Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and
Speaker 2: waters that this podcast is recorded on Hello and welcome
Speaker 2: to But are You Happy? The podcast that asks the
Speaker 2: questions you've always wanted to know from the people who
Speaker 2: appear to have it all. Brook Blurton is a media
Speaker 2: personality who you may know as the first Indigenous and
Speaker 2: bisexual bachelorette, but she's also a successful author, podcaster and
Speaker 2: youth worker. She's a Nunga Yamaji woman who grew up
Speaker 2: in Canarvon, Western Australia, and Brook's story is unlike any
Speaker 2: I've heard before. Brook's mum had addiction problems, so part
Speaker 2: of her childhood was spent in the foster system. When
Speaker 2: she was eleven, her grandmother, who had been instrumental in
Speaker 2: raising her, had a stroke in her garden. It was
Speaker 2: Brook that found her and called the ambulance and her
Speaker 2: grandmother was taken to hospital in Perth. Brook's mum went
Speaker 2: to visit her mum in hospital and while she was there,
Speaker 2: she took her own life. At her mother's wake, Brooke
Speaker 2: was sexually abused while she was sleeping. It's the kind
Speaker 2: of story that makes you want to reach through those
Speaker 2: words and hold the young girl who was dealing with
Speaker 2: multiple complex traumas. While most eleven year olds get to
Speaker 2: focus on the fun and joy of being a child.
Speaker 2: At eleven, Brooke called her dad and she went to
Speaker 2: live with him in Perth, and in the years that
Speaker 2: followed the impact of the trauma she'd been through and
Speaker 2: the trauma she was still living through manifested itself in
Speaker 2: a number of ways.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a better life. I was still being emotionally abused.
Speaker 3: I was still being verbally abused because I didn't talk,
Speaker 3: So maybe I wasn't being like physically abused as what
Speaker 3: my previous life was like. I was still experiencing these
Speaker 3: different traumas and I think, you.
Speaker 4: Know, there's so many feelings that I had when I
Speaker 4: was younger.
Speaker 3: I was obviously I felt displaced is probably the word.
Speaker 3: I felt insecure. I was very unhappy and very ashamed.
Speaker 2: The story of how Brooke Blurton went on to thrive
Speaker 2: at school and become a role model, both through her
Speaker 2: work in the media and her work with at risk
Speaker 2: youth is deeply moving. It's also an exploration in resilience,
Speaker 2: finding happiness in darkness, and the way in which pride,
Speaker 2: fun and joy can coexist with grief, despair and loneliness.
Speaker 4: Here's Brook Blurton.
Speaker 2: This episode mentions themes of drug addiction, sexual abuse and suicide,
Speaker 2: so please listen with care. If you or someone you
Speaker 2: know need support, reach out to Lifeline at thirteen teen
Speaker 2: eleven fourteen one eight hundred respect or check our show
Speaker 2: notes for more resources. Brook Blurton, You're known and adored
Speaker 2: by the Australian public, and in twenty twenty two you
Speaker 2: wrote a memoir called Big Love that shared your incredible
Speaker 2: story of adversity and resilience and the transformative power of love.
Speaker 2: From the outside, your life is glamorous and enviable, But
Speaker 2: beneath the surface, how are you right now? What's your
Speaker 2: life like at the moment?
Speaker 4: Very good question.
Speaker 3: My life now currently, I would say and describe as
Speaker 3: maybe a work in progress, a whip, which you know
Speaker 3: we all are, so that's always a fun thing.
Speaker 4: But I feel like many times in my.
Speaker 3: Life I'm going through different transitions in Korea, in personal,
Speaker 3: in healing and growth. Like I think this couple of
Speaker 3: years are self proclaimed my years to be my soft
Speaker 3: Girl era, which means I guess prioritizing rest and restoration
Speaker 3: and recovery, which comes back to a lot of other
Speaker 3: things that have happened in my life that I haven't
Speaker 3: really allowed myself to do this. So yeah, it's kind
Speaker 3: of a bit of a like a stripping back, pulling
Speaker 3: back error.
Speaker 2: You grew up in community with your family, what do
Speaker 2: you think so many Australians wouldn't know what understand about
Speaker 2: growing up in community.
Speaker 3: I think with the world and the industry that I
Speaker 3: have been working in the last ten years, there isn't
Speaker 3: this really understanding of what coming from the bush, or
Speaker 3: coming from country towns, or coming from rural or regional
Speaker 3: areas means it's just a different kind of way of living.
Speaker 3: And I know, like you know, everyone's like, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: like a country girl, and they have a view of
Speaker 3: what that looks like. But it's more I guess from
Speaker 3: a community that was very sort of isolated.
Speaker 4: From the world.
Speaker 3: I mean, Canarvin is nine hundred and thirty kilometers from Perth.
Speaker 3: It's not remote, but it is rural and the population
Speaker 3: around five thousand people, so everyone knows everyone, everyone is
Speaker 3: in each other's business. But you know, growing up in
Speaker 3: the community, it's quite communal. Like I guess growing up
Speaker 3: with your cousins and your neighbors being your aunties or
Speaker 3: your uncles and your men being across the road, Like,
Speaker 3: it's just a different way of living to coming to
Speaker 3: Perth or coming to the city or coming to Melbourne
Speaker 3: where it's just like far greater population and it's a bit.
Speaker 4: Hard to adapt to.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I guess in community, what people wouldn't know
Speaker 3: is how many values I guess that are established when
Speaker 3: you're young and how much you sort of miss out.
Speaker 4: On that when you get older.
Speaker 2: What kind of values do you feel like you grew
Speaker 2: up with because of having that baseline you came from.
Speaker 4: Love and consideration. It's joy. The fact that I grew up.
Speaker 3: Next to family was that I always had people coming
Speaker 3: in and out of my house and that feeling. Some
Speaker 3: people would get really aggravated or really annoyed at that
Speaker 3: sort of part. You know, their value their privacy, But
Speaker 3: it's not that you don't value your privacy. You just
Speaker 3: value the community aspect of that and what it brings
Speaker 3: to you. And the joy of having that sort of
Speaker 3: open door policy of like welcoming and celebrating and I
Speaker 3: guess being inclusive my mother and grandmother instilled in me
Speaker 3: from a young age, you know, appreciating walking barefoot on country,
Speaker 3: or appreciating times of day, so when the sun sets
Speaker 3: and when the sun rises.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like little things like that.
Speaker 3: It may not mean much to the general public, but
Speaker 3: culturally to me and culturally to First Nations people, it
Speaker 3: actually is a part of us, and it means way
Speaker 3: more than people can really fathom or gather together.
