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| Shantelle Thompson, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Censored News |
NEW YORK -- Shantelle Thompson, a proud Barkindji/Ngiyampaa, brought the power of the oldest living culture in the world, stating that Australian Aboriginal women are not victims, and do not sell out to fit the colonial narrative. Thompson, a world champion black belt, delivered this message of women rising.
Speaking to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Thompson said she descends from the oldest living culture in the world, is a dreaming-led woman, and comes as a sovereign, self-determined woman, walking with the strength of her ancestors, with the fire of the future in her bones, and planting seeds for generations.
She carries the identity of daughter, sister, mother, auntie, black belt and world champion, storyteller, founder, knowledge-keeper, guide and warrior.
She is known as the Barkindji Warrior.
"This is not the story or experience that colonial and patriarchal Australia would have me share as an Indigenous woman," Thompson told the United Nations today.
"It would have me birth my story from trauma and adversity, that of a victim."
"This is not the story or experience that colonial and patriarchal Australia would have me share as an Indigenous woman," Thompson told the United Nations today.
"It would have me birth my story from trauma and adversity, that of a victim."
"It is the narrative defined by deficit, of being a Ngiyampaa, less than."
"We are seen as problems to be managed, not sovereign and matriarchal leaders."
"Too often to receive support, we are expected to prostitute our trauma, we must perform our pain, but not be too strong, or the funding disappears."
'This is the violence of the current system, a model that rewards suffering and punishes resilience."
"It is ineffective, it is dangerous and it must change."
Thompson said her story is seeded in the womb of her ancestors, and this is the narrative that Indigenous women give to the world, that of the warrior heart, Indigenous culture, matriarchal power and feminine rising.
On this journey of remembrance, she speaks as a sovereign and self-determined Indigenous woman and mother.
"We are not broken, we are not helpless, we are powerful beyond measure."
"I am not here to ask for permission, I am here to remind the world that when Indigenous women rise, the world changes."
"Let us lead not as a gesture, but as a global necessity."
"We are seen as problems to be managed, not sovereign and matriarchal leaders."
"Too often to receive support, we are expected to prostitute our trauma, we must perform our pain, but not be too strong, or the funding disappears."
'This is the violence of the current system, a model that rewards suffering and punishes resilience."
"It is ineffective, it is dangerous and it must change."
Thompson said her story is seeded in the womb of her ancestors, and this is the narrative that Indigenous women give to the world, that of the warrior heart, Indigenous culture, matriarchal power and feminine rising.
On this journey of remembrance, she speaks as a sovereign and self-determined Indigenous woman and mother.
"We are not broken, we are not helpless, we are powerful beyond measure."
"I am not here to ask for permission, I am here to remind the world that when Indigenous women rise, the world changes."
"Let us lead not as a gesture, but as a global necessity."
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