SALLY SCALES

 Kylie Kwong celebrates the individuals helping to grow a stronger community. This month, we meet activist and artist, Sally Scales.

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It's morning on Kaurna land (Adelaide) and Sally Scales is dialling in with a wake-up call for us all. "We can do more. We can have deeper conversations; lean in harder." Scales is an artist and an activist, a proud Pitjantjatjara woman from Pipalyatjara in South Australia's remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands and a mother to six-year-old Walter, who mills around as she speaks. "I can't believe we still have youth detention centres. I can't believe we are still in that space. It's not just the Uluru Statement. It is but it isn't. We must start asking what we stand for as a nation."

Eloquent and assured, Scales plays the part of the morning ray that reveals the darkness we've attuned to. And through her role on the Uluru Statement from the Heart leadership team and previous post as chairperson of the APY Executive Board Council she shines her light on the need for a more inclusive Australia, stirring us from sleep.

Our conversation takes place the day the Prime Minister announced the first steps towards the referendum to acknowlege First Nations people in Australia's Constitution. This comes after Anthony Albanese promised to realise the Uluru Statement in full during his election night victory speech. Scales says, "We are at a tipping point in our country. But this is not a new ask. First Nations people have been asking to have a say in their communities for a long time."