I think the biggest lesson is just to keep getting back up, keep getting up, keep teaching
yourself new things, keep learning, keep asking questions, keep moving forward and loving
yourself is I think the biggest thing you can do in life and it's never easy.
There are days that everything is hard and that's okay, yeah just get back up and keep
I think that's the biggest life lesson I could teach people.
Hi I'm Jess Rowe and this is the Jess Rowe Big Talk Show, a podcast that skips the small
talk and goes big and deep.
From love to loss and everything in between I want to show you a different side of people
who seem to have it all together in these raw and honest conversations about the things
I don't know about you but in this time of social isolation I really crave connected
conversations so I'm going to dig deep to give you a new window into the souls of the
people we're curious to get to know and understand.
There might be tears as well as laughter as we celebrate the real life flaws and vulnerabilities
that make us human.
Casey Donovan is an award-winning singer-songwriter and boy can she light up the stage with her
singing, dancing and acting.
At the age of 16 she was the youngest person to win Australian Idol.
She was also voted Queen of the Jungle in I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and it's
her realness that resonates with you.
The spotlight can be damaging and I wanted to talk to Casey about how she can share so
much of her life with the wider world and not have that dim her inner light.
Oh Casey, it is so good to see that exquisite face of yours, oh you're a darling and I have
been lucky enough to hear you sing live and your voice, there's no other voice like it.
Thank you very much, it's a great introduction, thank you.
That big beautiful sexy voice of yours Casey, where does it come from?
Oh look, I don't know, I guess you know growing up and kind of always humming around the house
and always being told to be quiet without anyone knowing that I could sing at that point.
I guess it just came from years of pretending to sing into the microphone in front of a
mirror in my bedroom.
What would you be singing into?
I'd be singing into an impulse can, a hairbrush, anything that looked like a microphone and
I'd just be singing to the songs off the radio.
Anything from, I remember being dropped off at primary school with my stepdad and he'd
have, we used to call it old fart FM because it was all of the golden oldie songs which
are now, you know, I listen to and I'm not ashamed to say that I listen to them but you
know we'd go to school singing Great Balls of Fire.
You mentioned your stepdad there, now he's normo isn't he?
And he was a real support for you singing wise?
He certainly was and he still is, so he's very much, him and my mother are my biggest
cheerleaders in life and he, yeah, he certainly saw a potential and a confidence that could
be boosted and I just, me as a kid I didn't understand what he was talking about and what
all the lectures were growing up and you know why I needed to be confident and why
I needed to stand up and know what it is to feel empowered and I guess I fully understand
now in my early 30s what he was trying to achieve and yeah, he's taught me a lot in
As a little girl singing to the impulse can, how then did that translate to normo saying
get rid of the impulse can, let's sing in front of an audience?
Look, you know, I was born and bred in the southwest of Sydney, kind of going through
I guess primary school, wanting to do sport and then being introduced to music very, very
slowly and then finding that I had a knack for it, I was like this is awesome, I then
changed high schools and went to Newtown Performing Arts and then Newtown Performing Arts focused
a little bit too much on the HSC for me, so then I asked if I could go to the Australian
Institute of Music and they're like it's a lot of money, I was like yeah but I want
to do music and within a few weeks of being at that school, Australian Idol auditions
popped up on television and normo thought hmm, I can see what we're going to be paying
for in this tuition so she's going to do something about it.
So he yeah, knocked on my door one day and said alright, okay so you're going to audition
for Australian Idol and you know, that's all you have to do, just audition, get a few of
your friends together and me being 16 and happy being invisible to the world, I kicked
and screamed and huffed and puffed and I went to the audition.
We had a few heavy and heated conversations because I was like I don't want people to
see me, yes I love to sing but I want to do it later in life and I just want to hang out
with my mates and he gave me a bit of an ultimatum, he's like alright if and when you get to
Top 100 or whatever it is, you can pull out but I just, I need you to see that it's not
just me and your mother that think there is something more there so I just, I need you
to trust me to you know, go forward in life and got to Top 100 and he asked me alright
what do you want to do and I said yeah I'll keep going, why not.
