Hannah Gadsby Full Graduation Address - 14 August 2021 | University of Tasmania

some great hats right solid solid hat work a  dips me lid well done very serious this is not how I'm used to working I'm used to  taking a place that expects comedy   and making it serious but this is already  serious so I don't know what I'm gonna do Look I don't know who you are I have no  idea I've seen a diversity of diversity walk   across here and that is lovely but ultimately  that means i can't even guess who you are I don't know what struggles or  joys life has thrown your way   or what future woe or beauty is ahead of  you and I will not pretend to understand   I'm neither arrogant smug or delusional enough to  assume that I can so I'm left wondering how can I   possibly be expected in this moment to offer  anything close to salient wisdom and yet I'll try when I got my undergraduate  degree 20 years ago just I was not ready to be a fully functioning member  of society much to my dismay I was ready to be   a burden on the welfare system you  can take the girl out of Smithton   that was a loaded joke be careful  about how and why you laughed at that the reasons are actually quite varied and  complex but one reason was that I was barely   able to speak and I don't mean this public  speaking I mean I was barely able to speak a quiet shout out to all the anxiety  sufferers in the room I yeah unusual but   yep usually they're like awesome but you  own it I'm autistic and as such anxiety is   only ever going to be my constant companion  but honestly I don't know how it's possible   not to be anxious in this world in this moment  unless you're dead inside and we don't want that when my spouse lady Jenny sees me struggling in  a whirly gig of anxiety she has taken to asking   me this question don't panic who do you want  to be and that is the wisdom I want to share   with you today a question and it's not even mine  you're welcome but I think only a question has   the capacity to be flexible enough to be wisdom  statements are oblivious to the nuance of you   and platitudes are nothing but idea corpses  you have to reanimate as best you can but   a question always leaves room for you so please  make sure you bring yourself along for this right don't panic who do you want to be that is the  question I've been a doctor less than a minute   and I'm already rearranging Shakespeare  so stick that in your pipe and smoke it   I mean honestly it's about time  someone did you know a live people   can write real good you know  but that's for another time for now ask yourself who do you want to be don't  ask yourself what you want to achieve honestly the   world already decides so much of that for you only  a privileged few get to set goals and achieve them   it seems otherwise but that's only because  successful people are the only ones who get   to speak and they'd prefer to think they  did it on their own but we know better   if it makes you feel any better nobody ever fails  on their own either for me the question who do   you want to be is one that helps me step back in a  moment and think about who I want to be under the   circumstances I find myself in which is not at  all the same thing as my identity or how I want   people to see me it is a question and  asks me what actions will best reflect   who I want to be so who do you want to be do you  want to be someone whose ends justify their means   do you want to be a people pleaser a little  bit of column a little bit of column b who do   you want to be can you be who you want to be is  it your fault do you want a cup of tea hint yes who do you want to be whatever  your answer know that if you   ever become that person it will only be  for one hot minute in one tiny universe   because nothing in this world is  ever static especially not you more the person who wrote Nanette also won a  Peabody and an Emmy fyi I dips my lid to myself the person who wrote Nanette is not the  same person who stands before you today   that person did not know who they wanted to be  they knew what they wanted to say absolutely   but they did not know who they wanted to  be but now they do I know who I want to be   and I want to be kind that's it it might not  sound like much of a goal but just to be kind   is actually more difficult than you'd  imagine I almost regret it it's a lot of work and ten years ago I did not have the luxury of  setting goals trauma takes that privilege away   from a person trauma holds you to each and every  moment as a life and death struggle trauma takes   away your capacity to understand that there is  more to life than just fighting against nothing   and everything all at once trauma takes away  your ability to see yourself as a whole person   trauma had me in its grip for a very long time i  do not live there anymore I know what life is now   life is breath and to be able to take a breath  I need to be somebody and I want that somebody   to be kind I'm not asking you to be kind you  don't get to hold anyone up to the standards   of your choosing sometimes people do not have the  resources to be who you think they should be until   you know their history I don't think it's wise or  humane to insert your value judgments upon others   and the reason I think that is because I have an  awful lot of experience in that department much   of what became trauma inside of me is the trauma  that was stealing away the very breath of my life   began external to me as value judgments other  people forced upon me having never ever met me and the further away from Australia the  more work I have to do to explain the   geographical situation that I grew up in and  while it is usually enough for me to say that   I come from a small island off the south of  Australia there are times I'll need to clarify   that Tasmania is not a country in and of itself  but a state of Australia sometimes I even have to   go further and explain that the reason New Zealand  is not Tasmania is because it is New Zealand and on one incredibly exciting occasion I had to   break the news to an adult human that  Tanzania is not a province of Austria look I don't find it insulting that not  many people know where in the world I'm from   the point of the exercise is not to  expose the ignorance of others but   rather to convey the sense that I  grew up a long way away from nowhere   in order to understand my story you  need to know something of this place   some of you do some of you don't you need to know  that Tasmania was a convict colony and that it was   a devastatingly brutal settlement settlement that  decimated the indigenous population in what can   only be described as attempted genocide you also  need to know that I'm a direct descendant of those   white settlers and convicts that so violently  carved out their new life on this forsaken little   island I am both a benefactor and victim of the  arrogance of colonial mentality change the date you need to know that Tasmania only decriminalized  homosexuality in 1997. I know a lot of you know   that but it bears reminding because it  didn't happen without a decade-long fight   and very little was done to dignify the discourse  and too often those who use the most violent   language were given a much bigger platform  than they deserved and that's how homophobia   was politicized and weaponized in Tasmania  particularly on the northwest coast   and it was a trick the trick being the harvesting  of hate amongst a depressed low socio-economic   demographic who were already struggling against  intergenerational poverty welfare dependency and   a criminally low literacy level and instead of  making legitimate investments in the northwest   what was whipped up was a vulnerable community  into a frenzy against a marginalized community   within that community manufacturing as it happened  an artificial identity of proud homophobia   and that's where I grew up and that traumatized me  but I stand here before you happy to say that I am   proud of being from the northwest coast and I know  that they are proud of me too so that backfired play the longer and that is why I insist on telling my  story I'm not interested in my own nostalgia   the thing is I can see these destructive  patterns repeating themselves   right now all over the world again and again the black lives matter movement and trans bodies  are being criminalized and demonized as a threat   when all they are asking for is  the ability to be able to control   who they want to be it's not much to ask and  yet here we are when people use the terms   the gay agenda or playing the race game the  race card as it happens that's a good game   playing the race card what they are doing  is projecting their own ideals and tactics   onto communities they wish to oppress in the same  breath they are calling shotgun on victim status   it's a neat trick but that's all it is and i  want to spoil it for all it that it is the only   communities that have actual agendas and cards  to play are those that are interested in power   and those whose existence rely on conversion or  recruitment active process of bringing people   into the fold for example extremist groups  political parties universities sorry fellas and the Christian church now I'm not here to offend those who hold faith  in the Christian god some of my best friends   are Christian and some of those are queer  so there's that I believe the freedom to   believe is a fundamental human right and  I offer you my humble hand of friendship but a humble hand is an exchange it is not an  offering of deferential silence and it is most   certainly not a curtsy and while ever there are  groups like the Australian Christian lobby and   people like the Abetz brothers who for 40 years  and still counting continue to use the rhetoric of   hate against marginalized communities particularly  in regional Australia they do not get to hide   behind their so-called faith true leaders stand  for people they don't stand against some people the LGBTIQ community has never been driven by  conversion we simply want to be able to exist as   full and productive citizens visibly and safely  so we know you cannot convert to team us and   many of us have tried to be who and what we are  not and our lives were diminished because of it   I nearly took my own life because of  an agenda hell-bent on extinguishing   my existence an agenda that took the  accident of my person and demonized it   an agenda that told me that my mere existence was  destroying the family unit even as my own family   struggled to keep hold of me despite only  ever being taught the language of rejection so I ask you who do you want to be do you want to be a leader motivated by acts of  inclusion or defined by measures of exclusion   I can't answer that for you the  answer will live inside your story   and your story is always being written and  rewritten courtesy of the actions you take   your story is as alive as you are never  stop paying attention to it be alive breathe   be somebody and try your best to be someone  you want to be thank you and congratulations

