going to chat today a little bit about your incredible work with Evolved Communities in the space of cultural awarenes and training, but also to learn a little bit about you to as business women, because I think you've really built on this incredible dynamic and serviced a real need I think that is out there. So I'm really really thrilled to chat to you about that a little bit. But I guess to get started, could you tell us how you guys met and how this all initially developed.
Yeah, well, we first met eleven years ago now ten eleven years ago up in the Gulf country of Queensland. Karla was doing a project. I was invited on to be part of the team and through our discussions with one another, we realized that actually we shared a number of common values. One was about respecting all views and that everybody has something to contribute and also broader visionalists
to create a more inclusive kind of Australia. So we got chatting about then what can we do to to go about creat It.
Was funny because Auntie Manya was a We had a last minute scratching in that project and someone said, oh I know this amazing woman that would be great and Auntie Manya came in and ended up being co lead on that project. And then probably fast forward about five years when we Auntie Manya had been working with us quite a lot, we decided we want to achieve this as Aneimnya said, a kind of more inclusive Australia and how are we going to do that? And we thought, well,
it's through our ship we need. You know, we had a big, bold vision of having ten million more allies across Australia and then we thought well, okay, that's wonderful, but then how are we going to do that? And that's when Auntie Manya came into the business as as co director and we really really sat down and scratched our heads and it developed all the programs that we have now, which are very much, very practical and focused on ollyship.
Incredible, and we're going to talk a little bit more about those different programs that you offer a little bit later in the show, I believe.
But first I would love to know a little bit more about evolved communities. You mentioned that you came together obviously, Carla you started it, and then Anti Money you joined it. It started in two thousand and five by you, Carla, which was a fair while ago.
Yeah, I'm showing how always anymore. And again there's lots of funny stories about that.
I was actually living in a coastal village and the far south coast of New South Wales, and I actually ran webinars when they first came out, and I ran what was called a Leading Lights series and I used to interview it was in the space of community engagement and facilitation, and I interviewed Leading Lights in that space
and yeah, from a garage in Naruma. And I just remember one time I think I had about and it was in I think, I don't know, it was the days of go to meeting or something like that we're using. And I remember having seen about four hundred odd people from across the globe joining to this call, and then I heard the whipper snipper start, and that.
Is all too common.
All of a sudden, I saw these four hundred people like popping off a perch, drop off the line as the as the whipper snipper man cut the cut the line.
I know in those days it would have been a telephone line.
Yeah. I was going to say, anyone who's been working from home over the course of the pandemic would be all too familiar with the neighbor out the back mulling in the middle of a meeting. But cutting the line is arguably a little bit worse.
That was next level.
And I just people's perception of probably the business and me at the time, was you know, I was in this fancy studio and had all this tech and it was just a probably a little laptop it in a garage.
I mean, that's how she's on the money. Started me with a microphone, my laptop A do not on the table because I heard that you needed to be really mindful of sound reverberation, and it got to a point where I did have a Dona over my head. So we all start somewhere, my friends, and I feel like that's part of the journey. It's part of the fun. And I think one of my favorite things about She's on the Money is looking back on where we've come from.
And I'm sure you guys are the same because you mentioned webinars and now you have this absolutely gorgeous breadth of offerings that you put on the table. But you were probably a little bit more well known and this is where we discovered you on LinkedIn from your Auntie Manya video series. How did that become a thing? How did you light that up?
Well, we always had that as when we did face
to face training. We also had a Q and a session that I called Dear Abby at the time, where people were free to ask me any questions at all, and so it was a natural sort of adaptation of that that as we started to branch out more online and have an online presence, we decided to have it ask Auntie section and so that's how that developed, and that's proving to be very popular because it's where people can ask questions quite freely not be worried about being judged.
And we have a philosophy that says there's no such thing as a silly question, because how will you know otherwise if you don't feel that you can ask any questions? So nothing's off limits at all. We welcome all questions and just proving to be very popular.
Yes, and we've been doing it for a long time, so we did do it well before. You can't ask that.
TV program and we were about to launch and ask Ali or ask an ally as well. But Andi Manya has a great story about our philosophy of how you can ask anything Anti Manyo.