Speaker 2: It's interesting what you say about the open door policy,
Speaker 2: and some people might think that that's exhausting having lots
Speaker 2: of people come through the door, But I've read that
Speaker 2: sometimes when you grow up like that and then you
Speaker 2: go to a city, it's actually the city people find
Speaker 2: exhausting because you are interacting with so many people in
Speaker 2: these little ways all day, and people that you don't know,
Speaker 2: and that's actually far more intense. Did you kind of
Speaker 2: have that whiplash?
Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot.
Speaker 3: Actually, when I was younger, adapting to the city was
Speaker 3: quite difficult for me. I'd also experience quite a bit
Speaker 3: of trauma in a very short period of time, so
Speaker 3: I was suffering from a lot of PTSD, and I
Speaker 3: guess the effect of that was that I actually shut
Speaker 3: down and I didn't talk for two years when I
Speaker 3: talk about that in Big Love. But I guess coming
Speaker 3: out of that and adapting to to a different family,
Speaker 3: a different city, different school, different friends, and different community
Speaker 3: and plays, there was just so much happening that I
Speaker 3: was probably just like overstimulated and over overwhelmed, if I'm
Speaker 3: being honest. It was a lot, But I think I
Speaker 3: sort of.
Speaker 4: Found my.
Speaker 3: Common ground, or I guess my grounding in AFL footy.
Speaker 3: I played footy from when I was a younger kid
Speaker 3: in Caernarvon and then moving to Perth, I still continued
Speaker 3: it and that kind of set me on a path
Speaker 3: where I could do what I loved and it felt
Speaker 3: like home in some way.
Speaker 4: So I sort of.
Speaker 3: Had to make home in a place where it didn't
Speaker 3: really feel like it. And yeah, you're right, I mean
Speaker 3: people probably get overwhelmed by having these little interactions with
Speaker 3: strangers all the time. Now I enjoy it, but at
Speaker 3: that time, everything was new and everything was fresh, and
Speaker 3: I was just kind of taking it for what it
Speaker 3: was and what it is, so as you can imagine
Speaker 3: an eleven year old, it was just so overwhelming to
Speaker 3: find my feet in that age.
Speaker 2: Going back to how you ended up in Perth at eleven,
Speaker 2: So you grew up in you with your mum and
Speaker 2: your grandmother and your siblings, and then when you were
Speaker 2: eleven you lost both of them at about the same time.
Speaker 2: What can you remember about that period and what kind
Speaker 2: of kid were you when your whole life changed?
Speaker 3: Well, like I said, I had kind of grown up
Speaker 3: with my house kind of always being chaos in a
Speaker 3: light term, good chaos and bad chaos, sometimes playing with
Speaker 3: my siblings, having like you know, four of my siblings around,
Speaker 3: and then when I guess my mum and my grandmother died,
Speaker 3: we all separated and I didn't know where we all when,
Speaker 3: what we were doing, if we don't see each other again,
Speaker 3: if we'd come back together again.
Speaker 4: And at that time, as a kid, I.
Speaker 3: Was very shy, but I kind of held a responsibility
Speaker 3: which was kind of unknown until later in my life
Speaker 3: when I started unpack that. At an early age, I
Speaker 3: kind of already decided that I had this role in
Speaker 3: my family to take care of everyone. No one had
Speaker 3: told me that, no one had said you need to
Speaker 3: do this. Innately, It was actually a coping mechanism to
Speaker 3: keep myself safe and to keep everyone else safe, so
Speaker 3: my siblings, my grandmother who was really sick at the
Speaker 3: time and obviously ended up passing away, and also you know,
Speaker 3: dealing with a mum who was addicted to drugs and
Speaker 3: had such a volatile relationship with it, and.
Speaker 4: So there were so many moving parts of that part
Speaker 4: of my life.
Speaker 3: But I do remember, you know, I was a shy kid,
Speaker 3: but then moving to the city helped me, I guess,
Speaker 3: come out of my shell way more. But I just
Speaker 3: remember that time thinking, am I going to be able
Speaker 3: to see my siblings again and we're all going to
Speaker 3: be together at that time, and kind of having an
Speaker 3: innate feeling or desire or motivation to get us back
Speaker 3: together again and to reunite however that looked or whatever
Speaker 3: that was going to be, Like, I was determined to
Speaker 3: do that. So I kind of treated Perth as a
Speaker 3: new start, a new fresh obviously new family, new place.
Speaker 4: I just thought, all right.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, I've kind of shut down and I went
Speaker 3: internally into myself. But I built my confidence up step
Speaker 3: by step, using footy and using school and using connections
Speaker 3: that I made to get myself to a place where
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, well, I can actually do this now.
Speaker 2: Coming up next, I talked to Brooke about the moment
Speaker 2: she learned the truth about how her mum died and
Speaker 2: the severe depression that followed. So you're this little kid,
Speaker 2: and you say you felt this sense of responsibility, which
Speaker 2: I find fascinating that at such a young age you're
Speaker 2: feeling responsible for your family and your grandmother. And that
Speaker 2: is probably something that comes from that community living, that
Speaker 2: you feel responsible for each other, and that's actually a
Speaker 2: beautiful thing that not everybody gets to experience when you
Speaker 2: don't have family that's that tight knit. I wonder when
Speaker 2: you do experience trauma and when really horrific things happen,
Speaker 2: does that responsibility do you almost weaponize that against yourself?
Speaker 2: Like do you feel responsible for things which weren't your fault?
Speaker 4: I did for a very long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I guess between zero and a they say, you know,
Speaker 3: therapus will say you establish your core beliefs. Between that
Speaker 3: age and later in life, these will sort of determine
Speaker 3: and show themselves.
Speaker 4: I mean, I was a kid and I had to.
Speaker 3: Grow up really quickly, and that obviously became more of
Speaker 3: a survival mentality.
Speaker 4: Like I said, to keep myself safe during that time.
Speaker 4: No one had said that, No one had told.
Speaker 3: Me that that was my innate, I guess feeling and
Speaker 3: mechanism to do.
Speaker 4: I think for a long time I hated.
Speaker 3: Parts of my life because I thought it was my fault,
Speaker 3: or because I could have made better choices, or you know,
Speaker 3: I could have done this and I could have done that.
Speaker 4: And I guess not in a way that I did
Speaker 4: weaponize it, but I just.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a positive feeling to look back at those moments,
Speaker 3: and I kind of felt embarrassed and a bit shame.
