"Racism doesn't look like it did in the '50's and the '40's; it evolves over time. It's a living thing. Some people are in denial about carrying racial unconscious bias, but how could you not be carrying that when you look around us. Look at the systems in place in our society – the structures are built on white being at the top. That's a fact." - Marijke Bassani

What is life like for a young Indigenous woman growing up in Cape York? What challenges do they face when they leave their community to find economic opportunities elsewhere? What is the modern state of racism in Australia that they can expect to face? 

On this week's episode of the Time to Listen podcast, we speak with human rights lawyer and CYLP alumna Marijke Bassani. Marijke is a First Nations woman from Cape York who is an advocate for gender and ethnic equality, and she is completing PhD research in that space.

We talk to Marijke about her life growing up as an LGBTQI+ Indigenous person in Cape York. We discuss the geographic, socioeconomic and cultural complexities that provided challenge to her life, and the new set of challenges that she faced when she chose to leave Cape York for greater economic opportunities.

Marijke Marijke outlines her involvement with the Cape York Leaders Program and her career to date. She then explains her current field of research and why it is both important and unprecedented. 

Marijke explains the value of traditional language proficiency and the challenge of maintaining proficiency while being dislocated from her traditional homelands.

We then conclude this part of the interview by introducing the modern state of racism, as experienced by Marijke, and why she believes it is entrenched within the structure of Australian society.

Thank you for taking the time to listen.

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