Teela hopes to create space for inspiring conversations. She is currently writing a fiction novel, expanding @blackfulla_bookclub irl and engaging in activism for social and systemic change.

THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

We live in the world we are inspired to create

  • @blackfulla_bookclub

    Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton are the founders of @blackfulla_bookclub, an instagram platform that honours First Nations Ancestors as the original Storytellers. Founded in 2020, it is a growing community of almost 40K who share a love of First Nations stories in all forms. BBC has been featured in Frankie, The Guardian, ABC Indigenous as well as writing festivals across Australia.

    @blackfulla_bookclub

  • Rebellious Lawyers Australia

    Teela Reid is a co-organiser of Rebellious Lawyers Australia, a framework of lawyering that focuses on three pillars; lawyering, storytelling and activism. In 2021, the inaugural Rebellious Lawyers AU Conference was hosted online that attracted up to 800 Australian lawyers and featured both Australian and international speakers.

    Check out #RebLawAus

  • Storytelling

    Teela Reid loves storytelling, a value that was instilled in her from a young age while sitting around the campfire with her Elders. To her people, the law of the land is written into the landscape. Teela has predominately written non-fiction work across multiple platforms. Currently, Teela is working on a fiction book which is her first major creative work.

    Teela's Creative Patreon

THE BACKSTORY BEHIND @BLACKFULLA_BOOKCLUB

FOLLOW @BLACKFULLA_BOOKCLUB ON INSTAGRAM OR VISIT OUR COMMUNITY LIBRARY AND CAFE ON BUNDJALUNG COUNTRY AT 53 DAWSON STREET LISMORE NSW. 
LOST IN TRANSLATION (2023)
BY TEELA REID

I’m bewildered by you

You’re bewildered by me

The difference is

not the colour we see.

 

The maps you draw

The landscape I see,

You created something

That should not be.

 

Your hierarchy ideology

My kinship of care philosophy,

Even when we speak your English

It’s a different dichotomy.

 

But will you ever learn -

Simplicity, stillness, silence,

Listen to mother earth

The lesson is in the yield to yearn.

 

We are not a myth

Despite all your tricks,

Your rule book is written

Our law is spoken,

It has never been broken.

 

You weaponize truth

To appease white guilt,

Your record of self-righteousness are only words said,

Yet the land remains witness to all of the dead.

 

And so too the good

For all that we stood,

A peoples whose love endures

In the land, sky and sea,

That is something you could never be.

 

For it was the stars who navigated oceans so deep

And the rivers that trace our interconnected pride.

We know the moon only shines

When the light hits the bright side.

 

From Yiraybagarra, sunrise

To Girrangang, sunset

May we find Gulbalanha, peace

For our Ancestors to rest.

my philosophy

It all begins with a brave idea. I believe the world we live in is the world we create. Imagining what is possible requires the courage to think of the world anew and take the necessary action to implement change.