Speaker 3: I think shame is the word that I would always
Speaker 3: get picked on because I was like too white for
Speaker 3: the black kids, and then I was too black for
Speaker 3: the white kids because I didn't have money and I
Speaker 3: was poor, and I was embarrassed by those moments. So
Speaker 3: I've now like channeled this feeling now which probably lives
Speaker 3: in these that I will never go back to that.
Speaker 3: So I've worked my ass off to get to this
Speaker 3: place to never go back to that. So that kind
Speaker 3: of weaponizing, Yes, that's more of a motivation and a
Speaker 3: determination rather than a weaponizing.
Speaker 2: You lost your mom by suicide. Do you remember the
Speaker 2: moment you learnt that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was actually later, so we were told such
Speaker 3: a different story when my mum actually died, so not.
Speaker 4: That it really helped with the grieving process.
Speaker 3: I think later on, when I was more eighteen and
Speaker 3: found out the truth, I was more confused and probably
Speaker 3: more angry, because you know, when I was eleven, I kind.
Speaker 4: Of, you know, thought it was like an.
Speaker 3: Accident, and I had been told that, and that's how
Speaker 3: we process the information that it was an accident and
Speaker 3: there was no control over it. But then I guess
Speaker 3: when I found out that my mum did suicide and
Speaker 3: she had control over that.
Speaker 4: I was angry.
Speaker 3: Like, as an eighteen year old, you're going through so
Speaker 3: much already in life, and you're going through this transition
Speaker 3: period of your life, like you're becoming an adult and
Speaker 3: now you're you know, sort of left out into the
Speaker 3: world to deal with things yourself without guidance, and I
Speaker 3: already had sort of had to grow up with that already,
Speaker 3: so I was kind of doing it alone. And then
Speaker 3: having found out more about the lead up to her
Speaker 3: death and what happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so finding out later was honestly a very turmoil
Speaker 4: sort of part of my life.
Speaker 3: I then sort of suffered from my own mental health
Speaker 3: issue and I had to sort of learn, I guess,
Speaker 3: to deal with trauma. And that was, like I guess,
Speaker 3: the first part of my journey.
Speaker 4: Into healing and actually seeking help.
Speaker 3: And it was also my first experience, not my first experience,
Speaker 3: feeling suicidal or having suicidal adeation. I talk about this
Speaker 3: a lot, and I'm very raw and I guess, you know,
Speaker 3: open about my experiences in my lived experience, but it
Speaker 3: was my first acceptance that I really needed help to
Speaker 3: deal with this and to deal with the pain that
Speaker 3: I was feeling, and also the anger and the embarrassment
Speaker 3: and the displacement. Really that was pretty much what I
Speaker 3: was feeling when I was an eighteen year old finding
Speaker 3: out that my mum had taken her own life instead
Speaker 3: of it being an accident.
Speaker 2: How did that trauma manifest itself? I mean, there were
Speaker 2: a few things that happened to you when you were
Speaker 2: so young, and I can imagine that you talk about
Speaker 2: how you didn't speak for two year, you were mute.
Speaker 2: What other ways did the trauma manifest Well.
Speaker 3: The very obvious one is obviously going mute and isolation inside.
Speaker 4: I was very angry, but.
Speaker 3: At the same weird time, in this weird sort of juxtaposition,
Speaker 3: I was also grateful I'd moved to a family, a
Speaker 3: white family which was my dad's family, who took me
Speaker 3: under their roof, had given me sort of more of
Speaker 3: a more conventional life. But it wasn't a better life.
Speaker 3: I was still being emotionally abused. I was still being
Speaker 3: verbally abused because I didn't talk, So maybe I wasn't
Speaker 3: being like physically abused.
Speaker 4: As what my previous life was like.
Speaker 3: I was still experiencing these different traumas, and I think,
Speaker 3: you know, there were so many feelings that I had
Speaker 3: when I was younger. I was obviously I felt displaced
Speaker 3: is probably the word. I felt insecure. I was very
Speaker 3: unhappy and very ashamed. I didn't know who I was.
Speaker 3: I didn't know where I belonged. I didn't know my identity.
Speaker 3: I knew things about my cultural identity that I had
Speaker 3: held so much, I held sacred and so close to
Speaker 3: me because they were my grandmother's stories of stories that
Speaker 3: you know, I will carry on, and I was really
Speaker 3: proud of those. But yeah, I think it manifested in
Speaker 3: mental health into more of it. I can't really say
Speaker 3: that I was depressed at more eleven or twelve because
Speaker 3: there was so much happening. I probably I probably was,
Speaker 3: but I hadn't really, you know, had that diagnosis, so
Speaker 3: I couldn't really say.
Speaker 4: But if I was to see a doctor I've probably and.
Speaker 3: Actually spoke about it, I probably would say that I
Speaker 3: was ceviely.
Speaker 4: Depressed at that time.
Speaker 3: And so it was manifesting in so many different ways,
Speaker 3: and the only thing that really only pulled me out
Speaker 3: or brought me back to a place where I felt
Speaker 3: happy and I felt that I did belong was actually
Speaker 3: AFL Footy.
Speaker 4: So I'm very very grateful for a stupid leveable.
Speaker 2: I can imagine that that sense of community really pulls
Speaker 2: you out, and it's also did it feel like a
Speaker 2: physical way to express what you were feeling without having
Speaker 2: to use words like what do you think it was
Speaker 2: about AFL that brought you happiness in such a dark time?
Speaker 3: The community aspect, for sure, and belonging to something or
Speaker 3: some team that you feel like you are contributing and
Speaker 3: you're offering something and you are valued for it, which
Speaker 3: seems so silly, I know, but I think when I
Speaker 3: look at that younger version of myself, like that's all
Speaker 3: I really craved, was feeling like I belonged somewhere and
Speaker 3: feeling like I needed to be somewhere and feeling needed.
Speaker 3: And I guess and appreciate it, and I think, you know,
Speaker 3: when I played footy, I didn't really have to talk. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I would yell for the ball, but it was more like,
Speaker 3: you know, I learned to use my body and my
Speaker 3: gestures and my use of eye contact to really tell
Speaker 3: people what was going on even if I didn't or
Speaker 3: couldn't really express that. So yeah, I kind of learned
Speaker 3: how to talk with my eyes, which is funny. I
Speaker 3: still do it now, like I'd rather not talk. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess footy was just taught me that there were
Speaker 3: so many aspects of it that what I was really
Speaker 3: seeking in that, And I think I grew like a
Speaker 3: sisterhood with my teammates. The game has changed so much
Speaker 3: of the years, but I still pride so much on,
Speaker 3: you know, that part of my life being really down.
