Good morning everybody and just like that if you hadn't have heard that introduction then you would already start forming a story in your head you would assume that I'm a teacher simply because of that sing-song way that I said hello your own memories and experiences would tell you this you might also look at my tattoos and work out for yourselves that I work in the public sector with the expectation that conservative private schools might frown upon such decorations. This is what we do. We make assumptions and judgments about people. We predict their actions and reactions to things, and we do it before we get to know them, and for some of us, we continue to do it for many years.
Eventually, though, we let go. We lessen our grip on this particular version of reality. As parents, we do this the most.
Think about it. We fret over our children as they learn to ride a bike, learn to swim, hang out unsupervised, move out, and so on. Eventually, what we come to realise is that we have sheltered them, protected them.
tried to keep them safe from the pains of growing, which include failing and from that learning. We've also sheltered ourselves from the understanding that they won't need us forever. We also make up stories about ourselves. So here's a quote from one of my favourite authors.
If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's. This was Terry Pratchett. So Terry Pratchett, whose works are the basis of this tattoo. Thank you.
that one now. This one here, Stephen King. Here, J.K. Rowling. On my ribs, Neil Gaiman.
And on my back, T.S. Eliot. You see, I'm fascinated by fiction.
I quite literally wear my love of literature on my sleeve. But I also tell a story through my tattoos. I like to think of them as something that I use to tell my students and to tell other people about myself.
Mainly that, well, I'm a... a massive nerd with more money than sense. But also they speak of my passion for my subject area. I am an English teacher after all. But we all love stories.
Our brains are wired to be receptive to narratives in all of their forms. Don't believe me? Try telling yourself one more chapter before bed. Or one more episode. Or one more level.
But long before video games and TV shows and movies, even before the written word, we as a... species we still love stories except they were delivered like this Early humans often sat like this, in a circle, warmed by a fire. We would tell tales to each other, share stories about where to go if you wanted to find food and shelter, where not to go if you wanted to stay alive.
We also had narratives to describe natural phenomena, long before we had the scientific evidence to explain them in any other way. Today, you are going to hear from a variety of speakers. We all have stories that would instigate change.
Some of us... are telling that story for the first time. Others have told it a hundred times already, but we're hoping to join your voice to our chorus. Now, I can't physically invite you up the steps and onto the stage with me, but I am extending an invitation to join my circle, to hear me, truly hear me, as I tell a story or two, starting with a poem.
In the beginning, there was nothing. All stories start this way. Think of it as an empty page or an empty stage filled with nothing but possibilities. One of these sees a deity create heaven and earth in just under a week and then... feeling blessed, he rests.
In another, the sun mother wakes all the sleeping spirits of the earth while elsewhere the evolution of the universe is like a tree growing ever so slowly, starting in darkness and stretching out. out into the light. Or it might have been the explosion of a tiny bubble, thousands of times smaller than the head of a pin that caused what we know of as life and matter to begin. Speaking again of beginnings. We as a country, we started much the same when you consider that one of the names for Australia that we've come to challenge is terra nullius, a vast expanse of nothingness belonging to nobody.
Or at least that's how the story went. And it was a tale long told. It's only now recently.
recent history that we have come to acknowledge that we are not a young country, but we are one country, occupied by many people, one and free. So what other stories have we reworked and revised? Well, once upon a time, a woman would have been accused of witchcraft, burned at the stake if she read. Later, she might have been offered a bed in an institution for similarly simple things.
Some of us still struggle with the idea of a woman in a workplace that doesn't involve apron strings, or that a woman who shoots, hits or kicks a ball should be celebrated as much as a man. But the story changes. evolves over time, changes like bath water, so that when we are comfortable, we forget the sting of when it was scalding, or so that despite our initial comfort, things are now icy. The civil rights movements didn't end racism, but they started conversation, opened up lines of communication that we never previously considered, gave a voice to those who were rarely listened to. Society is constantly shaping and being shaped by the stories we tell, but...
Not all stories are told as well as others. So what voices are still yet to be heard? How attentively do we listen to those we hear now? Because even a judge will tell you how ignorance doesn't absolve you of a crime.
But if we change our perceptions, change the story, then we can change the world, one word at a time. Now, I talked near the end of that poem about our fictional world shaping and likewise being shaped by the stories that we tell, and the real world around them. I'd like to prove that before delving into things a little bit more personal and perhaps more relevant to you. How will I prove it?
With a fairy tale. Now I'm sure that we are all familiar with the story of a little girl dressed in red. She has to walk through the forest to get to her grandmother's house.
Along the way she meets a wolf, divulges where she is, she's going and then when she gets to her grandmother's door well that actually depends on which version you know because in some the granny is eaten killed in others she's merely tied up in some the girl is also attacked. In others she manages to survive, often rescued by a woodsman of sorts. In one she has a gun and saves herself. In another she weds the wolf, tames it with her own budding sexuality.
And in my personal favourite, the wolf tricks the girl into getting into bed with him. But then she manages to escape by telling him she needs to poop. That's true. See, I know at least 11 different versions of the Red Riding Hood story, and I'm aware of another three or four set in other countries where some of the key elements differ.
It might be a bear instead of a wolf, for example, a golden jacket instead of a red hood. Even one of the stories of Thor and Loki is strikingly similar to this classic fairy tale. See, locations and generations, they take the story, twist it, mould it, manipulate it to suit their particular society and express their societal concerns. As didactic tales, they lend themselves to some pretty obvious moral lessons.
Don't talk to strangers. Listen to your parents. Looks can be deceiving.