Yeah, I always tell people, you know, I've been doing this for a long time now, so I've heard pretty much all there is to ask about Indigenous people and indigenous culture. But every now and then there's a question that comes from left field. Like one time I was doing this in front of high school students, gosh, probably thirty five years ago, Oh my gosh, and one young fellow put up his hand and I go, yes, what would you like to know? And he goes, I want
to know how come all Aboriginal people drive valiants? And I had to chuckle then as I do now still recalling the story, and I said, well, you know, the Indigenous community is diversus and we drive a range of cars. I happen to drive an MGB sports car because I have a passion for those cars. Anyway, I was doing this with an older Nunga woman, Nunga being the name for the people in the Perth region and the southwest of WA and she said to me afterwards, oh, thank
god you got that question. And I said why and she goes, because I drive a Valiant to prove the stereotype.
But I think they're One thing that I feel like is really special about the Ask Auntie series is that not only do you do this and you say that you are, you know, creating their space to ask these questions, but you've genuinely created a space that people feel safe to do so as well. It's not a yeah, you can ask anything, but you're actually exuding like just this feeling of safety to learn and to grow and to
be better people. And I just want to know a bit about you know, you've obviously brought it together so that we can learn and create together, but are their challenges with that and online in that I guess transferring over to you know, people feeling safe to ask those questions.
Yeah, I've found actually that it's amazing that people have a sit to Color just the other day that all the comments people are saying, jeez, thank you for being so open and I feel safe with asking you these questions. So it's it's transferring over to them in the cyber world, and that's pretty amazing that they can pick up on that because that's one of the values, isn't it color? For us cultural safety? How important it is for people
to feel free to express themselves in any way. We're really mindful of that and that's always in our minds whenever we're teaching or training.
Yeah, it's very intentional. So you know, Anti Mania has has this presence and demeanor that people do feel safe, and then we've my background is in designing spaces for people to share and collaborate, and so we are very intentional about creating that safety. And one of our key messages is there's no place for shame or guilt, and particularly as Anti Monya says, everyone has wisdom to offer and we value everyone. So we do spend a lot of time being intentional about that, well, how do we
create that? And as Anti Monyu was saying, we have we're very values based. We've got three key values. One is kindness in kindredness and that's all about kinship, and we treat everyone as family in a without not in a cultish way, in a way that's right, fun in creativity, so we like for all of our spaces to be very creative. And the third one is walking our talk.
So Auntie Manyo and I invite people to pull us up if we're not walking our talk, walking our VABs, but everything that we do is designed to walk our talk.
Basically incredible.
I think, yeah, the sense of warmth as you said, absolutely does translate because I'm a big fan from LinkedIn, and yeah, I think that there's something really comforting and familial, as you said about those videos when you talk and
you share and you are really open. But we spoke, we've had a chat with you before today, and we spoke a little bit about the burden of education and that as much as you're putting yourself out there and you're providing these resources, the burden of education shouldn't always be on people of color and on women of color,
particularly because that's what we see happening a lot. And this year's International Women's Day theme is break the Bias, and sometimes you see that people put that recon responsibility back on the people who are trying to do that work,
which is just not fair. And I'd love to know how you strike that balance between being educational, helping literally shift the needle on these issues without taking too much away from yourselves and taking that responsibility on so deeply that it then impacts you.
It's a great question, and there's a few layers in that. I probably start at the simplest layer, and that's where I come in as a non indigenous person in Australia. If you think, put yourself in a room now and imagine yourself in a room of thirty people, Statistically only one of those people will be Aboriginal trial Strada Islander in Australia.
Which is not a lot, is it?
When you think that, you know there's such significant communities that have been here longer than anybody else, that statistic is quite shocking.
That's right, Jess.
And when you talk about the burden, you know, I've been very lucky in my career to pretty much always work with Aboriginal people and communities. And my observation is that I could clock off at five pm, but my Aboriginal colleagues couldn't.
It's twenty four to seven.
Like their obligations to community there, particularly if they're working in a space that delivers services, for example, or to Aboriginal communities, they don't.
Clock off at five o'clock.
So when we're talking about creating a kind of and more inclusive Australia and reconciliation, and this is where the twenty nine of us in that room, people like myself come into play.
Is it's us.
The theme I think for NATOT Week this year is show up and stand up. And there's one more I can't think of it right now, but you know it's up to us to show up and stand up and learn what we need to know for reconciliation and for allyship. And then we can't keep going to the anti monuals of the world who are already very burdened, you know, saying feed me, feed me, I ta me, teach me like so it's very fantastic to want to learn learn more.