So you trusted him but you say that you felt invisible then, what does that mean as a 16
You know I was happy just being Casey from Bankstown, I didn't want much from the world,
I just wanted to get through school, enjoy music, hang out with my mates and not cause
too much of a fuss.
Back then I had dreadlocks, I wore different coloured shoes and different coloured socks
and yeah I was just a bit of a misfit back then and I, yeah I was just happy being invisible
So when I was then, you know, in people's lounge rooms on TV and 16 you're finding
all these things about your body and your emotions and you know you're starting to
paint this little world around what you want your teenage years to be and I did not expect
to be the winner of Australian Idol and that certainly did change my trajectory of life.
You were the youngest ever winner.
So why are you here today love?
Hopefully get further in this shade Idol.
How does 16 year old Casey cope with that as you say?
Someone who wants to be invisible, you're thrust into the spotlight, I mean Idol was
massive when you were doing it, how do you manage or navigate through that?
Look I think for me it was just being an adaptable person, you know there was no use finding
it, I just kind of, yeah I was excited and I was like oh something new, something fun,
what are we doing here?
Yeah I'll give it a go, I don't really want to do that but sure we'll give it a try.
So I just kept adapting to what was happening and what was around me and you know there
was exhaustion and then there was like triple exhaustion where I just didn't know where
I was sometimes and you know not long after I won Idol we were then doing an Idol tour
so then I was on tour with everyone and that was great and it wasn't until kind of the
tour and everything slowed down where I finally was able to take a breath and go wow so that
just happened, what do I do now?
And there was a lot of change going on and there was a coping mechanism within me and
I think I've still got that within myself and I just yeah I just adapt and yeah why
not give it a try.
And I think that is such an amazing approach, why not give it a try but the way you describe
it to me now it seems like it was seamless for you but was that really the case because
you know you're a young woman, I'd read that you felt very much people were focused on
your size, on your background, all those sorts of things and I think as a young person that's
even harder to come to terms with.
Well certainly because I didn't even have those answers, like I knew I was a bigger
girl in my body and I just I wasn't comfortable in my own skin and then I was all of a sudden
this role model for Indigenous kids and I was being asked all these questions and I didn't
at that point know all of the answers so therefore I felt like a bit of a fraud in
my own body. I was like well I'm still a kid, I'm still trying to work things out and now I'm
you know a role model for not only Indigenous kids but all kids across Australia and
nothing in my life was perfect and yeah it was a lot to take on and it was a lot to kind of
navigate through and a lot of people have always said Casey you just look so calm,
and I guess that's just you know something that I can put a brave face on and get through life.
And do you think that's what you do even as a young woman to now,
you put on that brave face to get through tough stuff?
Oh certainly you have to as long as you've got a healthy network of people around you that can
love and support you and you have outlets to talk to. Yeah I think there is something for me,
I don't know what it is whether it's comforting but just to know that I can also bring a lot of
calmness to quite hectic and you know rigid situations which is nice, it's a nice thing
to do but also very stressful. Yes I think it's your voice, it's that presence that you have,
even talking to you, you have the most beautiful speaking voice but when you are on stage
and you sing it's like a big warm hug, that's what I think it's like.
That's lovely, I mean and that's the way music can transport someone and you know I love telling
stories, I love taking people on emotional journeys or you know even if it is a song like you know
one of my favorite songs to sing is Valerie by Amy Winehouse, even though it's a kind of out there
song if you can put some form of emotion in it and tell a story that's the one thing that was so
enticing and magical and still is enticing and magical about music is the storytelling and taking
people out of those moments to go on a ride or a journey with you, music just has very very special
powers and I absolutely love it so yeah I'm more than happy to take people on a calm journey
and also with my voice. But is it right that you're called Pacey Casey by Milsie,
that really backstage you're not quite so calm? Yeah I'm not calm backstage, you're continuously
learning in this life and I think in the last few years what the pandemic has taught us is to sit,
it's taught us to sit with things that are uncomfortable, it's taught us to feel things,
it's taught us to okay I don't like this feeling, how in this moment can I learn to move through it
and how can I you know use that in my day-to-day life so for me my energy always had to be up and
I had to be pacing because you know I didn't want to forget words and I put this ridiculous amount
of pressure on me that I just everything had to be perfect which it doesn't because there's no such
thing as perfect but um yeah I just pace continuously and then my pacing would trigger other people's
nervousnesses and all of these things so um yes Pacey Casey is one of the nicknames that I have.
