If BSSC Year 12 student, Lulu Wah, could go back and offer her twelve-year-old self some advice she would say this:
“Be present in the moment, take one step at a time and stay optimistic in life—and don’t worry too much about what other people think of you.”
Her advice echoes attitudes she admires in her father—a man who waited 15 years to be given the chance to escape the war in Myanmar and come to Australia.
Lulu has a Karen-Kareni heritage and was born in Mae Sot Refugee camp just a few months before the family was offered asylum in Australia.
Bendigo was a natural new home for the family—a place where there’s been an increasing understanding of the Karen culture over the years, and heaps of support for new arrivals as they navigate settling into Australia.
Her parents made great sacrifices to give Lulu a private education, but it meant she grew up with no other Karen people at her schools.
“I see how much my parents want the best for me and I’m very grateful to them, but I felt very disconnected from the Karen community as I moved through school.”
Now surrounded by Karen students at BSSC, Lulu has both a stronger personal connection to the community and sees an opportunity to be a good role model demonstrating that Karen young people have so much to offer.
Barriers Karen refugees face with regard to maintaining good mental health has been a growing concern for Lulu.
When an opportunity to join the Karen Advisory Group came along through Bendigo Community Health Services, she put her hand up for the position.
She is now the youngest in a group of people aged from 17 to 67 years who focus on ways of making sure Karen people can access suitable mental health care and support.
Lulu says she finds helping others in the Karen community “very fulfilling” and recently completed a ‘Mental Health First Aid’ course.
She has realised there are three main challenges for Karen people accessing quality mental health support.
“The first is to do with language—not only for people who are newly arrived and still learning English, but for people who struggle to verbalise their feelings and symptoms when it comes to mental health.
“For example,” Lulu says, “an unsettled feeling in the gut related to anxiety, might result in a prescription for something to treat a physical stomach complaint—which is actually not needed.”
With no Karen term for ‘mental health’, the Advisory Group committed to finding words to create a useful definition and settled on the direct translation of ‘how you think, feel, and interact with others’.
Here is the phrase written in Karen: သးဂ့ၢ်ဝီတၢ်ဆိမိၢ်တၢ်တူၢ်ဘၣ်တၢ်အိၣ်ဆူၣ်အိၣ်ချ့
“Secondly, older Karen people may have never been introduced to the idea of looking after your mental health—despite carrying serious trauma related to the horrors of war and deeply demoralising refugee experiences.
“Thirdly, they can be unwilling to ask for help even though the consequences of their experiences continue to impact them and their families every day.”
The Karen Advisory Group knows Australia’s Mental Health services are not specifically geared to deal with war-zone experience or the impacts of being stuck in a refugee camp for years on end—sometimes separated from family and with the future totally unknowable.
Therefore, the advisory group is aspiring to be a bridge between the Karen people and mental health services—and educating these services so they better understand Karen people.
“I also want to encourage more Karen students to pursue careers in psychology, social work, nursing, medicine, and other allied health roles.
“In my wildest dreams I imagine running a hub of health services provided for Karen people, by Karen people.”
Regardless of the generational trauma a young person may carry, Lulu wants younger Karen to see they have so much to contribute to the wider community.
While her time is almost fully committed, she continues as a keen volleyballer and her interest in fashion sees her sewing whenever she can.
She looks back on the Covid years with despair because it really impacted her learning and says she is still feeling its consequences even now.
Lulu enrolled at BSSC in Year 11 because she was keen to study more hands-on subjects, such as fashion, and loved exploring the huge variety of options.
“I didn’t have any close friends moving here and it felt like a big leap of faith,” she remembers. “I feel like I overcame that fear and changed my life for the better. Every day I’m grateful to be here.”
Now halfway through Year 12, a favourite subject is VET Allied Health.
“It’s quite different from Biology or PE and you really learn how the body works—it’s fascinating.”
Her study style is to work alone with no distractions. She de-stresses by walking and stretching—and uses journaling and prayer.
“There are so many options for my future pathway, but a career I’ve been considering is Dentistry.”
Lulu also wants to give back to BSSC.
As part of this, and to build connection with others, she joined the Student Leadership Team in Year 11. This year she is a BSSC Student Ambassador.
She chooses the word “diverse” to describe our college—a place and experience she is finding “quite liberating”.
Lulu says the culture at senior is “bubbly and bright” and that she can be herself—that she doesn’t feel she has to hide who she really is.
Lulu recommends that anyone who is creative should take particular notice of what is on offer at BSSC.
Alongside the people around her, Lulu is also deeply grateful for many things—including the beauty of nature and the opportunities that have been given to her.
