'In the darkest times of my life, my Aboriginality has saved me.'

Dear Aboriginality, 

You have defined me as a person and this is why I feel I can be proudly me in some rooms and feel invisible in others.

Don't get me wrong, I have always felt that you are my best feature, growing up with cousins that were like siblings, every adult was an uncle or aunty, you just bring people together, like magnets — with a powerful magnetic pull.

It's a sense of belonging that I see others search for and mine is an inherent birthright because of you.

It's why in the darkest times in my life I have had my sistas wipe tears from my eyes, sharing their words of wisdom and loving my babies like their own, coming into each other's lives when it's exactly right.

Because of you, I feel connected to 3.8 per cent of the population and with that we go through the many highs and lows together.

We're like a big ol' gumtree, resilient through the harshest conditions, so big, so strong… I reckon the type of gumtree with roots above the soil that you always trip over — just to remind you.

Watch: What country means to Indigenous people. Post continues after video.

But — with all respect, you've not always been around — the ancestors had never as much as whispered the word Aboriginal for up to 85,000 years before the colonisation of this land.

With over 250 mobs, 300 languages and around 800 dialects the differences came with a rich and individual lore and culture.

The word Aboriginal (we're all guilty of wanting to know what our names mean right?) is derived from the Latin word aborigines meaning "original inhabitants" a name bestowed upon us by the colonisers while they simultaneously claimed Terra Nullius — a strange twist that remains my Roman Empire.

It is ironic you were a blanket term used to describe us, used to racially profile, stereotype us they even to this day they created something called The Aborigines Protection Act — and I know what you're thinking, it wasn’t there to protect.

Yet the word Aboriginal has been something that unites us all and through 230 years of resistance and advocacy it's done in your name — for all Aboriginal people.

You ignite a sense of responsibility and passion for equality in me that is very triggering for middle-aged Australian men - and that feels like a superpower. 

There will never be a life without you, like my children when they see a cockroach — we stick together, and I will do so proudly.

From Natasha

Listen to Natasha Lucas on This Glorious Mess here.

Image: Supplied. 

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