And then also there's such a rich content that's already on TV and books and so make sure that you're also engaging with all of.
That material as well anti money. What do you think with that question?
Yeah, it's about sharing the burden. That makes it easier on many Indigenous people who are already trying to educate. But it's also a two way learning process as well. It's for us to learn about other people as well, and that helps us in our lives. It's a fine balance really maintaining all of that and with the training.
So and that other layer of your question about us personally, and this is I guess you know this fabulous on the Money podcast and things like that, is we're looking to grow allies and you know for everyone that we're connecting with. Today was again without something like a cult, but it's like, yeah, it's excusing, let's get on board.
And it was something that one of our allies having gone through. Now we've had an accreditation course since October last year. Last year, and one of the participants said, oh, it's great to be part of a movement. No one, Yeah, a movement. I didn't realize we were creating that, but yes we are. Thank you for that.
Oh my gosh, you did, you totally did. Yeah, you mentioned before that, obviously you've got your Ask Auntie video series, and before Carli you said that you were going to start and Ask ally series, which I think is so exciting, But I think we need to take a little bit of a step back. Can you explain to us and to our community exactly why allyship is just so important and why we really need to be embracing this.
Yeah.
So, I guess the simplest answer to that is is that around that one in thirty, you know, only three percent of the population is at bridgel Intrestralander. And we have a framework in the way that we teach. We at the seven steps and these are the seven basic building blocks we feel that everyone needs to know to increase their confidence to be in our eye. I think a response to this, which is always so touching, is you know, when we ask Auntie manya like, how does
she feel when she sees like? For example, in two thousands, many of your listeners might be too young to remember this, but your parents might have anticipated.
But in two thousand when Kathy Freeman when the.
Yeah.
But in that same year there was a walk across the Harper Bridge for reconciliation and over two hundred and fifty thousand people walked across the bridge to show of support and say, Auntie.
Manya, how did you feel. I know you weren't there, but how did you feel when you saw that?
Oh?
It was just one of the most powerful images in our history color And when I saw all those people walking across the bridge, I remember thinking at the time, Oh, my god, you know they care, and I haven't realized just how many people cared, And so that's one of the things that really struck me. It makes me quite emotional just recalling that now, but that's how I felt at the time, and I felt very hopeful for this
country and where we were going together. If that many people could get on that bridge and show that commitment and walk together, it was just so promising. So yeah, I was very moved by it.
And Auntie my news, she's cheering up.
Oh well, we won't tell you how many people listen to the podcast, because I guess the aim of this is to create an even bigger community of allies and you know, bring the community to you, so hopefully we can convince some of them to also be on that journey with us, because it is really moving to know
people care like we care. We care deeply, but we need to know how to support that as well, because I believe deeply that it's one thing to say we care, and you said before that's one of your core values.
Your third value you with.
Walking your talk. And we can talk about this all the time, but can you talk us through what we can actually do? How can we have impact? How can we support these communities? Because you can only pour from a cup so much right before it's empty, how do we help keep yours full?
Well? I think too, it's you know, the question about why were we drawn to the allyship concept because that's all about taking action Because where that movement came out of it was about not just calling yourself an ally, but what are you doing about it? And that really appealed to us because that's about saying to people, great, we know you care and that, but what can you
do even on a daily basis. And we actually have some tips around being an ally and they include things like, you know, listen and do your homework, not speaking over standing up for people, but not speaking over the voices and what are the other ones called?
It's just our ally is a verb, So it's all about action as anti Monya said, and learning from your mistakes is a big part of it. And another aspect which was kind of really I had to think about this a lot, but allyship is about your impact, not
your intent, so being mindful of the impact. But we provide really simple ways and suggestions all the time throughout different social media and everything about like, for example, on the twenty sixth of January, five simple things you can do to be in Ally You know, we do basically do this sort of every month, and there's a massive
appetite for it. So probably even from my own story in terms of walking out talk my ancestors were actually one of my ancestors was on the first fleet and actually his offspring came and invaded the area that I'm now returned to and consider home as well. But I just remember as a kid wandering through the bush in Sydney actually just having a real craving for an Aboriginal friend. And so that's where my journey began. And I was
always probably been a little bit different. I used to have an awareness of the old people or the spirits and talk to them in the bush, but I just I thought I was so conscious that I didn't have an Aboriginal friend. And then I came down the coast and went to a school and I got so excited when they said we were going to be singing a
song about Aboriginal children. And it turned out to be the song as it was called five Little pick in His, which is actually is actually a North American song and was a racial pickaninny at that time was a racial slur.
