I’d like to start by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live, create, parent and serve, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

I'd also like to pay my respect to the East — its people, their cultures, beliefs, wisdom and practices — for the contributions to and documentation of the ancient wisdom I am privileged to study and embody today, and that has become a North Star within my role as a conscious career, business and leadership coach.

I hope I have your trust and permission to go a little deeper on this acknowledgment. I want to be honest with you when I share that since late 2019 (not proud of how long it took me to arrive), I have been in an almost constant examination of my own participation and role in the extraction and commercialisation of ancient wisdom and culturally sacred practices.

The question that continues to underpin this deep level of self inquiry is not who is allowed to believe in and live through this wisdom — with respect and reverence I believe we all are — but, who is allowed to teach it and importantly, profit from it?

Prior to this realisation, I paid significant sums of money to access and learn ancient wisdom from teachers who I can now identify were not acting as cultural caretakers and conduits back to custodial voices. This isn’t right or ok. Just like all of our basic needs in life, this wisdom should be free or at the very least accessible — especially to our most vulnerable.

This is the line I'm seeking to tread with reverence and respect when it comes to my work and my offerings.

The career, business and leadership advice I share and the regenerative strategies I teach are informed by the laws of nature and seek to lead us back to our true nature.

I believe that in order for my students and clients to go deeper together in the work of creating a professional reality that feels more spacious, supportive and true, it’s important that I offer a bridge to learning the why behind what I teach and how I serve.

With that shared, there’s been more than a few occasions where both my own self inquiry and vitally, feedback from my community about what I am offering and also the teachers I invite into Offline’s brand spaces, has caused me to distance myself from this wisdom, my practices and my teachers (most of whom are white).

Ultimately though, this has left me feeling distant from my truth and untethered from my work. So I return home to this wisdom again and again but with an even deeper awareness of who is teaching us, how they teach us, and who and what they point a finger towards when they do.

As for me and my role, where I’ve landed right now is to try and take pride in being a bridge.

When I first started exploring my own consciousness, I gravitated towards teachers who I could relate to. Oftentimes that meant choosing teachers that looked like me and sounded like me. I’ve learnt since that this is an underlying function of white privilege but. . . it also got me where I am today.

To the knowing that ancient wisdom shouldn’t be packaged and monetised by teachers that don’t acknowledge, honour and respect the traditional custodians of it. This wisdom should be accessible to all and if anyone is going to profit from it, it should be the teachers whose ancestors and/or masters spent hundreds and even thousands of years carefully preserving it and orally passing it down.

This is the future reality that drives the decisions I make and the action I take in my business today.

I understand and acknowledge that I am one of many teachers that will come into my students’ lives that feels true because of what I look like and the colour of my skin. I also acknowledge that my interpretation and transmission of ancient wisdom, the way I look and smell, the tone of my voice, the way I speak and the words I use — all of it combined — is what attracts my students and clients to me and my offerings.

The bet I am taking — most especially with my online course Make Contact With Your True Self — is that it’s also what may keep them inside Offline long enough to cross a significant threshold from unaware to aware of which teachers are rightfully deserving of their awareness and money.

And also, the role our money can play in keeping custodial voices loud within the demanding economic system that is making many of us turn to ancient wisdom for guidance in the first place.

For anyone reading who identifies as a white, being aware of who we fund is an act of allyship. It is one small but meaningful way we can help decolonise ancient wisdom and culturally sacred practices.

Another key thing I’ve learnt when it comes to taking responsibility for how I share this wisdom, is to communicate what I am actively doing to become a better caretaker of it and a conduit back to its cultural heritage. This list is in no way exhaustive and will continue to grow as I do this work:

• Ensuring any Recommended Reading list I share within my work starts with the work for spiritual white people to do
• Engaging a cultural advisor to support me with programming
• Inviting a diverse range of teachers into Offline’s spaces. People who represent different belief systems, cultures and lived experiences
• Ensuring all invitations to share knowledge and wisdom are paid opportunities 
• Remaining engaged in a personal examination and interrogation of my own privilege and role
• Remaining in constant dialogue with my white-identifying teachers about cultural appropriation and the commercialisation of wisdom founded in and preserved by the East

Thank you for being here.

Alison