Speaker 2: To footy with AFL you were also really good at it,
Speaker 2: and you you were really good at athletics, and I
Speaker 2: can imagine that like going to do something that you
Speaker 2: are naturally really good at and then being able to
Speaker 2: get better and better and better and stand out and
Speaker 2: get positive reinforcement is such a huge source of self
Speaker 2: esteem when you're going through struggles in your personal life.
Speaker 2: By the end of school, you were head Girl. Is
Speaker 2: that right?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What do you think it was? Were there people that
Speaker 2: you can identify who really held your hand and got
Speaker 2: you out of where you were?
Speaker 3: There were very few people in my life at the time,
Speaker 3: but the people that I guess showed so much compassion
Speaker 3: and so much love towards me had made the biggest impact.
Speaker 3: It was such a pivotal thing for me to have
Speaker 3: those extra curricular tutor programs that are sponsored by donations
Speaker 3: and government, because those programs after school were the things
Speaker 3: that got me through and actually leveraged me to be
Speaker 3: then more academic and graduating as Head Girl. It wasn't
Speaker 3: even about the title. It was actually just the amount
Speaker 3: of work that I put into to get that, but
Speaker 3: then also to show that I am capable and I
Speaker 3: am so much more than I think that I was
Speaker 3: or am. And you're right, my self esteem was very low,
Speaker 3: and I constantly in the face of that, I still
Speaker 3: showed up and I still put a mask on. I
Speaker 3: guess I tried to put this confidence version of myself
Speaker 3: that was like, yes, I can do this and saying yes.
Speaker 3: And I think my teachers and those people that did
Speaker 3: really help, like Joe was a teacher at mine, and
Speaker 3: Jeremy Bruce, who was also another teacher who taught me afel,
Speaker 3: those people never really gave up on me and just
Speaker 3: told me to keep saying yes to.
Speaker 2: Things, because I think sometimes there can be a bit
Speaker 2: of philosophy around boundaries and how important it is to
Speaker 2: say no, But there's also something to be said for
Speaker 2: that crucial moment of being young and taking risks and
Speaker 2: saying yes to work out how strong you are and
Speaker 2: how good you can be at things that maybe you
Speaker 2: used to be scared of. Like to think that now
Speaker 2: you're a speaker and you've been on national television and
Speaker 2: in adolescence you didn't speak for two years, Like that's
Speaker 2: a transformation that a lot of people can imagine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like this has only really come out
Speaker 3: in the last couple of years. I guess since writing
Speaker 3: Big Love about my experiences growing up in the community,
Speaker 3: and I guess even talking about me not talking is
Speaker 3: very unusual, and it is a very conflicting thing because
Speaker 3: some people don't not that they don't believe me, they're
Speaker 3: just like a bit astonished that those two years of
Speaker 3: my life I didn't talk and yeah, I probably said
Speaker 3: thank you and hello and gestured, and I felt like
Speaker 3: that's what I remember. I don't feel what I said
Speaker 3: or didn't. I can't picture that, but I can remember
Speaker 3: how I felt in that time, and I felt minimized,
Speaker 3: and I felt internal, and I felt closed off to
Speaker 3: the world. And it's I guess, then going feeling those
Speaker 3: things and going through life and building myself up, and
Speaker 3: then getting to a position to then apply for you know,
Speaker 3: like a reality TV show, which.
Speaker 4: You can't really express all of that.
Speaker 3: In a show that's about dating one guy or finding
Speaker 3: the love of your life, you can't really express all
Speaker 3: of that. So it's crazy because this is I guess,
Speaker 3: an expression of what people go through their lives. And
Speaker 3: I guess also the complexities of humans and also trauma
Speaker 3: and how that has an influence and mental health and
Speaker 3: all of those things I can't really encompass in any
Speaker 3: short seeing.
Speaker 2: Up next, Brook talks about the time where the world
Speaker 2: told her she'd be happy when she left the bachelorette
Speaker 2: in a glamorous new relationship, and what was actually going
Speaker 2: on behind the scenes. You're on the Bachelor, You're in
Speaker 2: a mansion with a group of women who all have
Speaker 2: their own stories and invisible struggles and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: But when you were having those experiences of the Bachelor,
Speaker 2: Bachelor in Paradise, the Bachelorette, were there moments where the
Speaker 2: world kind of told you you'd be happy, Like there were
Speaker 2: moments where you're going to events and everything looks really
Speaker 2: glamorous from the outside, but you actually weren't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, there's two really distinct moments that I
Speaker 3: went to, and I think the first one is it
Speaker 3: was post Bachelor and you know, I had left and
Speaker 3: everyone's like, you know, you dodged a bullet and oh
Speaker 3: good on you and gay and in enough time had
Speaker 3: gone on sort of build myself back up from that experience,
Speaker 3: and then it you know, you reintroduce it and you
Speaker 3: re air it, and then you sort of relive it
Speaker 3: at the same time.
Speaker 4: And then as you're reliving.
Speaker 3: It, all those sort of feelings are coming back up again,
Speaker 3: and depending on where you're at in life, you can
Speaker 3: really feel it or you can close it off. But
Speaker 3: I am a feeler, so I felt every sort of
Speaker 3: moment again, and everyone was like that, such a boss babe,
Speaker 3: like good on you for walking out, but not realizing
Speaker 3: at the same time the honey Badger is messaging me
Speaker 3: and confusing my feelings as well in that time, and
Speaker 3: everyone's like, you're a boss babe, and I'm.
Speaker 4: Like, I don't know what's going on. I have no idea.
Speaker 4: This is the first time I've been on TV. It's
Speaker 4: such a and I should be.
Speaker 3: Really happy, and like everyone's like, you're killing it, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, no, Like at the same time, I'm
Speaker 3: like confused. I'm so confused because it's just overwhelming and
Speaker 3: so unusual. It's such a world that I'd never really like,
Speaker 3: and I just, you know what I just said, I
Speaker 3: can't deal with this. I'm going to go back to
Speaker 3: my normal job. I'm going to go back to work,
Speaker 3: and I'm just going to pretend it didn't happen for
Speaker 3: a moment, and then I'll deal with it when it
Speaker 3: comes to that.
Speaker 4: So that's what I did.
Speaker 3: And I guess the second time, which is probably a
Speaker 3: little bit more fresh and a bit more serious again,
Speaker 3: is post bachelorette, and everyone thinks that you're in this
Speaker 3: perfect relationship and you're in love and you're so happy,
Speaker 3: and they didn't realize that my sister had passed away
Speaker 3: the day that I had filmed the last night of finale,
Speaker 3: So finale was on a Thursday night.
