Identity
My name is D’arcy Maguire, I am 20 years old and a proud Wiradjuri Woman. I usually live on the Central Coast in Kariong as I study full time at NAISDA Dance College. But during isolation I have been living with my mother on the South Coast of NSW In Ulladulla.
I am currently studying my Certificat IV in Dance Practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at NAISDA Dance College. This is my third year of full time training and although it’s been hard it has made me a stronger person and artist. I have always loved dancing, since a young age, but never trained full time and spent a few years in early high school not training at all. Since coming to NAISDA I have been exposed to plenty of different artists, opportunities, performances and platforms. Within an exchange NAISDA did with NIDA in 2019 I found a real passion within video editing, and since being in isolation have been given opportunities to find and develop my voice within film and video editing.
My film is called Identity.
I am a proud Wiradjuri woman. But sadly no matter how proud and open I am, I am consistently questioned on my heritage because of the colour, or should I say lack of colour within my skin. I am always asked “what percentage are you?” or people sometimes ask “which one of your parents identifies”? As a ‘light skin’ Aboriginal I acknowledge that I don’t face and suffer from all the stereotypes a ‘typical’ Aboriginal person would face. However this does not mean that I feel the injustice or hurt any less. I wanted to make a video, for people of all backgrounds to understand how excluded and invalid ‘light skin’ people of colour can be made feel at times just because they don’t have as much melanin as others. To me there are no ‘percentages’, trivial stuff like that doesn’t matter. And as a mob we all feel and understand the hurt that comes along with the stereotypes placed on Aboriginal people.