Some of them have been manipulated with particular agendas in mind, rewritten in order to give a stronger female lead, for example, more in line with modern feminist sensibilities. The story had to change because the world has changed. And through the consumption and discussion of the story, well then, the world changes anew.
You see, the story of Red Riding Hood has aged and evolved, much like we do. So here are some stories that I've been told and some that I've told myself. You are worthless.
Boys don't cry. There is no point in trying, you will never succeed. You are a bad influence.
The world would be a better place if you weren't in it. See, I come from a broken home. I've waited at the window for a dad who never came.
My mum went away. When she came back, we lived a nomadic lifestyle for much of my childhood, living in a caravan and moving constantly. Fights were common.
Some of the fights that I've seen have been permanent. imprinted in my brain and some of the fights I've been in I'm incredibly ashamed of. Alcohol and casual drug use were a part of the environment and a family friend who was also once a housemate died with a needle in his arm.
I have lost an uncle, an auntie and a friend to suicide. My family closet is crowded with skeletons and none of my immediate family are tertiary educated. So when I was in Year 10, I had a career meeting with my Year Coordinator. I told her, I want to be an English teacher. She laughed.
She didn't think that career path was likely. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Stephen King, William Golding, Robert Frost, all teachers at some point before their writing careers took off. But she didn't see that as being my particular future.
I thought, as the oldest grandchild and the brother of a sibling roughly 13 years my junior, that I had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate that I was good with kids. But beyond that... I was also a rebel. Proving her wrong, succeeding, fulfilling my dreams, that was my way of saying, screw you.
And that screw you is still a part of conversations today. Because I hate when people twist things, manipulate situations in order to suit themselves and disadvantage others. I hate the empty feeling inside when I don't feel valued. You see, before my uncle and auntie took their own lives, I had suicide ideation.
And so there, deaths form a part of that conversation. Because now whenever I have thoughts along that line, I tell myself, screw you. You deserve to live. And you deserve the best life.
But if you think about those events and incidents that informed my upbringing, then you can see where that year coordinator was coming from. Add to that the fact that I had a bad reputation, I'd recently been suspended and threatened with expulsion, and her viewpoint makes even more sense. Now, admittedly, my starting point isn't as far back as some people have started. I am a white, heterosexual male. That automatically gives me a leg up in life.
I check my privilege at the door. but someone with the biographical details that I listed before isn't expected to have a life that follows the trajectory that mine has followed. The key word there being expected.
You see, societal and personal expectations can be quite overbearing. The way we phrase our stories can be quite limiting. So I changed mine. I was determined to be a teacher. I wasn't about to let anyone take it away from me.
I could have, easily. Having someone in a position of power laugh at your choices certainly brings you down. I'm a man.
I see it very much as my sliding doors moment. In one life, I probably gave up on those dreams, found a career path more suited to my social standing, and ultimately lived a life that felt unfulfilled. But in this one, I persevered.
I overcame a number of obstacles, did whatever I had to do in order to get the success that I was chasing. That included sleeping in the back of my car, sleeping in hostels, on sofas, and in spare rooms, just so that I could finish my studies. To paraphrase a...
commercial for in the 90s. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. I've been a teacher now for over 16 years, but what I hope I'm teaching more than content is the need to question the stories that we hear and the stories that we tell. In my opening poem, I touched on the way that society has changed in relation to issues pertaining to sex and race.
I didn't even touch on gender, disabilities. There are so many other marginalised groups out there that are waiting. to have their voices heard. But unfortunately, it's not just their stories that are impacted, it's all of our stories. There are so many outdated, antiquated ways of thinking that still exist in society and impact us all.
When I asked my friends, what are some of the stories that you've heard, some of the things you've told yourself, they said things like, you're too old. Too old to learn new things. You are too young. Whatever you have to say is irrelevant. A real man should.
A stable adult should. Women should. In fact, everyone should have the following life goals.
Good education, high-paying job, home ownership and material goods. Hang on, if you've got anxiety or cancer or depression, then how can you... You see, all of these things are restrictive.
The way they're phrased is limiting. Once upon a time, an old man learned nothing. A young woman with an idea worth spreading kept quiet, and a person with an invisible illness suffered in silence for fear of not being able to see. being believed. It doesn't have to be that way.
If everyone is the exception to the rule, then the rule will change. Journeys begin with a single step. Floods begin with a single raindrop. We can change the world. we can change these stories.
I teach. I teach for one reason and one reason only. I want to make a difference. I don't want people's dreams to be crushed the way that mine almost were. I want to be the dream enhancer.
And so I provide my students with a safe space to be themselves, to speak their minds, to try new things. I listen, truly listen. And by doing so, they feel valued and supported.
And it's a two-way street. Because when they feel valued by me, me, then they see value in me. They listen then, as I encourage them to be autonomous, adventurous, to question things, to try it a new way and not just go along with the old ways of doing things because tradition dictates that that's how it should be.
I also believe that this influence and impact isn't limited to the students directly in front of me. They are the pond. I can be anything from a delicate feather landing softly to a boulder smashing through that surface and the ripples of my influence will be felt in places I will never see.
You don't have to be a teacher to have this sort of impact. You can have it in your homes and in your communities. You can brighten someone's day with a smile.
You can accept someone's differences as a part of who they are, constantly reminding yourself until it becomes automatic. Realize that you always Always have a choice. Prove that you can be the better person, not just through your beliefs, but through your actions and reactions. These simple things would go a long way to changing the story, and by doing so, you can help change the world. It starts with an open mind, and it starts today.