“I have ABORIGINAL heritage and I use to be ashamed of it now I’m proud of it and own it”
As a child I was teased at school when others found out I was part aboriginal. Can you guess why? It was because of the way I looked. I have blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. This is what ‘they’ stereotyped me as. “But you’ve got a European name and you look European” they would say. Yes, that’s absolutely true, I am European (Czech). I also have Scottish and a bit of Sri Lankan heritage too.
I believe I am deeply spiritually connected to my aboriginal heritage and part of my experiences in life have come from my elders and ancestors. Our culture was never hidden from us as children, my mum and dad would openly speak about our family history but we never fully embraced any of our mixed cultures. It has only become more apparent to me in the last few years that I’ve really wanted to explore all of my different nationalities.
I was just a young indigenous girl from a small country town who grew up in an environment of domestic violence who had a dream and a vision to break the cycle for a better future. I overcame all limiting beliefs despite the challenges that came with it, the drugs and alcohol to numb myself from all emotions I felt from my childhood to pushing my body to the limits with exercise to winning Miss Figure Australia and competing at the World CrossFit Games in LA — and being the first EVER indigenous girl to compete at the CrossFit Games might I add and now a mum, happily married and running my business Beauty In Strength that’s impacting hundreds of lives around the world as an emotional intelligence and resilience coach, author and speaker.
Why do I share this? Did you know the statistics are so much higher for indigenous communities to repeat the cycle and never make it out. We are exposed to abuse, drugs and alcoholism more than non-indigenous families. I’m a prime candidate to repeat the cycle. But, I’m here to share a message, to be the light for others and to give hope – that no matter where you come from or what you’ve been through you can achieve anything you want to in life.
Part of Beauty In Strengths mission is to empower young indigenous girls and boys to dream big and aim high so they too can break the cycle.
So, as the old saying goes “never judge a book by its cover.”
It’s not on the outside that makes us who we are it’s what’s on the inside.
When we heal we don’t just heal ourselves, we heal for the generations that came before us and the generations that come after us.