And I think there's amazing beauty in imperfection. Oh certainly I mean the
most beautiful things in life are imperfect and I think that's beautiful.
And you though found love during COVID? I did. How? Myself.
Yes I did find love and I'm a very very big believer in everything happens for a reason
and you'll always be in the right place at the right time in the good and bad which is you know
weird. We met online and chatted for hours upon hours upon hours uh you know me having my
background and luck in dating I was like are you real can we do a zoom date so we you know we had
a few zoom dates and then eventually we snuck out for a five kilometer walk which was pretty awesome
and then yeah we became each other's bubble buddy and yeah everything kind of flourished through
there and is still flourishing and just it's been such a beautiful thing to form in a relationship
and to find someone that yeah just emphasizes and magnifies your life yeah it's just been really
beautiful and now life's picking back up we can just go out and enjoy life and enjoy each other's
companies and a lot of people that have found love in the pandemic it's such a beautiful thing
because you literally strip everything away you don't have the glitz and the glamour and the
you know all these distractions you have conversation you have real raw emotion
because everyone is stressed no one is happy at the minute even though everyone's like yeah cool
I'm just getting through it's like there's a lot of things going on in life and I think to find
someone in this time is it's amazing because I just feel like they just get the true and raw
version of that person oh and it's Renee isn't it who's your beautiful partner yeah and so you
you said you had the zoom dates was there one in particular that stood out that made you think
yep this is the woman for me look I mean there were a few things that were starting to tick it
off and you know having a few zoom dates doesn't you know necessarily solidify everything but you
know you build the rapport and you build the conversation but I think it was just her
willingness to laugh and just be herself I think that was that got me and just her communication
and the way everything was just honest and I love that I love the honesty of what she was
putting on the table and yeah I think when we went for our our first walk and we didn't want
it to end because we could only walk for an hour it was yeah we both didn't want it to end
that is such a good sign if you don't want an hour-long walk to end it's like yes and yeah you
talk about honesty how that's so important to you has it been hard for you to find trust in
relationships given you mentioned previously I mean you had that terrible incidence of catfishing
that happened to you yeah look it's been very hard to trust people and also to learn about myself
and how much of my worth I was giving to other people and it was interesting to find out through
different you know meeting different people and dating and doing all these things that
I was I wanted something so bad that I was just yeah kind of going oh well yeah cool let's just
do that I was you know I wasn't saying oh no I don't really want to do that I was just kind
of giving myself away and it wasn't you know until the last few years not just saying happened with
Renee but that learning of trusting and trusting that it's okay for me to say no actually I don't
want to do that and starting to build my self-worth and build I don't know just maybe it was the
the right for me to say it's okay not to do something it's okay no the world's not going
to fall apart you're still okay you're still alive you're still breathing and it's just been
such a beautiful thing to feel and watch and see and talk about my feelings and not have my feelings
you know thrown back in my face with the whole catfishing incident it was all
it was narcissism it was gaslighting it was all of these things so I didn't know how to answer
questions in fear that I would answer something and that would trigger a domino effect of events so
it's yeah trust for me over the many many years has been a slow build but I feel like it's really
come to the forefront of just learning to love and accept me and also accept that
having someone in your life shouldn't you know it should add they are not your whole happiness
which to many people there's like oh I just need to find my whole to be happy it's like no
I need to be happy and then they can add to it and I yeah I've done a lot of self
self-work and mindfulness and meditation yeah it's just Jessica it's a beautiful thing
and it is though when you recognise your sense of self-worth and that you are
deserving of love and to be loved and on your terms certainly and I think once you
allow that love and allow that love for yourself I feel like life changes and you know people don't
come to find that until they're later in life and I'm yeah I'm very happy and grateful that
I've found it now uh in my early 30s and I just yeah I want to preach it to the world that
yeah it's hard being on your own but you want someone to to add to that happiness that you
already have and that independence and that yeah anything is possible and just just really nice to
be yeah in love of course it is it does it makes the world go around but but how did you find that
sense of self-worth obviously it takes time going through hard times teaches you things