Channel: University of Tasmania

Views: 137,828

Keywords: University of Tasmania, Study in Tasmania, UTAS, Hannah Gadsby, Nanette, Hannah Gadsby Comedian, Hannah Gadsby Nanette, Hannah Gadsby Douglas, Nanette Netflix, Hannah Comedian, Hannah Gadsby Ted Talk, Hannah Gadsby Speech, Hannah Gadsby University, University of Tasmania Hannah Gadsby, UTAS Hannah Gadsby, University comedian speech, Honorary Doctorate, Gadsby Honorary Doctorate, Dr Hannah Gadsby, Did Hannah Gadsby study at UTAS, Tasmania Hannah Gadsby, Hannah Gadsby degree

Id: 5AUeO5nZNLI

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/nikiverse]

Who do you want to be? That is the question... for me the question 'who do you want to be' is one that helps me step back in a moment and think about who do I want to be under the circumstances I am in... what actions will best reflect who I want to be? So who do you want to be? Do you want to be someone's whose ends justify their means? Do you want to be a people pleaser? A little of column A, a little of column B? Who do you want to be? Can you be who you want to be? Is it your fault? Do you want a cup of tea? Hint: yes. Who do you want to be? Whatever your answer know that if you ever become that person it will only be for one hot minute in one tiny universe. Because nothing in this world is ever static, especially not you.