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Sarah Patrick. Photo: Oxfam
Small actions, big outcomes
Sarah Patrick is a young Indigenous Australian hip hop artist who took part in the Oxfam International Youth Partnerships last year. Here she reflects on her leadership journey and what it means to be a leader.
I didn’t realise until recently that my journey into leadership began when I was very young. When I was 18, I made some incredibly bad decisions and almost died because of them. It was at this point when I began to rebuild my life. My only wish was to achieve something so when I was old I could look back and be proud.
Once I recovered from the trauma of my experiences, I found employment and was doing what I wanted to do. I then realised that I had entered into a position where I could help others, particularly those who had experienced the same hardships as I had. At times I haven't lived up to the standards expected of most role models or leaders. This is why I often feel strange about being put forward as a leader since I could probably give you a list of people that I feel would be more worthy of the title.
As an arts worker, I run workshops and activities for ho meless Indigenous youth. I have found that my experiences of hardship, trauma, grief and loss work in my favour. It is my understanding of these four experiences that assists me in understanding the issues that young people in my community are facing.
I am developing an Elders digital stories project for at-risk and ho meless Indigenous youth. I have talked with the Elders in Brisbane and through this project they have been given the chance to help young Indigenous people on the street re-connect with their traditional culture and community. The aim of the project is to encourage Indigenous youth to fulfil their rightful place as cultural custodians by teaching them multimedia so they can create digital stories that record the lives and cultural knowledge of the Brisbane elders.
"People often complain about the state of the world but don’t necessarily know what they can do to help change it. It can be daunting but even small gestures leave their mark."
Developing this project is my personal interpretation of leadership. Over the years I’ve learnt that small actions can lead to big outcomes. From doing a few simple things to change the way I live, I’ve learnt so much and a whole new world of opportunities has been opened up to me. People often complain about the state of the world but don’t necessarily know what they can do to help change it. It can be daunting but even small gestures leave their mark.
From all my experiences I have learnt that every individual can be a leader. Often people feel overwhelmed with the prospect of being a leader and measuring up to great past and present leaders in our communities and the world such as Ghandi, Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr.. It is wise to recognise that leadership has a broad scope for interpretation.
There are moments when being put forward as a leader usually means that you are visible in some way. At times this will be hard even within your own community. The path I chose was music but I’ve seen other people use their talents for dancing, art, spray-painting, arguing, events management, athletic skills, politics and advocacy to spark debate, bring attention to an issue or support positive changes in their communities. So I figure that it doesn’t really matter how you create change as long as you try your best to do it well.
I don’t think you necessarily have to be a perfect person to be a leader. I think the most important thing is to just keep trying to become a better person so that hopefully one day you can eventually help others to help themselves. In many ways I consider myself to be lucky. I have had the opportunity to initiate and support change in my own community as well as indulge my passion for music – hip-hop most of all!