My Purpose, with This Website
This website is me, speaking for myself. I am a Mitakoodi Elder working on Yuggera and Turrbal lands in Brisbane, and every word on these pages that speaks to you is mine. I walk with many people and I lead some of them, and you will meet them on these pages, but when I speak here, the voice is my own.
I built it for a simple reason. So many Australians have never sat down and talked with an Aboriginal person. Not once, in a whole lifetime, on land our people have held for more than sixty thousand years. That cannot be fixed from a stage or a screen alone. It happens one conversation at a time.
My purpose, here and everywhere I go, is to help non-Indigenous Australians come to know First Nations people, our cultures and our history, by bringing them together with Elders and with the allies who walk beside us. This site is one of the ways I do that.
So here is what you will find:
- My story, told in my own words.
- The Yarning Circles I host at St John's Cathedral, where anyone can come, ask anything, and hear the truth spoken gently.
- The First Nations Community Calendar, updated every week, so you always know what is happening across Brisbane and South-East Queensland and where you are welcome.
- Keep Walking, a path for those who want to go deeper into the history and the voices that shaped this country.
And I want to hear from you. This site is not a noticeboard; it is a conversation. If something here moves you, or troubles you, or if you think I have got something wrong, go to Share Your Thoughts and tell me. I read every message myself, and I write back.
That is my purpose. Truth spoken plainly, hands offered openly, and one more conversation started every day that I am able.
Come and walk with me.
Uncle Bill Lemson