So I call it Terrannalius, which is land belonging to nobody, which you know, Australia was incorrectly declared as I call it Terranalius of my schooling, and so that desire to connect with an Aboriginal person went with me the whole way, and I probably finally did get my first Aboriginal friend in my early t is. But we still get a lot of people coming to us with this burning desire as well, but being really frightened and scared of saying that doing the wrong thing. So we need allies because
there's a massive gap in Australia. You know, there's the Closing the Gap program. Aboriginal people still live up to ten years shorter lives, poorer health, poorer economic outcomes, you know, double the suicide rate, the incarceration rates. But then on another side, and Anti Manya might want to talk more about this, there's so much we have to learn from indigenous wisdom and embracing Aboriginal people and culture, and we can't move forward as a nation until we do that.
And Anti Manya, like Anti Manya, has written a book about Aboriginal spirituality.
Auntie Manya, Yeah, I wrote it on Aboriginal dream time, because that's one of the most popular questions we get asked all the time is what's dream time? Can you explain what dream time is? And so I wrote a book explaining our spirituality that's available for people to find out more. And people are saying things like, wow, that's
a really easy explanation. I really get it, and they love the way that I wrote in a very simple manner for the wider Australian audience, so that it's about getting this kind of information and knowledge out to people and not having it as this mysterious thing that you don't understand at all, but that most people can relate to. And of course I'm also interested in comparative religions if you like, and so I wrote it from that perspective
as well. Looking at basic religious concepts that are understood in other cultures so that people could understand average on dream time.
Oh my goodness, one of my earliest memories is going to a museum actually, and there was an exhibit on dream time and there were all of these beautiful, beautiful artworks that spanned the length of the room, and I remember being so enamored by those storyes and the way that storytelling is such an intrinsic part of your culture.
I can totally understand why people are fascinated because it really captured me as a child, and it's something that as an adult I still find so interesting and so engaging the name of your book and where can people get it? Because I think that a lot of people listening will also share that interest.
Well, the book on dream Time is called Journey into dream Time, and it's available through pretty much everywhere.
We've got in all the formats as well, Kindle and audible and audible.
You're everywhere.
We'll make sure it's in the show notes so people can click straight through to purchase it. Because I feel like I want to read that. I feel like it's just such a special I feel like you're opening your community to share with us, which is a privilege to be able to learn from you and share it with you, because, as Jess was saying before, like education is burden to educate us as people who aren't in your community, like you don't owe us that and it's so special that
you extend that opportunity for us to learn. And I guess that's where your business evolved communities has come from. And I would love to pivot into talking a little bit about the savvy business women we are talking to today, because you've not only created a business, but of thriving business like you work with some of Australia's biggest organizations.
Can you talk me through how you came to start a business and knew that it was a business, not just a hobby on the side or not something you were just interested in pursuing.
Well, that's a great question, I guess confession time now it was a hobby on the side for a long time.
So I actually I was very lucky.
I was managing an Aboriginal section and World Heritage section of National Parks for a long time, and I was so lucky talking about amazing women. I was so lucky to job share that role with it an incredible woman and do that time. And for a long time I had the business as a part time but it's something really important to share that, you know, if you have a dream, you don't necessarily always have to go in boots and all.
You can test the waters a bit.
And you know, because I had a financial obligations that had a daughter, and so I was able to keep some of that financial stability, I guess. And then when we joined forces, when Auntie Manya came on board, and so that was twenty fourteen, I thought, right, I'm not going to be able to take this any further as a hobby.
You know, this is the time to commit and Boots and All.
And so we did go book Boots and All full time and it's been fabulous doing that with Anti Manya. I think it would be much harder doing alone. And obviously I couldn't do what we're doing without Auntie Manyu's yes, but also.
We do it with a team. So we ensured that we've got a good business coach, that we've got good account that we've got people who knew about the media and people who knew about marketing. All of those things that we've learned about along the way, people who know about information technology. So building this team to support us as we went and growing absolutely.
