Transcript

TEDxDarwin - David Faulkner - Becoming MAD (Make a Difference)

[Music] so when you think about remote IND ous communities and Indigenous people you might think about what you have to offer them what you can take out there to make a difference well today I want to flip that I want to talk to you about what they have to what they have given me and what they have to give you the Ted Community you see over the last 10 years as a leader learner and educator in remote indigenous communities I've been humbled and inspired by indigenous Australians and learned had to become mad but that is make a difference and it's these stories that I want to share with you today that I think that can be applied globally not just to our indigenous communities the first point that I want to share with you today and possibly the most important is if you really want to become mad and I've seen by some of the speakers and other people here today you don't have too much of a problem with that but if you really want to become mad you really want to make a difference you have to connect and understand that relationships are the currency for change you see it doesn't matter how good your idea is if you haven't taken the time to connect and build relationships first I can tell you right now it's destined to fail anyone got an exercise bike at their house I've still got one it just gathers dust in the corner right but it's kind of like that you know how you get on the exercise bike and you're ride and you ride and you ride you put your head down you go for 30 minutes and you're sweating and then you look up and you're still in your living room it's really annoying well that's kind of like this it's kind of like trying to make a difference and make change without actually um connecting first you can put as much energy as you like in like you're pedling that bike but you're aren't going to make a difference so when I was a graduate teacher I um I was 21 and I I thought I was a pretty entertaining teacher I had 23 boys and Nine Girls 11 and 12 year olds they were fun but I actually managed to engage 99% of them but there was one student his name was Steven and Steven used to sit up the back and pretty much cause me nothing but trouble and no matter what I tried no matter what I did Steven would continue to do this so I had to take a step back and actually think to myself I got to do something different here right so I decided every recess and every lunch I'd go and talk to Steven and I'd find out a little bit about his family and I'd tell him a little bit about mine and slowly but surely we built a relationship and I started to connect with Steven and wouldn't you know it back in the classroom guess what happened he started to respond and he actually started to get the educational outcomes he deserved I was telling one of my indigenous colleagues this just the other day and she went of course because relationships are everything to our mob and if you don't understand that you just don't get very far so lesson one that I've learned out in these communities if you want to make a difference make sure you connect first the second thing I've learned time and time again in community after Community is to care and what that means is in matters of importance choose family whatever family may mean to you you see indigenous people have shown me that even when the going gets tough you stick with your family and you make sure it works I had a young girl who gave me a smack in the face example of this she's about 14 and she was a beautiful girl and when she came to school she was fantastic in class you know beautiful learner the teachers loved her everybody loved this girl but she hardly ever came didn't make a lot of sense to me you know why wasn't this girl coming went to school so I did a little bit of background investigation and I found out that her mom was keeping her at home keeping her at home to look after the kids while her mom went and did other things and I was a bit frustrated by this so I called the girl in to have a little chat to her and I said why can't you talk to your mom your mom's been quite selfish here keeping you home you've got such great potential and she just looked at me and she stared at me for a little while for a couple of seconds and she said but sir she's my mom and nothing can change that and for me as a young bloke I was hit in the face with what it truly means to care and in matters of importance really choose family when it comes to the crunch you know the strongest people in the world choose to care so if you want to make a difference choose to care the next thing I've learned and these are some of the boys from one of my schools absolutely fantastic is about collaboration and true collaboration out in these places means value the wisdom of the mob and what that actually means is that you know those individuals that go out into communities and think that they have all the answers and they think they have all the answers for everybody out there yeah that was me you know I went out thinking that I had all the answers and they quickly showed me that an individual who thinks that they have those answers is simply misguided you see because the wisdom of the mob is always going to come up with better Solutions seeing this time and time again again in situation after situation when I was first a principal of my first big school I got a big school and I had all these fantastic ideas I was going to transform absolutely transform this school I had ideas I had Innovations I was going to build the culture and I was going to do all these fantastic programs that were really going to make a difference and I decided this before I got there what I learned really quickly was that when I actually took these ideas out to the Mob when a lady once said to me she said have you have you taken it out to the the mob have you let them take it away and make it into something better and you know what du I hadn't and when I started to do that these ideas that the community came up with to transform that school turn that school around and change the lives of the students because you see by myself I was like a little drop but together we were like an ocean but you know the ocean's a little bit wild and wooly at times a little bit hard to manage but at the end of the day it's powerful and it made a real difference for those kids you know communication's one of my uh most hated words it's why I used it today um but it really is because it's used quite often in meetings you know how we have that word communication and people use it on applications when they're applying for jobs for me all the time and it's a word that's really taken out of context but what I've learned in indigenous communities about communication is about sequential communication and what that means in action is to listen learn then lead you see while I've been out in indigenous communities I've