Thread by @CroakeyNews

Starting a new thread for the second keynote address by Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri journalist Stan Grant, a multi-award winning current affairs host & author, currently serving as the @ABCaustralia International Affairs Editor. #RANZCP2022

He will deliver a keynote address on Indigenous mental health on the opening day of the Congress. #RANZCP2022

Asks "how do we live in a country where our presence itself is seen to be something as hostile?" - Stan Grant #RANZCP2022

"First action of a black person in the world is a reaction." Stan Grant learnt this lesson early in his life when a fellow student asked, "why are you so black?" It never occurred to the student to ask himself "why am I so white?"#RANZCP2022

"I think, therefore I must explain myself," Stan Grant said "I have had to explain myself my entire life." #RANZCP2022

Stan Grant recounts that at age 15, he & other Aboriginal students were told "you will amount to nothing, you may as well leave". #RANZCP2022

Stan says he is the only one of those 6 students in that room that is now alive - he got "lucky", he says, went to schools in Canberra, university, a job as a journalist #RANZCP2022

"Freedom looks white, normal looks white" - Stan Grant, Power, in particular lack of power, comes out of being black. #RANZCP2022

Highest form of praise when Grant started in journalism was being told "well done, you're a white man". #RANZCP2022

Grant says when media report on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander issues they are reported on as "the other" #RANZCP2022

As an example, Grant recounts the reporting of the NYC shooting yesterday, where coverage was reported as "they were shot because of the colour of their skin", rather than "they were shot because the killer was racist and didn't like the colour of their skin" #RANZCP2022

Grant said that he felt "Australia was always a foreign country, Australia was for other people" - he felt liberated when he left Australia and travelled overseas #RANZCP2022

Being a journalist overseas, Grant says he was able to report on "the others", people who had been on the other side of history, people who's lives had been uprooted by war in the Middle East #RANZCP2022

But reporting on wars, "imbibing the stories of the histories of others", on top of intergenerational trauma took an enormous toll on him, Grant said #RANZCP2022

Grant recounts the importance of getting the right treatment when you lose all hope #RANZCP2022

Aboriginal people in Australia suffer rates of mental health that are so much higher than non-Indigenous - Stan Grant #RANZCP2022

Grant says 'I don't want to make myself a man of the past. Yet, we have to confront our past, we can't erase it. It lives in us. But what can we do with our history? Must it poison us? How do we rescue ourselves from that?' #RANZCP2022

Is the answer in liberal democracy? - if it is, it is like waiting for sleeping beauty to awake, Grant says. #RANZCP2022

Connection to language, land and spirituality is one answer - Grant #RANZCP2022

He looks to his parents, now in their 80s & far exceeded their life expectancy, clinging to their love for each other - Grant #RANZCP2022

#UluruStatement from the Heart asks all Australians to go on a journey for a better future - Grant #RANZCP2022

Powerful keynote by Stan Grant - I'm not in the room, but can feel the applause and emotion virtually #RANZCP2022

In Q&A, Grant recounts the Sleeping Beauty of our liberal democracy - "Democracy bends towards tyranny", words inspired by Barack Obama & Martin Luther King Jr #RANZCP2022

Since the end of WW2, we have not had one year of peace, Grant says, The pot of gold at the political rainbow gets further away. #RANZCP2022

In Australia, we are looking towards leaders but all we are getting is managers. Who is going to lead us? - Grant #RANZCP2022 #AUSVOTESHEALTH2022 #AusPol2022

Question - How can white people be better allies without 'white-splaining'?
Answer by Stan - many ask the question to absolve themselves #RANZCP2022

"You don't get to walk away from our history - you can't make up for stealing someone's country" - Grant #RANZCP2022

Don't look to do us favours or solve problems (you can't solve your own problems). What you can do, is find the ability to embrace one another - Grant #RANZCP2022