So we've invested a lot in our own education and business education and marketing and that's so we've gone through different business coaching programs and our current business coach we've been working with a few years now and he's developed his team and so now our team is working with his team, So we have different coaches for different things. So I think that's been critical for me and it
might be different for Anti Manya. This I always say, there's one quote that Marian Radmaker is her name, and that for me encapsulates the whole business journey. And it's courage is not the line that raws. It's the little quiet, voicy each morning that gets up and says, I'll try again.
I love that quote. You shared that with us last time we chatted, and it really stuck with me. I think because there are a lot of small business owners in our community. It's something that our community is super super passionate about, and we are all about the side hustle,
you know, and carving and following your path. As you were saying, have you found as women specifically starting your own business, particularly because you said it's been a long slog for you and it hasn't always been a place that's been super accepting of women as heads of businesses or change makers. And have you faced any challenges you think because of that, particularly in the early days when you maybe didn't have the profile that you have now.
For me, I've it doesn't matter what space I've been in.
I've I haven't realized until hindsight when someone says later, do you you did that really differently?
Or you whatever trailblaze there or something.
But I guess that's been my whole approach to everything that I do, is doing things quite differently but not realizing it's different. But I guess doing whatever it takes to, you know, have that vision, get to where you want to get to. But the main thing for me has been bringing other people along with me, how about you, Auntie Monieux.
No, definitely about bringing along other people, learning from everyone else, that stuff about everybody has something to teach you and being open to that and trying things in a new way. That's been a great challenge for us. And moving with the times and finding too that we're ahead of the times.
As well. You've color you know, with your nomad meetings in the early days before there was all of this meeting online or how that's now taken off, But you have that expertise that you brought in beforehand, and so yeah, just about being open to change. But certainly the challenges are there all the time, but you just keep plugging away at a bit bud bit and you eventually do
get there. And if you believe in what your work is all about, if you believe fully wholeheartedly, it just happens because you make it happen.
And it is persistence, isn't it. And we definitely have had challenges and find environments and people that did believe in us.
How do you do that?
Though?
Like that sounds so simple when you put it that way, it sounds so eloquent and beautiful, but we all know that that journey is not nearly as smooth as you've just made it sound. Like, how do you see your value?
I think it's just keep going back to the values and that passion, the self care.
And valuing people and not being afraid to ask for help when you do need help, because people do want to help when they's jump in and they people have got great ideas and it's like finding your tribe, really, and that's what we did. We found our tribe and some of that tribe of the members from that time, just from that time, and so we had all gone
through this together. It was like, well, how do we all now support each other and relying on each other, supporting each other, growing all the way, and not competing against each other as well.
Yeah, collaborations a lot. So we collaborate a lot with other businesses. But I'm like, thinking of all the women that you have in your network starting businesses and so forth. It is you know, you get a feeling too of people that you'll resonate with and connect with and contrast. And I think it's really trusting your gut around that as well. But we've had lots of difficult experiences that we've learned from it.
It's certainly not but it's also standing up for yourself too and not allowing yourself to be used and abused or manipulated. You know. I'm thinking in particular, a lot of our work involves copyright, our intellectual copyright and having to stand on our two feet firmly and say no, you can't use and this is why, because we've had one large government organization who practically wanted to steal our.
Well they did.
They send out our program and ask for other people to tender on delivering it.
No the audacity that is heartbreaking, but it is so inspiring to see that, as two women in business, you are still able to see the value you bring to the table when others aren't necessarily able to see that
as clearly as you can. I know that a lot of people listening are going to be really inspired by that, and I do have a fair few questions for you, especially about you know, what hurdles we still face as a nation when it comes to reconciliation and how the She's on the Money community can be a really good ally. Right after this very quick break.
Welcome back to this special episode of She's on the Money. We are celebrating International Women's Week, and Vidria and I are joined by Auntie Munya Andrews and Carla Rodgers from Evolved Communities, which is an organization that works to really power and educate in the space of cultural awareness. And we've been having a really great discussion around this and reconciliation. While we have come a long way. I think we can all definitely acknowledge that there are many many ways
to go. Still, how do you feel about the changes that you've seen and what can we do to lift those voices up and really make a difference in that space, whether it's as an ally or as a member of the community.
