My name is Kaitlyn Alice O ‘Leary.
I am a proud Bunjulang woman from Casino in Northern NSW, and was raised on Awabakal, Worimi and Wonnarua country. My mum is Aboriginal and my Dad is from New Zealand.
I began my journey at NAISDA in February of 2016, this is where my personal, and my family’s, story of healing begins. Healing from the pain, shame and negative stigmas attached to having Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage. Fortunately, since the time that my grandmother was born, these negative perceptions are slowly beginning to change.
I want to tell you a short story… by painting a picture for you, firstly my personal journey through dance and then of my grandmother’s, my mother’s and my own experience of identity and cultural connection.
My Mum and Dad introduced me to dance before I had even entered this world. They were touring professional folk dancers, performing traditional dances from all over the world. I was raised absorbing the steps, the music and the joy of these dances which inspired me to want more, and so when I was seven my lifetime love affair with classical ballet began. All I ever wanted to be was a ballerina!
However, life had a different path in store for me, and at the age of 16 I had injured my leg so badly that doctors told me I would never dance again.
I’ll finish that chapter of the story in a moment, now I want to turn your attention to my grandmother. My grandma was born in a moment of our nation’s history that can only be described as painful. A time with no equality for the nation’s Indigenous peoples, with no land rights, no right to get married or have a job, and if your child was fair skinned enough they would be taken away.
Grandma grew up with no knowledge of her cultural heritage, her brothers and sisters were raised to say, if asked “We have frizzy hair and beautiful olive skin because we are Spanish!” So when my grandma gave birth to my mum she was raised the same way… Then my mum brought me into the world in 1989. I wasn’t so satisfied with this notion of being Spanish, it just didn’t make sense when I looked into the past. With my Mum’s guidance and some long searching, we discovered that our true cultural heritage was Aboriginal, something that spiritually I have known from the day my journey began on this precious Earth.
I wasn’t raised with the knowledge of my cultural heritage, the struggles I have experienced surrounding identity, suppression, and trans-generational trauma are real, and in this country I am not alone in these struggles, my story is more common than you might expect.
My dream of becoming a dancer was re-ignited the day that I auditioned for NAISDA Dance College, at the age of 26. During my time at NAISDA I have been nurtured through my dance training to succeed at becoming the best dancer I can be, we are provided with the highest quality facilities to train in and our teachers are the best of the best in the industry!
To work with these highly professional dancers as mentors and trainers on a daily basis is a dream come true. Our training is diverse, challenging and of the highest standard. My physical progress in the short time I have been at NAISDA is beyond my wildest dreams!
NAISDA has a wonderfully holistic approach to our education, the emotional support and understanding we receive from all staff is exceptional. For me personally, our cultural studies through dance are a precious gift. Learning about my Indigenous culture has helped me to heal past hurts, for not only myself, but for my whole family. Being accepted into an Indigenous community and finding strength in my identity at NAISDA, where it has been lost and suppressed in my family for three generations, is something that has changed my life in many positive ways.
It is hard to express with words how the doors opened to me through NAISDA, and through that door how insight into culture and dance, that I could experience no place else, has impacted on my life.
Maybe one day I’ll dance it for you.
Kaitlyn Alice O’Leary