A proud trawlwoolway and plangermairenner pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal person) of North-East lutruwita/Tasmania, Mr Graham-Blair is dedicated to embracing Aboriginal culture and teaching practices of sustainability.

Recently, Mr Graham-Blair was awarded the Tasmanian Young Achiever Dental South First Nations Peoples Achievement Award for his work ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have a sense of pride and empowerment within their education journey, particularly at St Virgil's College in the state's South.

"When I was back in high school I was taught that Tasmanian Aboriginal people did not exist," Mr Graham-Blair said.

"It was unheard of for an Aboriginal teacher or educator to come into the classroom to dispel that myth, let alone to share our history and our culture.

"Thankfully, a lot has changed since then and it is a testament to how hard our elders and ancestors, the activists and advocates in our community have worked to get our voices into the education system."

The myth that Bruny Island woman Truganini was the last Tasmanian Aboriginal has persisted since her death in 1876, less than 80 years after Tasmania was colonised by Europeans.

"Our presence in the education system is so important, because historically, our story has been silenced," Mr Graham-Blair said.

"When I went to high school, there were still people saying, 'I swear Truganini was the last Tasmanian Aboriginal'.

"I didn't really know how to respond to that. I knew I was Aboriginal but as a young person you think of your teachers as truth tellers. I knew it was a lie but why was it on me to set that straight as a child."

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In the 2021 census, more than 30,000 people in Tasmanians identified as Aboriginal, representing 5.4 per cent of the population, a figure considerably higher than the national rate where 3.3 per cent of Australians identified as Aboriginal.

"I come from a bloodline descended from European sealers and stolen Aboriginal women of the North-East, so I am really lucky that I come from families with really strong and maintained cultural ties to muttonbirding and shelling," he said.

"But growing up in a society where we haven't been able to speak for ourselves, where our knowledge was outlawed and we weren't in control of our own destiny, this absolutely impacts the modern Tasmanian experience.

"It wasn't until my Pop passed away seven years ago that I truly learnt how important his guidance and influence was and how important our culture and history was to my identity.

"When he passed away, the families gathered and all these people came together, and as part of that grieving process, I connected with many culturally strong people within my family. I was truly blown away by how strong we really are in our culture."

Mr Graham-Blair said it was this experience that laid the groundwork for becoming a mentor himself.

"I was encouraged to learn more about my culture and I found myself in this space where the more I learned, the hungrier I was to learn," he said.

"The spark was lit and my family just kept fanning the flame."

Nearing the end of his Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, Mr Graham-Blair studies and works from both pakana and Western science and is committed to protecting and healing Country using both knowledge systems.

"Indigenous methods have always cared for Country, that's how they got to be so old, but the disruption of global indigenous cultures has put the whole world on the brink of ecological disaster," he said.

"My people, the trawlwoolway pakana of North-Eastern Tasmania, have been proven to have not just survived on my homelands but thrived for more than 42,000 years.

"You don't belong to one of the world's oldest continuing cultures by not being sustainable and in touch with the needs of the land you occupy.

"I'm interested in how both knowledge systems intersect and how pakana land management can be used in conservation, particularly under the worsening climate and biodiversity crises."

Despite the strides the pakana people have taken and the shift in recognition for the Aboriginal Tasmanian Community, Mr Graham-Blair said there is still a long way to go.

"I've seen a lot of great changes within my lifetime, and there has been a lot of positive change," he said.

"But the people in power, who have the capacity to make larger-scale change, are the ones dragging their feet. You only have to look at the unfolding treaty conversation to see this", he said as one of 10 Tasmanian Aboriginal community members elected to the tuylupa tunapri Treaty delegation.

"It's not about giving us acknowledgements anymore, we're beyond that now, it's about giving us the self-determination to do things our way, as was promised to us so long ago, it's about our right to sovereignty here rather than just fitting Aboriginal people into the colonial system and way of life."

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