Speaker 4: I spent three days with my chosen.
Speaker 3: Partner, and then once I got out of that experience,
Speaker 3: I'd found out my sister had passed away. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, how do you process one of the happiest
Speaker 3: moments of your life and one of the most awful
Speaker 3: times of your life. And I think when I was
Speaker 3: doing my publicity and having to talk about being in
Speaker 3: love and finding someone and you know, I'm so happy
Speaker 3: that I've done this experience, and also having to deal
Speaker 3: with sorry business and having to deal with grief and
Speaker 3: so feeling guilty because you weren't there for your sister.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yes, So the two moments where people think
Speaker 3: that you're really, really, really happy and you're killing it
Speaker 3: and you're slaying it, and you're also trying to believe that,
Speaker 3: but there is a part of you that's also like,
Speaker 3: this is the truth, and this is actually generally how
Speaker 3: I feel, and I can't really express that because people
Speaker 3: won't understand.
Speaker 2: And in that period after actuallyrette, I think I remember
Speaker 2: that that you were doing the project and you're doing
Speaker 2: all the glamorous interviews and everybody's unpacking your love story,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot that goes on that probably feels
Speaker 2: incredibly superficial compared to a huge loss that you're grieving
Speaker 2: at the same time. What did you do in that
Speaker 2: period to navigate those two extremes, because I imagine you're
Speaker 2: contractually obliged to do all of that press afterwards. Did
Speaker 2: you feel like you got support from the people you
Speaker 2: were working with. Did you feel like you got support
Speaker 2: from the guy you had chosen.
Speaker 3: It's such an unusual experience to explain. I definitely feel
Speaker 3: like personally I had partly disassociated from my life when
Speaker 3: I look back at it and then have talked about it,
Speaker 3: you know, during therapy, because it feels like.
Speaker 4: Such a blur. It feels like I wasn't quite there.
Speaker 3: And in those moments, I think, you know, I was
Speaker 3: experiencing grief for I guess PTSD as well. It was
Speaker 3: coming back in those times, and I wish that I
Speaker 3: was a bit more present. I'm really disappointed in I
Speaker 3: guess my experience with that in ways because my family
Speaker 3: are so we're so close and during this time we
Speaker 3: really rallied together and we became so much more closer
Speaker 3: for this experience because now we're having to organize a funeral.
Speaker 3: But it was also really heartbreaking because yeah, I am
Speaker 3: contractually obliged to this performative aspect and having to still
Speaker 3: continue filming, like the day before my sister's funeral, my
Speaker 3: family and I filming our backstory and.
Speaker 4: That was really heartbreaking.
Speaker 3: And my brother and I actually spoke about it recently
Speaker 3: when he was in Melbourne, just the unusual feeling of
Speaker 3: on just like putting your trauma and everything and experience
Speaker 3: and grief just to the side and being like, Okay,
Speaker 3: now I have.
Speaker 4: To put this on. And it wasn't healthy.
Speaker 3: I must admit it was probably the most unhealthiest way
Speaker 3: of dealing with it at the time, but I just
Speaker 3: needed to get through it and then once I was
Speaker 3: over that hill, I could then allow myself. I mean,
Speaker 3: I was really also lucky in ways too, because I
Speaker 3: just picked a really beautiful partner who was really supportive
Speaker 3: and wanted to be there for me. But couldn't because
Speaker 3: we couldn't be in public and we couldn't be seen together,
Speaker 3: and so that was also another complexity to that. And
Speaker 3: then on top of that was COVID and lockdowns and
Speaker 3: being away from home and flying back from Sydney. Trying
Speaker 3: to get into WA was the most excruciating painful thing
Speaker 3: that I had to come up with some legal garbage
Speaker 3: pretty much get the network to write a letter to say, like,
Speaker 3: if you are declining or not allowing me to enter
Speaker 3: into my state and my country, you are actually obstructing
Speaker 3: me to practice cultural protocol, which is so busy and
Speaker 3: so yeah, that was difficult to first get into WA
Speaker 3: and then in the two week lockdown period being isolated
Speaker 3: by myself with my dog at home organizing a funeral.
Speaker 3: So in the moments of hey, she's just come off
Speaker 3: the show, she's really really happy, she's found someone. She's
Speaker 3: a bachelorette, you know, and all of these comments and
Speaker 3: tabloids and etc. To then being in an ABNB by
Speaker 3: yourself organizing a funeral for your sister that you've just lost.
Speaker 3: It's just I don't place myself there everyone. I don't
Speaker 3: not want to place myself there every again. Because I don't. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not a fun time.
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, yeah, I can imagine you're going through such
Speaker 2: a harrowing experience and from the outside, beautiful photos of
Speaker 2: you in the finale dress and you and your hair
Speaker 2: and makeup, and it just looks like the most you know, glamorous,
Speaker 2: simple time, and it's beneath the surface, it's absolutely not
Speaker 2: in those moments. You obviously have friends that you've made
Speaker 2: since you've had a profile of your own. Do you
Speaker 2: ever get uncomfortable about whether people want to be friends
Speaker 2: with you for the right reasons? Like, obviously you have
Speaker 2: been through so much. You need people to understand you culturally,
Speaker 2: you need people to understand your trauma. You need people
Speaker 2: to understand who you are. Do you worry that people
Speaker 2: ever want to be friends with you for the fun,
Speaker 2: shiny bits and not for the deeper bits.
Speaker 3: Those type of people showed their true colors during that time,
Speaker 3: for sure, especially within the breakup as well. When a
Speaker 3: relationship breaks up, you know, you do find out who's
Speaker 3: there for you and who's not. And you know what,
Speaker 3: I kind of had this like mentality which is probably
Speaker 3: not also healthy by the way, So it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: those who matter don't mind, and those who.
Speaker 4: Don't matter mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, during that.
Speaker 3: Time, I guess I probably would have said that to myself.
Speaker 3: And you know, I guess the true colors of people
Speaker 3: do show, and you can kind of read the room.
Speaker 4: And understand that.
Speaker 3: I've always been really picky with my friends as well.
Speaker 3: I generally love people who have such a warm heart
Speaker 3: and a kind and a compassionate and care about people.
Speaker 3: And I look at my friends that I have now
Speaker 3: and have remained, I guess since the show and from
Speaker 3: the show as well. You know, I was best friends
Speaker 3: with like one of my producers, and she's still like
Speaker 3: one of my close friends. But she lives in Sydney,
Speaker 3: you know, and she was pregnant during the whole time
Speaker 3: we're filming Bachelorette, and it.