but how were you able to actually recognise I'm enough as I am I don't need to change
I think it's just falling over a few times and grazing your knees and getting up and building
strength and as you keep getting up you keep going I'm not going to do that again I'm going
to respect me I'm going to respect what I want and what I want is not being selfish what I want
are my needs and my non-negotiables and putting those into life and stumbling over that and going
oh that feels really weird and you know talking to people the psyches and finding people that can
help you sort out those pathways is very important as I'm a massive mental health advocate talking
to people and finding that really does help you as well because you're being given the tools to
put into your own life and then that just lifts everything up it's hard and it's messy but once
you allow yourself to love yourself and allow yourself to be loved life really does turn around
you say it's been messy what would you say has been the messiest part of your life
oh god look it's still messy in some days I don't think it'll ever stop being messy and you know if
life does stop being messy we need to ask some questions you know things in my childhood that
were messy there were things in my early teens that were messy trying to figure out relationships
and what people mean to me and where they need to fit there's just been a cluster of mess everywhere
as my mother says I leave a trail of destruction and they never cleaned it up but yeah I think
there's just lots of different little messy things and that builds you as a person to go okay well
I'm just going to do a spring clean and fix the little messes that I can and everything else is
I've just got to let it go easier said than done sometimes oh certainly we can't all be
Elsa in Frozen we certainly can't although she is amazing um no yeah and I think yeah we've all had
time to kind of reset and now we're on a new trajectory going forward as to how we cope in
a world that is forever changing and with it being forever changing you know singing and
performing is at the heart of who you are how have you coped not being able to do that during
these lockdowns I've been doing a thing called blues day Tuesday I did it pre-pandemic and then
when the pandemic hit I was doing it every week uh just to you know bring some people some joy
through music and entertainment and it was very low key and very off the cusp that sometimes I'd
you know rehearse one song and I'd be doing 10 songs so it was very
it was very loose sometimes I was like well we'll do three songs and we'll chat for an hour
but I was trying to find the joy and love in music and also sometimes even when I didn't want to do
it I was doing it for other people because sometimes even though you don't feel like doing
something bringing someone else a joy and satisfaction because they're going through a
hard time is sometimes the thing that you need to do to kind of bring yourself out um and being an
entertainer we're always looking for that hit of adrenaline and not having that hit of adrenaline
was like I've lost something what am I lost where did I put that what am I looking for where am I
going so it was it was this constant battle of I need to be creative I need to write music I need
to write songs you never get downtime like this you need to do something so there was
a pressure that I put on myself and I'm sure a lot of other creatives were like this is the perfect
time why aren't you doing anything why are you sleeping in why are you eating that why are you
drinking that don't do that go for a walk or you can only walk for an hour though but so I was
coping and that leads back to my coping mechanism is that I just kind of adapt to the situation
with the tools that we all had in our tool bag and go okay what can we do here and I was doing a few
corporates online as well so you know I'm still getting that performance hit but it was a very
weird hit because you're pre-recording it's like just pretend the audience is there and sing this
song so it was yeah it was very jagged and rough but it also gave us the tools to be able to adapt
and learn what zoom is and learn how to go okay well I need this microphone I need this ring light
I need all of these lights so I feel like everyone kind of up skilled as well was there a time though
when you ever thought I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this again yeah there was a lot of
that because it's like well the arts was the first thing to go and the last thing to come back and
it was like what do I do if I can't do this yeah so there were a few days where it was a bit oh
this could yeah this could not happen but yeah I'm very I'm a very hopeful person yeah I've got a
lot of other little things in my back pocket I mean I could always go back to uber driving
Well tell me about that because yes when were you uber driving Casey? I was uber driving just
before I went into the jungle I'd come off a contract with We Will Rock You and that
finished early and I was like I need a job like I need to keep a roof over my head I can't just
you know snap my fingers and be back in a musical or find all the auditions and get the gigs so
yeah I did what any person would do is I went out and got a job and that's one thing
my parents taught me is to have those morals and need a roof go get a job so I did that and I
thoroughly enjoyed uber driving because I love to drive and yeah it was just it was nice to
