Ballarat's 40 under 40: Macaylah Johnson - The Courier - December 21 2023
Meet Macaylah Johnson, United Nations Youth Australia First Nations reconciliation chairperson, as a part of The Courier's 40 under 40 series. Video by Lachlan Bence and Adam Spencer.
Transcript
00:00 [Music playing]
00:09 So I'm really fortunate to live on my mother's ancestral lands on Wurrung country.
00:16 So obviously have a really deep connection to the land and the community,
00:21 not just the Wurrung traditional owners but the wider community as well.
00:25 So growing up here in the Aboriginal community has felt like family everywhere.
00:31 Everywhere I turn there's a massive village and I've been really privileged to be raised in this beautiful community.
00:38 So everywhere I turn it sort of feels a bit like home, which is really lovely.
00:44 There's a really beautiful group of Ballarat allies and so any time that anyone needs anything in the community
00:54 or we just want to have a yarn or we need a safe space or we need help with community events,
01:00 they've been amazing over the last four or five years with helping us with Survival Day.
01:09 We organised the peaceful protest when Black Lives Matter was first in movement during COVID.
01:21 So they've been incredible and at the forefront of a lot of community events and supporting our community.
01:28 It's been really nice watching that relationship bloom.
01:31 But otherwise just seeing so many young people come up through school and succeeding in our community
01:39 and doing such amazing things in artwork.
01:42 There's been a lot of really progressive things happening in our community, which has been really nice.
01:47 [Music]