Image: David Hill, Deep Hill Media
Growing up, Stefanie Habal never felt she belonged.
Too dark skinned to be accepted into European society and two fair skinned to fit in with Indigenous communities, “I always struggled to feel connected to a Country, to the place I was living”.
Her mum is of the Dja Dja Wurrung people of the Loddon and Avoca rivers Country in the Bendigo region of central Victoria.
Her dad is of German lineage.
Stef herself identifies as an Indigenous woman of the Gunditjmara people from southwestern Victoria where she lived for a time.
When she graduated high school, she moved to Western Australia to study environmental biology at university.
She met her partner there and the couple moved to Melbourne and lived the city life for a while.
When the pandemic hit, “I was ready to come back to Country”.
The couple arrived in the Blue Mountains with their six-month-old daughter two years ago.
For the first time in her life Stef, 32, had found home.
But what does that mean?
For Stef, it means finding acceptance, a slower pace and space.
It’s about connections, like with fellow Indigenous engagement officer at Scenic World, Gundungurra man and Elder Uncle David King (Dingo Darbo).
And it’s a feeling of belonging.
“The Mountains feels like home, not just another journey point for me.”
Stef’s role as a cultural tour guide is “such a healing journey”: “Every single day, I get to engage with someone about my stories and answer their questions. It just feels a part of my soul that I never realised was broken until it started to come back together.”
“It's when you truly open yourself to listening that you can actually understand, and you can learn so much more.
“And if you can invoke a spark in someone, they'll want to talk about it with somebody else, and that's such a wonderful thing for me.”
Yarning [conversations] and sharing culture on Country is not just healing for Stef. It is therapeutic for people from around the world who have had similar experiences, she says.
“Everybody should have the chance to connect to Country. I do not care about the colour of your skin – it is not a defining factor. I do not care where you've come from or what you've gone through.
“I care about who you want to be.
“And if you want to learn, I want to talk – you are safe with me to be black or white or whoever you want to be.”
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