Kimberley Girl Tallulah Bieundurry opens up on her rollercoaster 2020

A strut down the catwalk with a sparkling sash around her body, a bouquet of flowers in her hand and confetti drifting around her was a picture-perfect moment Tallulah Bieundurry will never forget. The elegant young beauty had been crowned winner of the prestigious Kimberley Girl program, designed to bring out the best in Indigenous women and empower their pathway to success. It was the highlight of a rollercoaster 2020 for the resilient legal worker — a year she has spoken to the Broome Advertiser about with the same openness, honesty and sincerity the judges and public saw during the competition. Earlier this year, Miss Bieundurry was involved in a domestic violence incident and made the decision to report her partner to police, a move she said was the hardest thing she had ever had to do in her 23 years. Since then, she has made another thought-out choice to return to the same relationship — a decision she owns despite being shunned and criticised by others in her life. Miss Bieundurry said it had not been an easy time, but one that had given her a chance to speak openly about her views on the broader issue of family domestic violence, which she believes is not so black-and-white. “We talk about domestic violence like that’s right and that’s wrong — to me that doesn’t sit well,” she said. “Domestic violence is on a spectrum and I don’t want to sit there and say ‘you’re wrong because you’re taking your man back’, that’s not a positive way to do that. “You have to think — what do you have to do to make sure you are safe and you are minimising risk and keeping your children safe, in a way that means you can still love this person? “That’s the choice I made, to go back to my man. “I was shunned for making that choice which made me feel like I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, but I think what we need to do is not treat domestic violence like a right or wrong situation. “This has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but in saying that, he has improved exceptionally, we’ve reconnected and he’s told me I made the right decision and we are willing to move forward.” Miss Bieundurry said she had also been tackling the social anxiety she had been feeling this year, which had prompted her entry in the contest. “I get into a bit of a rut and I’ve struggled a bit with social anxiety,” she said. “One of the reasons I wanted to do Kimberley Girl was to gain some strategies about how to do better at things like public speaking. “I think I always need that reminder that I’m actually OK and worthwhile.” And the program did just that for the young leader, who says going through two weeks of workshops with like-minded young women had been life-changing for her. “It really was a 12-year dream for me — I was watching when I was 11 at the heats in Fitzroy and competed in the kids’ one, and my Dad won a trophy in the Kimberley Boy event they used to do,” she said. “I’m so glad I took part, I’m so immensely proud of these girls and this program. “We had one day where we had to do interviews and prepare if we were talking to media and there was a question about what the hardest day of our lives was and almost every single one of us came out crying. “It made me think that us as Aboriginal women have so much trauma and we have all got issues — not just this superficial ‘I’ve had a bad day’ trauma, it’s suicide, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse trauma, like real deep grief. “It just made me think there is not one of us that don’t have a barrier to overcome to get here in the first place. “If these girls can acknowledge these barriers and still take the first steps then we as Aboriginal women can do that in all aspects of our lives.” But like all rollercoasters, 2020 has been filled with both highs and lows for Miss Bieundurry, who has been focused in her education and outreach work at Kimberley Community Legal Services. On top of promoting awareness of the legal services available for Indigenous community members, she also runs education workshops to help empower people to understand the law themselves. In her spare time, Miss Bieundurry is passionate about art, runs the Goolarri Media radio show Deadly Justice, in which she opens conversations around Aboriginal issues, and focuses on her university studies, which have been a journey in itself. The bright mind started her Bachelor of Law degree in Perth in 2015 and has been back and forth since, with an identity issue making her question whether to stay on-campus. “I felt like I was going to Perth to fill in the gaps for my Aboriginality and working out I couldn’t find my answers there,” she said. “I didn’t like feeling like I had to be an ambassador for Aboriginal people in a really westernised, white way. “Of course, studying law and politics, they all say ‘you’re going to do so well for your people’, and that is not why I was doing it. “I was doing it because that’s what I like doing and I wanted to do it.” But moving is nothing new for Miss Bieundurry, who spent the first two years of her life in the remote Kimberley and has since lived in every corner of the nation, with the Wangkatjungka community, Kununurra, Derby, Alice Springs, Hobart and Perth among the places she has called home. Now based in Broome, she is feeling optimistic about her opportunities and looking forward to her future, whatever it may look like. “Life has not always been the easiest, it has been a rollercoaster, but I’ve always been blessed,” she said. “I’ve always had brilliant family support. “I’ve never had people say I can’t do something, I’ve always had people backing me up and saying ‘go for it’. “Looking ahead, I have two years left in my degree so I have some time to think about it. “I’m interested in social justice like policy reform. “I’ve always been interested in human rights law but I’m also interested in tenancy. I’m not sure what my path is yet.” Miss Bieundurry said she was interested to see how the Kimberley Girl victory would help her future and looked forward to working alongside organiser Kira Fong. “I’m still in shock and the win has not sunk in for me — people say ‘congratulations’ and I ask them what for,” she said. “What I’m hoping is that people will be trusting in me because I am the Kimberley Girl and maybe I can be there to help people by bridging a gap between Aboriginal women and a whole lot of systematic things. “I will say that Aboriginal women are robbed of their voices — I want to do something along the lines of helping them to speak up. “I think people do value what you have to say and I think that is something I realise even more because of Kimberley Girl.”