FLEUR Magick hopes to be a role model to other people in the community who want to “live their culture”.
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Passionate about her Aboriginality, Ms Magick puts a lot of time and energy into ensuring that various aspects of her culture, including language, bush tucker medicine, law and spirituality, are passed on to future generations.
“I want to pass it down to our people and I want all Australians to have a greater understanding of our culture,” she said.
Ms Magick is quick to point out that this desire to preserve her culture is something that has been passed down to her by older members of her community and family including uncle Jack Beetson, her grandmother Patricia Rosenburg and mother Roxanne Smith.
Despite a hectic schedule, which includes being a sole parent to two young children, Ms Magick is happy to continue to spend any spare time she has sharing her culture through teaching Wiradjuri language and dance.
As part of her commitment to living her culture, Ms Magick has been through two cultural births; one of her children was born in a traditional ceremony at Orange Base Hospital whilst another was born in the bush.
Ms Magick said delivering a child in the bush was an empowering experience that gave her the opportunity to practice her culture, with the support of a trained midwife.
In fact, the experience proved so important for Ms Magick that she was instrumental in establishing Aboriginal Cultural Birthing and Parenting NSW.
Ms Magick said she hoped her commitment to living her culture would prove an inspiration to young Aboriginal people.
“I think I can also be an inspiration because of my fair skin,” she said.
Ms Magick believes, historically, lawmakers have been preoccupied with skin colour, an issue that does not define one’s cultural heritage.
“Skin colour doesn’t matter,” she said.
Ms Magick says the fact that she has fair skin has both advantages and disadvantages.
“I don’t get the direct racism because of my skin colour,” she said.
However, she said non-indigenous people sometimes imply her contribution or opinion is not valued as much as a darker-skinned person.
“Sometimes a darker-skinned person is seen as being more authentic,” she said.
Ms Magick says her own children’s understanding of culture is very independent of skin colour.
She hopes that her commitment to her culture and family will be inspirational enough to help others overcome challenges in their own lives.
“I’m a single parent and I’ve had hardship and lived with domestic violence but I haven’t seen these things as barriers,” she said.
In fact, Ms Magick’s long list of tertiary qualifications are further proof of her ability to persevere and achieve.