Nardene talks about the shyness and shame (1:26)

I had good lecturers and good trainers and they’ve done a bit of work with like Indigenous people, so they should sort of know the shy aspect because, yeah, coming from an Indigenous background as a lady, you’re not encouraged to talk up. You just keep your opinions to yourself and just go about your business. So yeah, I wasn’t encouraged by my parents like to talk up and have a voice.  My mum and dad was like you’re seen but not heard. So I had that sort of like upbringing and like that made me like a little bit shy.

I used to get really shame when people used to point me out and say, ‘Oh what’s this?’ and ‘What’s that?’, you know.  Even when I went to work, it felt like to me they were singling me out but I don’t think they meant to do it intentionally. But yeah, I felt like I was getting singled out.  I would get a little bit anxious and of course I wasn’t like really confident, and of course my parents never encouraged me to speak out.  I just kept things inside and I thought that you’re not meant to, like, speak out.