I was born to the Kamillaroi nation and raised in Manilla. The move from my home land began when I was a young lad. My dad’s work took the family first to Newcastle and then to Port Macquarie where we put up stumps for a few years. We lived overlooking the ocean and attended a school on the headland also overlooking the ocean. Needless to say a fair bit of time was spent in the water and on the beaches. This lasted until I was six when we were pulled up and moved to Wagga Wagga (good recall for and old bloke).

When I was seventeen I was living in Sydney attending a block release course at Bankstown Tec. This was the time when I was informed of my Aboriginal heritage. Boom! I was totally gobsmacked by what I had heard. Confirming the news with my aunt I then waited a very long week before I could get home to talk to mum about this new development and confront her with a barrage of questions. I wanted to know where my heritage came from, why I was informed accidently by my aunt and most of all why we had never been told! This had no effect on how I thought about Indigenous people as a lot of my mates and their families were exactly that, mates and family.

I had never pursued any great interest in Indigenous culture itself but was and am still very proud to identify myself as Indigenous. It wasn’t until my kids started attending school that I got involved in the Aboriginal Students Support and Parent Awareness committee (ASPPA) and my interested in my culture broaden and I gained mentors from the association, I stayed on as a committee member through the kid’s junior and senior schooling.

In 1997 I began employment with Tweed Hospital as a maintenance worker where I met and befriended McDuck aka Charlie Fay. Charlie and I have since become very good and close friends and I am proud to call him brother.

Charlie is the men’s group coordinator, he organises and runs a Men’s group at Tweed which gets together on a fortnightly basis and is open to all Indigenous males of the community. The purpose of the group is to get together and just talk a bit of men's business; we promote a healthy life style, discuss the health problems we face as we age and how to deal with them, find out about organisations that are here to help and we develop great friendships and support networks.

I’d been attending the group for about three years when Charlie invited me to a Mibbinbah Indigenous men’s training camp at Gariwerd (the Grampians). For me the camp was an eye opener and a week of soul cleansing.

The knowledge I gained from each and every one who attended was inspirational. Gariwerd is a safe place for Aboriginal nations to come and trade. The concept of safe spaces was emphasised during the camp. It was a place where my fellow brothers and I could face demons that had haunted us for years and share our stories and journeys with each other, a mob of very loving friends. I came away from the camp on a massive high as I think we all did. I now believe I have a new vocation in life to pursue.

Having lived with depression for about ten years, I was able to overcome it with help from a good councillor and have been able to cope with life and my feelings ever since. With the inspiration of the camp and my brothers I now feel that I want to and am ready to give back and have decided to pursue counselling as a career.

Another pursuit I have since become engrossed in and can’t get away from is the didgeridoo, I can only lay full blame for this massive consumption of time on the shoulders of one man, Jason Sandy, to you Jason I say thank you brother for rekindling my love of the didgeridoo and the need to play it.

Not having a good stick I ended up buying one at the local markets. All the art work on it  encouraged me to do my own, I’d never drawn anything other than straight lines, I was a bit apprehensive but bit the bullet and decided to rebirth a pole I bought back in 1993 in Cairns. It was something that didn't blow real well and was described as a stick with a hole in it. I tried to open it up and ended up putting a hole through the wall about 300mm up from the bottom. So out with the saw I cut it back at the hole and as would have it, there was a big wood knot which was narrowing down the hole to basically nothing. I was able to clear it out and it now has a great note come out of it.

So outcome the pencil and after a bit of doodling I was happy with what I was seeing and took the wood burner to it and ended up with what I think is a pretty nice looking Yadaki stick.

All of this has been driven from within and sparked into action by those new friends, brothers and sister I had the privilege sharing that week of learning at Gariwerd.
To Mibbinbah I say thank you for the organisation that went on behind the scenes and to beyondblue thank you for the sponsorship you have with Mibinbbah to allow these things to happen and the insight to be aware of the needs for Indigenous health and the need of assistance within the communities of Australia.

I look forward to meeting up with all those attending the next camp.