Billie Musk Indigenous Consultancy

Essential Understandings™ | Day One

Today’s learning was shaped around a series of Essential Understandings™ — enduring ideas explored through movement, story, creativity, Country and shared participation.

Each group walked its own learning pathway, with the M***n, Binging and Gowonda experiences eventually coming together through a shared artwork every child contributing their own mark to the story of the day.

Day Two will follow the same learning structure, with a new set of Essential Understandings™ and experiences continuing the journey.

Walking Together™ is not designed as a fixed program. The pathway continues to evolve through relationship, observation, reflection and what we learn along the way.

If you would like to know more about Essential Understandings™ and what this way of learning can look like in practice, please reach out.

Every learning experience deserves a pathway.™

My practice in a painting!

Do you see colours… or do you see people?

And if you see people, what do you see?

How do you see them and, maybe the bigger question, why do you think you see what you see?

Without getting too philosophical on a Friday night, there’s actually no right or wrong answer here. It’s just a question worth walking with.

Those who are familiar with my work might already understand the concept I’m leaning into here, but for anyone else, it really does all start with Walking With The Questions™.

And I do wonder sometimes… what’s more important, the question or the answer?

These lovely little Reflection Circles™ are proving to be far more than a series of dots on a canvas.

They’re a bit of a map to my own learning.

What do I see?
Why do I see it?
What am I carrying when I see it?
And how much of what I think I’m seeing actually belongs to the person in front of me… and how much belongs to me?

Accountability alert 🚨

My Cultural Justification™ training starts to unpack some of this through an accountability lens; not to tell people what to think, but to better understand the why behind what they do.

And somewhere in all of that sits something I come back to again and again. And again.

You are not what you carry.

Understanding that changes the way we support ourselves, the way we support others and, importantly, helps us understand the difference between supporting someone and “over-supporting” someone.

Which brings me back to one of my favourite questions.

Although, if I’m being honest, it’s starting to feel less like a question and more like a statement!!

Who supports the people who support the people? Who?

Who supports you?
Who are you supporting?
Who supports them?

And what happens when the people doing all the supporting forget to support themselves?

Lived. Professional. Relational. Cultural.

It all walks together.

Maybe that’s why these little circles keep giving me more than I expected from a few dots on a canvas 🙏🏽

They remind me to notice.
To stay curious.
To keep walking with the questions.

And with that… here comes another question worth sitting with too.

Who supports you in standing in your why?

Or maybe…

What does standing in your why actually look like when nobody else is carrying it for you?

Anyway… not too philosophical for a Friday night! 😂

Ask yourself — or even better, ask someone else:

Who supports the people who support the people?

And yes, the man pictured in the background looks like he’s just been asked. Chances are he was. 😂

Let’s be real… look at me go yarning away. Begins the lecture!

Photo in the comments.

And as always, if you’re interested in gathering for a deeper understanding of where this Walking Together™ pathway is heading, reach out anytime.

There’s always room for another question around the circle.

Weekend reflections and vibes incoming… but first 😴

Night you mob 🫶🏾

7 years ago I started a mammoth order for a friend who has gone from what I can only describe as strength to strength!

Kind of cool looking back at the design concept with the pattern unintentionally leaning into the logo. With those unmistakable inquisitive eyes, it’s a logo that is widely recognised as an educational icon on the Gold Coast.

Having a full circle moment as I plan the opening acknowledgment with the same friend to raise money and awareness for his charity luncheon in October. Can you guess what animal I am referring to? Here’s one more clue, we are going to have a hoot of a time! 😜

Guess the animal and you’ll know the service.

Five regions. One journey. And a lot to
carry forward. ☀️

Every learning experience deserves a
pathway. 👣

Three consecutive Magnus Balls.

Three paintings.

From the blue and yellow of the first piece, to the lotus flowers of the second, and this year, the dots.

Different paintings. Different stories. The same heart behind them. ❤️

I’m incredibly honoured to say that across three consecutive Magnus Balls, these artworks have now raised a combined total of approximately $15,000 in support of the Magnus Ball and its charitable work.

That represents a lot of late nights, a lot of paint, a tiring amount of second-guessing, and standing on stage next to each piece, each year, praying someone raises their hand!

The colours have meaning.
The placement has meaning.
The story has meaning.
The dots have meaning.

And so does the reason we put them there. 💛

Three years. Three paintings. $15,000.

Pretty bloody special. 🖤

Billie x

Introducing “DULGO NYUNGA” a new visual mark within the Billie Musk-Walking Together™ Family

The heart at the centre of the work. ❤️
The warmth that carries it outward. ☀️

Full description in the comments…

REFLECTION TIME ☀️

Two years ago I posted this on my personal page.

I read it this morning and yeah… it hit differently.

I wrote:

“But I was not made to be less.”

The curiosity.
The questions.
The noticing.
The ten thousand ideas.

I even finished it with and a photo of me sitting in my “Little Ray of Sunshine”

I wasn’t becoming someone new, it was just the lens 😎 in which I was viewing myself was! I was slowly finding somewhere for all of me to go and realising I was not made to be less. ☀️👣

Back then, I didn’t have the language for where I was heading.

I often say in my professional conversations that I’ve always known the work was there and I perhaps to a fault openly share that journey with willing and interested colleagues and participants.

Then little synchronicities like this appear, and another piece of the meaning unfolds. I’m honestly guided by this. And regardless of how tired I am, moments like this bring renewed purpose to what I’m trying to achieve.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE™ — THE DAY BEFORE

Sometimes the little ray really is little.

Today mine looked suspiciously like an $8 hammock I have absolutely no intention of assembling until the weekend. 😂

The last few days have been full! The normal grind plus full of thinking, writing, painting, preparing, reworking, packing and getting ready to walk into another room tomorrow with ideas I care deeply about.

But there has to be room for the ordinary little things too. Things like the job you decide can absolutely become Future Billie’s problem. Like filling the car with petrol. Future Billie will absolutely curse this afternoon Billie 🤪

All that aside tomorrow I’ll be on the Sunshine Coast doing what I love 🫶🏾 talking, listening, asking questions, making art and walking alongside educators.

Today is simply the day before.

The hammock can wait. ☀️

What was your little ray today?

🎵 Walking on Sunshine — Katrina & The Waves