I am a proud Yidinji (Carins), Yadhaigana (Eastern Cape York) and Meriam Mer (Murray Island) Sovereign First Nationswoman. I have lived my entire life on beautiful Kombumerri Saltwater Peoples and Ngarangwal Freshwater Peoples jagun (country) of Bundjalung Nation of the Gold Coast. I did not know my truth self for a very long time. Thirty-twoyears to be precise, it was a long time of only knowing one way. I identified at the age of 18 as a Kombumerri Saltwater Murri... married a Kombumerri (Gold Coast), Quandamooka (Moreton Bay), Mununjali (Beaudesert) and Minjunbal (Tweed River Valley Region) Traditional Owner and had two beautiful jarjums (children).
I am truly blessed, and my heart is full of gratitude today... to walk with a full spirit and carry with me the knowledge of who I am and where I come from. I find great comfort in knowing my fierce warrior Ancestors' blood runs through my veins from a Tribal Chief's daughter, a princess of Island royalty and a British Prime Minister (as history has documented). I gather great strength in the knowledge that traversing many generations' back, I come from slaves on the Ivory Coast of Africa.
It grieves me also in knowing my Ancestors were taken to Jamaica against their will. I come from global seafaring people who travelled the seven seas in their traditional outrigger canoes and tall sailing ships. Some became perhaps willing participants on slaves' ships sailing the oceans like the 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. There are oral stories that have been handed down in my family of notorious pirates wreaking havoc wherever their ship landed. There are stories of my bloodlines connecting me to a Prime Minister of England. I find a beautiful irony and sincerity as I was adopted by my loving English family. I come from the beautiful people of Oceania, the collective name of the many Islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean, and I am Asian-Pacific from the Philippines.
I am a rich smelting pot of exquisite cultures. I am a proud First Nations woman from many places who grew up in the Gold Coast Hinterland of Mudgeeraba and Springbrook. In my formative years I spent countless hours wandering through the ancient and scared Gondwana Rainforests not far from where your College resides. This is not my jagun (country)... this is my home of deep love, connection and belonging that I have known for 54 years.