Speaker 4: Felt like I'd known her baby without.
Speaker 3: Even meeting him, and then meeting him, he'd known, like
Speaker 3: my voice, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So can't tell me, like that's not this show.
Speaker 3: You don't develop relationships and beautiful friendships because you do.
Speaker 3: I find it more difficult, not with friendships, but more
Speaker 3: probably dating as well.
Speaker 4: And I found, you know, dating since.
Speaker 3: The show has been proven pretty difficult because people have
Speaker 3: an idea of you, and people have a perception of
Speaker 3: you from your profile, from your Instagram, from your TikTok,
Speaker 3: you know, from googling you, rather than just finding out
Speaker 3: who you really are as well. I mean, I always
Speaker 3: joke I'm like, go read my book. Read two hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy pages. You understand my life and who I am,
Speaker 3: because that was the raw pages of my life that
Speaker 3: I'd never really shared.
Speaker 2: You have done youth work, and I wonder when you
Speaker 2: meet other young people who have been through trauma, have
Speaker 2: had really hard upbringings, how do you protect yourself from
Speaker 2: not being re traumatized from taking on their pain. You're
Speaker 2: the kind of person who feels things really deeply. How
Speaker 2: do you help them without feeling exactly what they're feeling.
Speaker 4: This is a muscle that I've definitely developed over the years.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, you're kind of taught that in
Speaker 3: youth work on professional boundaries. But I guess how I
Speaker 3: protect myself is I've dealt with a lot of my
Speaker 3: experiences writing them out, talking them out, speaking them out.
Speaker 3: I can sometimes look at my life from like a
Speaker 3: bird's eye view lens and know that yes, these experiences
Speaker 3: have happened, and yeah they were horrible, they were traumatic,
Speaker 3: but I wouldn't really be in this position, or I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be really here if I hadn't had those experiences too.
Speaker 4: And I have to look at them as a that
Speaker 4: was then and this.
Speaker 3: Is now, and I can use them and I can
Speaker 3: kind of pull into that basket boat now and then
Speaker 3: when whenever I need to.
Speaker 4: But I don't always have to.
Speaker 3: And I guess it's kind of reading your experience, reading
Speaker 3: the room, and reading what is needed from that young
Speaker 3: person too. They don't necessarily need to know everything that
Speaker 3: traumatic happened to you. It's more about being like, I
Speaker 3: grew up in community. I know what it's like, and
Speaker 3: there is that sort of common understanding and that common
Speaker 3: knowledge that you have that some people might not have,
Speaker 3: especially non Indigenous people working with indigenous kids. So you
Speaker 3: kind of have a little bit more common ground and
Speaker 3: that's probably more of a blessing than anything else, because
Speaker 3: you can place yourself in the shoes of that kid
Speaker 3: and be like, okay, like at this time, yes, I
Speaker 3: was a bit uneasy. I felt like I was, you know,
Speaker 3: lacked confidence, I lacked self esteem. But how do I
Speaker 3: build myself out. How did I do that?
Speaker 2: Do you find that you get a lot of joy
Speaker 2: and lot of meaning out of working with those kids?
Speaker 3: They teach me more about myself than anyone else has,
Speaker 3: really and I think they teach me more than what
Speaker 3: I teach them.
Speaker 2: As an Indigenous woman who I imagine has worked with
Speaker 2: some Indigenous youth. When last year Australia voted on the
Speaker 2: Voiced Parliament and we voted no as a country, how
Speaker 2: do you reconcile that in your mind in terms of
Speaker 2: how you can live happy and content life when there's
Speaker 2: this weight, and how do you speak to young people
Speaker 2: about that who might be feeling really really defeated.
Speaker 3: It's a pretty touchy topic for most people post referendum,
Speaker 3: I guess post day of referendum. I was sort of
Speaker 3: in damage control with a lot of my younger girls.
Speaker 3: The day before, they had Senator Jonah Stewart come in
Speaker 3: and you know, talk about the voice and the referendum,
Speaker 3: so they really understood what it meant. And then to have,
Speaker 3: you know, Australia vote no, it was kind of like
Speaker 3: boosting them up and then telling them that they're not
Speaker 3: good enough and that's not just reflective of that group
Speaker 3: of girls at all. That's just representative of all First
Speaker 3: Nations people who felt that, which is really shit. But
Speaker 3: at the same time it's given a lot of us,
Speaker 3: and I say, as First Nations people a bit more
Speaker 3: of a fire in our belly to change systems and
Speaker 3: to take up space. It hasn't really I think having
Speaker 3: the moment of silence and you know afterwards was probably
Speaker 3: needed for some But I was kind of back into
Speaker 3: work and I was like, you know, I'm not going
Speaker 3: to let this defeat me because it doesn't mean anything
Speaker 3: in any way, like, yeah, okay, the constitution doesn't change,
Speaker 3: and yeah Australia is.
Speaker 4: Still a hugely racist.
Speaker 3: Country for the moment, but it doesn't change my view
Speaker 3: on my voice. Like I've worked really hard to find
Speaker 3: my voice. I'm not going to let a stupid legislation
Speaker 3: or referendum really diminish that if anything. And so when
Speaker 3: I was in damage control with the girls and trying
Speaker 3: to get them to not be so defeated the same
Speaker 3: way I was feeling defeated in that day, But at
Speaker 3: the same time, I was like, I'm going to be
Speaker 3: and sort of stand in my power to show them
Speaker 3: that this will not defeat us. And you know, we
Speaker 3: wrote down it's like, okay, let's remind ourselves, like, let's
Speaker 3: boost ourselves up, let's boost our self esteem, let's boost
Speaker 3: why we are so proud of our culture and why
Speaker 3: we are so proud to be Aboriginal women. And I
Speaker 3: was with, you know, the group of girls, and we
Speaker 3: wrote down on this big butcher's paper in the middle
Speaker 3: of the table and I wrote in the middle and.
Speaker 4: I said, why you proud to be Aboriginal?
Speaker 3: We don't have any tourists right islander girls, So we
Speaker 3: just sort of wrote, you know, why are you proud
Speaker 3: to be Aboriginal?
Speaker 4: And you know, a.