Well, I feel fantastic about some of the changes that we've seen and experienced along the way, because, as I say, that gives me hope for the future. But we've noticed a real change, haven't we, Carlo, especially in the last five ten years, would you say, a real shift around the whole discussion around reconciliation and particularly focused on the Australia Day. Just how even this year it was so different from last year, the sorts of changes that we've seen.
Yeah, that's right, Only Mona, I say, the biggest change I've actually seen is in the last year. Thinking for example, last year in my local community, I was pretty devastated to see they on the twenty sixth January they did a flyover and they had the Australian flag and then the discourse that was on the Facebook community page about you know, wasn't it great to see that in our
proud people, and I thought I felt really sad. And then this year, or partly because I imagine because the government now has the copyright to the Aboriginal flag, but this year they flew both the Australian and the Aboriginal flag, and I noticed, for example, a change in that conversation on this Facebook group that people were very positive about it.
And Auntie Manu in each year we do it like a webinar, you know how you can be in our life five simple things you can do on in the twenty sixth of January, and this year for that one, we had about four hundred people joining to.
So people are hungry for change's you can see it. It's totally shifting, and I think what you're doing is a massive part of that, which the power of social media I think is a big thing there, right, Yeah, And.
It's a privilege to be educated as well. Like I grew up, I am, you know, very Caucasian, and I grew up surrounded by other white people, so growing up I had no idea about the history of the twenty sixth of January and the education I received at school. You hit the nail on the head earlier, Carla. You just feel a little bit like you didn't get what you deserved when it came to an education in this space, and it wasn't placed to me in the way that
it actually happened, like it was an invasion. It wasn't you know, this liberation that I had been you know, told it was. And I think that as I've been growing and learning and changing, like historically, yes, I did celebrate it because I had no other education. I didn't know any better, and now I do. I'm embarrassed to think that I didn't have that education and that we
weren't afforded the privilege of that knowledge earlier on. So hopefully as times changed, and you said over the last year, you felt that change has been very imminent, and I hope it's been a lot more aggressive, and next year I hope that when we have a conversation we catch up. You're saying, yeah, it's been even even bigger, like the
changes have been even more embraced. But are you finding that primary schools and younger children are starting to embrace this so this becomes ingrained in us from the beginning.
Definitely, people are always shocked to learn that.
In New South Wales, for example, it was only twenty eighteen that an ancient Australia unit was introduced to high schools. But I think primary schools are probably even more progressive and anti Mayne and I just went and spoke to a preschool the other week, and so it is changing. It is happening, and I think and we have a lot of parents tell us that they've learned so much from their children from school, and schools are incorporating acknowledgement
of countries and yarning circles. I think for us now that there's still while we're being excited about the change that's happening and some momentum, there is a long way to go. And I think it's all about personal responsibility for learning.
And that's so easy.
You don't need to you don't need to come to one of our programs or anything like that. You just got to turn the TV on. You've got to pick up a book. You know, it's so accessible and engaging. The content that's out there, and if you haven't seen, everyone should see rabbit Proof Fence for example, about the Stolen generation and the impact of the stolen generation. Watch Black Comedy is just to understand the differences in humor.
Go to concerts, pick up Uncle Archi Roach's autobiography where he actually narrates his story himself and he's from the Stolen generation. There's just so many things that we can do to self educate. And I think one of the biggest changes that I'd like to see and seeing beginning to see it increasingly more and more around Aboriginal languages. You know, why aren't Aboriginal languages being taught in schools?
Just through our allies, we noticed that when they give an acknowledgment of country, a lot of them are including Aboriginal language in that and it's just fantastic to see because that's the next step I think, yeah, and we need to take with this awareness, I'm hoping that we're then also able to have safe spaces for the harder conversations. And you know, an example of a book it's in the not in the Australian context, but that is a harder conversation. But I found so valuable to read was
around white fragility and Robin DiAngelo's her name. And there's a recent book around nice Racist or something like that. But we need the spaces that me as a white, as a non indigenous person, I can have that conversation and acknowledge how I guess our society is intrinsically just set up that there is this big power differential that I benefit from and that my privilege has a big
role to play. So the biggest thing I can do is one of the biggest things I can do is now I is understand and be more aware of the privileges, the benefits, the opportunities I have that another person may have just because of the color of their skin.