absolutely learned that my ears will never get me into trouble they're quite good they just sit on my head and they don't do anything except hear things but my big mouth I tell you what all the time gets me into trouble and I'm not going to share any of those stories with you today but I've been shown by indigenous people that to listen shows wisdom and that just because you're not quick to answer it just doesn't it doesn't mean you're not quick to think it doesn't mean you're not contemplating you know when I walk around in my travels I hardly ever see an indigenous person rushing around they're always taking life in and they're always seeing things happen you know fantastic so if you actually want to make a difference make sure absolutely make sure that you communicate the next thing that I've learned and um Mom High Ted um but she's going to choke when she sees this because I'm known as a little bit of a manic person you know a little bit ADHD but I've actually learned to contemplate and not rush because you'll miss the point I've actually learned this out in remote communities you know I um at one of my schools I was in a situation where have you ever been to a school and you're waiting to see a teacher or a principal and you have you ever watched what they do they seem to be doing 155 things at once right they run around they're really busy they go in and out of the classroom well this day I was doing exactly that I had this old man for the community come and see me and he was sitting down in my office and he was saying hey I want to see you young pH I said no problem one second and I went and I did about 400 things before I came to see him you know saw a naughty child talked to a teacher talked to another parent who was out there went and photoed some ID for somebody and gave it to them then I came back in after about 20 minutes and he was still sitting there patiently waiting for me so I invited him into my office and he said to me hey young fell why are you always in a rush anyway don't you know that when you're still you can hear what the world's trying to tell you oh yeah I hadn't really done that you know and so I started to slow down and I started to see things a little bit differently I started to become as one of my staff members said a little less add I was still fairly Manic and still am for those people in the room that know me but I started to contemplate things and I started to miss I started to get the point at least a little bit more often the next thing that I've learned out in these remote communities and it's extremely important you see when I going out to these communities and I know that many of you in the in the room have either had some contact and worked with our communities but I've worked with a lot of government workers and different people that go out to these places and they go out for a lot of different reasons some go out for the money others go out for the experience they're my favorites some go out just because they really have no other choice and none of these people last and they certainly don't make a difference and if they do last oh they make a difference all right it's just not a very good one but the difference in the people that I do meet that do make a difference they have one thing in common they contribute and they focus on purpose they have a purpose to to be there they build with purpose and they build purpose in others their sole focus is to contribute and make a difference and it's those people that the indigenous people value and isn't it really those people that we all value those people that really make a difference you know um I really uh went out to indigenous communities with a real purpose of what I wanted to do and it was lucky because indigenous people are always asking one question and they don't necessarily ask it verbally but it's a it's an innate question that gets asked when you're out in these places and that question is why why are you here because they're a little bit suspicious at first of all the people that have come in and out why are you here are you for real and if you can show them that you have a purpose that you can actually make a difference then they'll actually accept you into that community so make sure if you want to become mad make sure you're contributing and finally the last last thing I have for you that I've got from these communities is to challenge and by challenge what I mean is get comfortable with the uncomfortable you know actually push yourself into these situ situations because it's from these examples it's from challenge that we get great Innovations great things happen while people are under pressure we have examples of this all over the place has anyone seen the hole in the worldall computer the hole in the world computer where a guy came up with an idea in the slums of India that he would grabb a computer Chuck it in a wall and give kids access to education where they hadn't had access to education before now do you really think that would have happened in parap I don't think so you see it happened in the slums of India because they experience Challenge and there's examples of this all over one of my favorite shows is the bush mechanics have you seen the bush mechanics that's from yamu and again an example of challenge where some of the harsh environments and crappiest cars you've ever seen but we still need to get somewhere so they come up with Innovations on how to fix these cars to make them get somewhere you know it's absolutely exceptional and it's exceptional because those people are in in uncomfortable situations and they find the solutions so if you really want to be mad you really want to make a difference make sure you're seeking out challenge don't look for comfort in inertia seek out challenge and absolutely push yourself to to make a difference so you're a pretty astute audience I'm hoping that you figured out that all of these things start with C so these are the seven C's of becoming mad the first one is connect connect and understand that relationships of the currency for change two is care and in matters of importance choose family collaborate and value the wisdom of the mob and truly value the wisdom of m not in a tokenistic way Comm communicate and in action that means to listen learn then lead contemplate start to slow down otherwise you will miss the point contribute and that means focus on purpose build with purpose and build purpose in others and finally seek out those challenges get really comfortable with the uncomfortable you know there's a beautiful Aboriginal proverb and it goes something like this we're all visitors to this time this place our purpose here is to learn to observe to grow and to love and then we return home you see I went out to remote communities to make a difference to really make a difference to the people where in fact it's the indigenous people that have made the real difference to me [Applause]