Speaker 3: Lot of the things that the girls wrote, we're just
Speaker 3: you know, I've got a photo of it still to
Speaker 3: this day, and sometimes it used to be my wallpaper
Speaker 3: because it made me so happy to see why they
Speaker 3: were still so proud and why they should be proud
Speaker 3: and still continue to be proud. Girls wrote, you know,
Speaker 3: because my answers just came before me. They sacrificed so
Speaker 3: much before me. I stand on their shoulders of giants
Speaker 3: and all these beautiful things, and they came up with
Speaker 3: them all themselves, and they were just having so much
Speaker 3: fun with it and seeing like them go from like
Speaker 3: being defeated to them being like inspired and being really
Speaker 3: happy and feeling that joy like I talk about that
Speaker 3: black joy. I was like, Okay, well I've done my job,
Speaker 3: but yeah, it doesn't mean it doesn't stop there.
Speaker 4: It was like, okay, like how do I do this
Speaker 4: on a greater scale? You know, how do I?
Speaker 3: And I guess it's just you know, inserting myself into
Speaker 3: systems and places, and you know, I have a podcast
Speaker 3: as well which we share a lot about First Nations
Speaker 3: things to hopefully educate and inspire people to change their minds.
Speaker 4: But also it's not my job.
Speaker 3: And I also don't really love the word reconciliation, Like
Speaker 3: I think, you know what that was a sort of
Speaker 3: invitation to reconcile, and that was an invitation to step
Speaker 3: into the right direction as a nation. And Australia you know,
Speaker 3: told us that that's not what they want and that's
Speaker 3: unfortunate because you know, they've got so much to learn,
Speaker 3: I guess from First Nations culture and you know, now
Speaker 3: apparently a lot of First Nations people like, well it's reckoning,
Speaker 3: Like it's like, now we're going to go for it,
Speaker 3: and we're going to actually show you, like we will
Speaker 3: take up spaces where we belong.
Speaker 4: And it's kind of like watched this space in a
Speaker 4: way in.
Speaker 3: A positive manner, like we're very loving culture, we're very passionate,
Speaker 3: loving community, value you based.
Speaker 4: We gave that invitation.
Speaker 3: As an invitation to walk beside us, and unfortunately it
Speaker 3: wasn't received. But I don't want to always feel like
Speaker 3: I'm always on the mic and I'm always the spokesperson,
Speaker 3: because that becomes really tokenistic and it becomes exhausting, and
Speaker 3: I feel like those are the moments where you do
Speaker 3: have to put in boundaries and you're like, you have
Speaker 3: to really understand where are you placing your energy, and
Speaker 3: I guess who is really listening to that. In moments,
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, why would I be doing that if
Speaker 3: it's not being received and it's not being protected or
Speaker 3: valued as much as I would like it to be.
Speaker 2: And it's also not fair that that is your job
Speaker 2: constantly to be a spokesperson when other people are able
Speaker 2: to avoid talking about those things altogether, and you have
Speaker 2: to weigh into things or feel like you have to
Speaker 2: weigh into things simply because of your own identity, I
Speaker 2: wondered when it comes to your huge successes, things like
Speaker 2: your book, which is everywhere. That's always my measure of
Speaker 2: how successful a book is that you walk into every
Speaker 2: bookshop and it's the first thing you see, and your
Speaker 2: book is everywhere and has been for a long time.
Speaker 2: Your book, your television career, all the opportunities that you
Speaker 2: have taken and succeeded at. Do you feel like you're
Speaker 2: good at celebrating those wins when you do really well?
Speaker 4: No? Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: I actually was just having this conversation today because I
Speaker 3: was telling a friend about a few moments that I've
Speaker 3: had this week and the last month, and they're really
Speaker 3: big moments.
Speaker 4: I mean people that I've met and connected with and.
Speaker 3: Comments and feedback that I received, and I was just
Speaker 3: so blase with it that my friend was like, wow,
Speaker 3: you do you really even process this information? Like do
Speaker 3: you really like actually take it in and realize like, wow,
Speaker 3: like I am slaying life? And I was like, absolutely not,
Speaker 3: because I think like, regardless of status, or regardless of fame,
Speaker 3: or regardless of what I've achieved, there is always a
Speaker 3: part of me that's like just keep going and like,
Speaker 3: do more you can always do more, and it's not
Speaker 3: a very healthy mentality, but it's you know, it's a
Speaker 3: determined mentality. Like I'm a Capricorn, so we're like like
Speaker 3: very determined, we're very married to our career flash work life.
Speaker 3: But then you know my other rising and other signs
Speaker 3: is also Capricorn. So I'm like referred to as a
Speaker 3: triple Capricorn, so like a triple marriage to a.
Speaker 4: Work kind of girl. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I
Speaker 4: want to turn words into actions more.
Speaker 3: I think for me, yes, I get the opportunity to
Speaker 3: talk and I get the opportunity to do all these things,
Speaker 3: which is really good, and I do it in hope
Speaker 3: that it encourages other people to do the same or
Speaker 3: encourages people to turn the words into actions, because when
Speaker 3: people do that, it kind of provides such a savor
Speaker 3: and better life for other people. You know, it's not
Speaker 3: even about me. It's about other people. For me, it's
Speaker 3: about the younger generations that I work with that are
Speaker 3: coming through and if it's going to be easier and
Speaker 3: more successful for them, of course I would do that,
Speaker 3: Like I don't want them to go through what I
Speaker 3: had to go through and experience what I went through
Speaker 3: like I don't want young queer people as well, like
Speaker 3: not just fastinations people, but young queer people to not
Speaker 3: be feeling like they're valued in places and spaces like
Speaker 3: that was probably the biggest thing and what drove me
Speaker 3: to be the bachelorette, because in my life I never
Speaker 3: really aspired to be the bachelorette. Like I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll throw it out, like yeah, sure, let's do this.
Speaker 3: But in my mind, I was like, I wasn't really
Speaker 3: doing it for myself, even if it was my love story.
Speaker 4: At the end of day, I was actually probably doing
Speaker 4: it for a far greater.
Speaker 3: Community and for more for the younger generations.
Speaker 4: I can look back at that and be like.
Speaker 2: Fuck, yeah, yeah. And I think that's an interesting philosophy
Speaker 2: around happiness that it feels like your own pursuit of
Speaker 2: happiness is less self referential and more community minded. The
Speaker 2: things that bring you joy are things that have meaning
Speaker 2: and supporting other people behind them as well.
Speaker 4: Do you feel that, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that's why I declared last year and sort
Speaker 3: of into this year more of a self slash soft
Speaker 3: girl error. I really felt that last year I felt
Speaker 3: really depleted and that I was giving a lot and
Speaker 3: not getting anything back in it. Not that I do
Speaker 3: that with intentions of that, but I was feeling none
Speaker 3: of it was really respected or received, so defeating me.
Speaker 4: Like I was feeling like completely depleat me, like why
Speaker 4: was this even worth it?