Yeah.
Incredible, And we'll have a blog post up actually with a rap of all of those really great resources that you just mentioned, along with some of our other personal favorites, because I think that's a great place for people to start.
Anti manyatt Krla. I am in awe of what you've created with Evolve Communities.
But what's next?
What is Evolve community is doing next?
Oh yeah, well, Auntie Manya, when we're talking about books, we have the book Practical Reconciliation, which you mentioned, and then Auntie Maunya has so.
I've written a new book on Aboriginal languages that's going to be published by Mugabler Books next year, and it's called Can You Speak Google? Burrah a lot of people don't realize they're not pronouncing the name properly because we don't have that K or C sounds in our languages. It's pronounced closer to a G. So Google Burro is
a correct pronunciation. And so I was saying to Carla, I really want to get an Aboriginal language program going through evolved communities where people can learn to speak an indigenous language. So that's one of the places we're wanting to expand on.
And we've written the children's version of Practical Reconciliation that it's the Adventures of Benji and Biscuit. Biscuit's a dog, yeah, And so we actually we're actually looking for a publisher for that at the moment. And we have a big dream, I guess of a not a university, but like a central harbor, dreamtime harbor of information and for allies. And the biggest step for us now is growing our team
so that we have different accreditation programs. You can become an ally accredited ally and then you can become an assistant to run our programs, and then you could become a facilitator of our programs. So Aunti Manya and I particularly Auntie Manya had retired before COVID from delivery of our programs and then COVID hit and we're back in the.
Hot seat for a couple of years.
But we would our model of delivery for leading our programs is also an ally model, so we have an Indigenous and a non indigenous person team posting our programs and delivering our programs both. We're hoping both online and in person. So that's the big next step part of our vision is to have this team across Australia and for their Aboriginal people so they don't have to leave country to deliver our programs.
So we're really excited about that. That is super exciting.
I literally can't wait to follow that journey in watch where you go because I feel like you are absolutely flourishing and you're in your peak and everything is it's looking really beautiful from here. Last question before we wrap up, because I am very aware that I have taken a fair bit of your time, which I.
Am very grateful for.
Carla anti Mania, how are you celebrating International Women's Day?
Well, yeah, we're celebrating an International Women's Day by attending one of the events held in Cayama and I'm one of the speakers that will be speaking at International Women's Day. Carl is coming along as well.
And together we're running a workshop and both the speech and the workshop are on the breaking the bias as an ally. And this is I've come back to the hometown Cimo I grew up and went to high school, and so I've been involved in a group of amazing women planning for this event. So we're super excited about about the event and agenda. So usually we do speak at something on International Women's Day, but it's a lovely full circle for me coming back to the hometown and doing something.
That's so special.
And if anyone does want to check out Evolve Communities, all the incredible work that you guys are doing, the resources, the courses, we cannot recommend them highly enough. We're huge, huge fans in this office and it's www. Dot evolved, dot com, dot au. They can find you on socials as well, I believe yes.
And one of the next things is also on what's it called the TikTok. You're on tik talk. We're about to.
Just going there.
Oh my gosh, that is gorgeous.
I can't wait.
I'm going to go follow you in advance so that I get to see it first. Oh my gosh, Well, thank you both for joining us.
It has been an.
Absolute privilege to share you both with our community, and we know that this won't be the last interaction we have with you.
Oh think, thank you Victoria and Jess. And I also want to think, I so wish this program was around.
And I'm you know, I'm not a millennial.
I'm an excerpt, but I'm definitely learning from your program. And financial literacy is just such an important thing, isn't it? Absolutely and something we also try to teach and share in with Aboriginal communities. We ask a question when we do the Privilege Walk and we're looking at the role of privilege, we asked the question, if you had someone teach you how to get a bank account, how to you know?
Because that actually is a privilege I.
One hundred percent, And it's something that we so easily overlook, like we might think it's small, but it's absolutely not. That the foundational skills that so many people miss out on. And as always, just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and torrest Right Islander People's. They're the traditional cast Ordians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on
which we are able to learn. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and we share our friendship and our kindness.
And we promise. Victoria Divine is an authorized representative of Infocused Securities Australia Proprietary Limited a b N four seven oh nine seven seven nine seven O four nine af S L two three six five two three