Speaker 3: Like you know that kind of to enter me kind
Speaker 3: of energy, And I was like, what is wrong with me?
Speaker 4: And I was like, yeah, because I haven't really figured out.
Speaker 3: What it is that I want to do rather than
Speaker 3: what I want to do for everyone else. So I
Speaker 3: had to really look within and I sort of retracted.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of why, you know, I started studying
Speaker 3: marriage celebrancy.
Speaker 4: I'm still like kind of going through my.
Speaker 3: Course at the moment. I am now studying acting as well.
Speaker 3: So that was one thing that I really figured out
Speaker 3: along the journey, like I wanted to do for myself,
Speaker 3: not for.
Speaker 4: Anyone else, just for myself, to.
Speaker 3: Figure out if I was actually good at something, because
Speaker 3: that's probably my biggest doubt, Like I'm good at a
Speaker 3: lot of things, like I'm probably mediocre out a lot
Speaker 3: of things, but am I really good at one thing?
Speaker 4: So that's kind of how I was.
Speaker 3: Feeling, and I think, you know, I need to celebrate
Speaker 3: the big wins, because writing a book is a huge win.
Speaker 3: Being the first of something is a huge wing, no
Speaker 3: matter what it is, right if it's bacheloround or or
Speaker 3: if it's just the first to graduate. In my family now,
Speaker 3: like we do really get around each other when we
Speaker 3: have a first of something. Yeah, my brother's just had
Speaker 3: his first baby, Like that was a big deal. So
Speaker 3: there are so many firsts that is so special that
Speaker 3: are happening that have kind of forced me to remind
Speaker 3: myself of them.
Speaker 2: So and to celebrate. Yeah, celebrate winds.
Speaker 3: Exactly to experience joy the best, yeah kind of love
Speaker 3: that you can give yourself really.
Speaker 2: Brook because of your experiences and what you've been through
Speaker 2: in terms of mental health, what you've witnessed, What have
Speaker 2: you learned about happiness that you can share with other people.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest lesson, I guess, and the biggest
Speaker 3: learning for me is that not every single day, you know,
Speaker 3: like twenty four hours, seven days a week, fifty two
Speaker 3: weeks a year, are you going.
Speaker 4: To feel extremely happy.
Speaker 3: I feel like you have to really look at it
Speaker 3: as life is really linear and it's up and down,
Speaker 3: and there are going to be moments when you experience
Speaker 3: a real lovely happiness, and there are going to be
Speaker 3: moments when you experience a little bit of sadness at
Speaker 3: the same time. But I think the bad days make
Speaker 3: the good days better and I think that's definitely what
Speaker 3: I've learned. And I think gratitude helps me appreciate happiness longer,
Speaker 3: Like I'm really happy, like and I feel really good.
Speaker 3: I go into this really gratitude sort of mentality where
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, this is really good, Like I feel good.
Speaker 3: My god, I'm so grateful, like holy hell, And that
Speaker 3: makes me feel like that for longer. So then yeah,
Speaker 3: I do have a really shitty day, I do remember
Speaker 3: how good that felt in that moment.
Speaker 2: Brooke Blatton, you have overcome the unthinkable to build a
Speaker 2: life for yourself that in many ways appears to have
Speaker 2: it all. But are you happy?
Speaker 4: Oh? I would say that I am.
Speaker 3: I am content, meaning that everything in my life is
Speaker 3: going in the trajectory of what I would like it
Speaker 3: to go. But there are some paths that I feel
Speaker 3: like I need to to find more happiness in. Well.
Speaker 2: That is so interesting to know from the outside where
Speaker 2: you appear to be kicking all sorts of goals and
Speaker 2: there appears to be absolutely nothing that you set your
Speaker 2: mind to that you can't do. So it's an interesting
Speaker 2: contrast that you don't feel that all the time. But
Speaker 2: I think it's really important for people to know that
Speaker 2: sometimes you don't feel confident and you just go and
Speaker 2: do it anyway.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you get back on the horse.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. There's something very special about brook Blowton. I
Speaker 2: loved learning from her about her culture, about what it's
Speaker 2: like to balance your needs as an individual with the
Speaker 2: needs of a community, and how a person can build
Speaker 2: a frankly unimaginable amount of resilience at such a young age.
Speaker 2: She's probably one of the best examples of a person
Speaker 2: who you could easily see from the outside a gorgeous, bubbly, lovable,
Speaker 2: successful person and assume that their life is uncomplicated, that
Speaker 2: she's happy because she ostensibly has it all. But a
Speaker 2: lot of truths can exist within a single person at once,
Speaker 2: and you simply don't know the kinds of traumas and
Speaker 2: mental health struggles someone is going through from the surface,
Speaker 2: of course, you don't. You don't know if a person
Speaker 2: smiling and in love is also planning a funeral, And
Speaker 2: I think That's what you get from Brook that she
Speaker 2: deeply understands that reality, so gentle with others and with herself.
Speaker 2: Join me next week for a conversation with media personality
Speaker 2: and chef khan Ong, where we talk about spending the
Speaker 2: first years of his life in a refugee camp, the
Speaker 2: unexpected tension he felt when seeing his face on TV,
Speaker 2: and why right now he should be happy but beneath
Speaker 2: the surface he just isn't.
Speaker 1: But when I was in the jungle, when I was
Speaker 1: talking to everyone, I was like, I really want kids,
Speaker 1: but I think it's kind of right now that I'm
Speaker 1: thinking I need to start that process now. If I
Speaker 1: really do want kids, I need to start that process now.
Speaker 1: And the idea that scares me and makes me really
Speaker 1: upset is that I possibly might not have them.
Speaker 2: Last week on the podcast, I spoke to Dave Bailey,
Speaker 2: who you might recognize as the lead singer of the
Speaker 2: band Glass Animals. We talked about what it felt like
Speaker 2: to write the biggest song in the world and be
Speaker 2: offered opportunities everyone in the music industry would kill for,
Speaker 2: and the funny feeling he still gets about leaving university
Speaker 2: where he was studying medicine to pursue a career in music.
Speaker 2: There's a link in the show notes to listen to
Speaker 2: that episode. If you enjoyed the podcast, please review and
Speaker 2: subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to
Speaker 2: suggest someone for the podcast, you can get in touch
Speaker 2: with me directly. My Instagram handle is Claire dot Stevens,
Speaker 2: or you can email us here at podcast at mamamea
Speaker 2: dot com dot au. This episode was produced by Tarlie Blackman,
Speaker 2: with audio production by Scott Stronik. See you next week.