break that barrier and get grounded and just yeah reset but it's an incredible way of grounding
yourself it's a very humble thing I don't know of many other performers who would say yes I'm
going to do this now I'm going to drive an uber yeah look I mean I didn't really think too much
of it a lot of people would be like oh no that's beneath me but I'm like well I'm a young woman I
need a job I need a roof over my head I need to live I need to eat I need to sleep yeah for me
I was like okay it wasn't at all a backward step it was a reset and I've done that continuously
through my life I just hit the reset button okay what can I do now what can I learn so
yeah I think yeah it's a lot of things in swallowing that little bit of pride and going
nah I can do this why can't I indeed why can't you and were there passengers who would be a
little surprised or would like you to sing for them certainly yeah yeah there were a few fans
that jumped in they're like what are you doing driving an uber I was like well
driving an uber otherwise you wouldn't be getting home right now but yeah on the weekends it was a
bit feral but I thoroughly enjoyed it uh had a few sing-alongs but yeah nothing too over the top
but I really want to get from you where this sense of I suppose joy and optimism comes from
and sort of saying yep I want to reset I'm going to do this you have this lovely lightness when
you talk about it where does it come from I have no idea I think you know probably from my parents
just giving something a go I'll be the first to say I'll kick and scream and be like no I don't
want to do it and then as soon as I say or just go and do it I'm like I'm glad I did that I had
the best time I've preached to kids before going and doing I did a thing called the vibe alive
festivals and we went into communities and taught kids and it was you know aimed at indigenous kids
but all kids it was inclusive and they jumped up on stage and all the little cory kids were
like oh no I don't want to do it I don't want to do it and I was like I promise you you're going
to do this and have the best time and you will not want to get off this stage and I thought if I'm
saying that and preaching that to kids I need to take that on and I need to do that for myself
so I just give everything a go and yeah what's the worst that can happen
I'm with you what is the worst that can happen it doesn't work but at least you gave it a shot
I think that's what life's about yeah and if you're not taking chances what are you doing
we only get one go at this and you know you headed off into the jungle as you said
and you won it I mean hello everyone loves you you win Australian Idol and then you win I'm a
celebrity get me out of here you're the queen of the jungle in my hand I have the envelope
the winner of I'm a celebrity get me out of here 2017 is it's Casey did you expect to win
oh certainly not I just thought I'd go in there for a week or two and be back home and you know
probably be back Uber driving I never in my wildest dreams thought that I'd win that show
I am very thankful and grateful for Australia getting behind me and supporting me and it was
just it was so surreal the whole experience and to be able to give a hundred thousand dollars
to the Starlight Foundation was you know a dream come true they do amazing work and I just yeah
when I was thinking when I couldn't get out of my head I had to think about you know the charity
and think well this isn't for me and then also to it almost in a way reset you because then you
started to write more music and you returned to your music didn't you it really did and I sure did
I got back into music and I it put me back on another path I changed the trajectory of my life
once again and I feel like I was able to to step back into the light and go okay well this is on
my terms now I've worked hard I've stepped back from the industry and stepping back in it's like
well I'd like to give this a go and I'd like to try that and it's been a beautiful
last few years and kind of going on the roller coaster of life it's just I've learnt so so much
no university could teach me what I've learnt and I'm so happy to be able to help people in
day-to-day life and spread the love and spread the joy and spread the honesty about you know
life's up and down and the challenges that we all face and just to be vulnerable in the person that
I am and yeah keep going and I get to do what I love I get to sing I get to entertain I get to
tell stories and I yeah I'm very grateful for that. And what a joy to be able to share that
with so many people you say it's taught you some big lessons what is that biggest lesson?
I think the biggest lesson is just to keep getting back up keep getting up keep teaching
yourself new things keep learning keep asking questions keep moving forward and loving yourself
is I think the biggest thing you can do in life and it's never easy there are days that everything
is hard and that's okay yeah just get back up and keep going I think that's the biggest life lesson
I could teach people. And speaking of loving yourself I saw you in this wonderful documentary
What Does Australia Really Think on SBS and you were talking about obesity and there was this
glorious moment in the documentary where you joined all these other people at the beach
and you all shed your clothes and there you were in your undies and bra and it made me cry because
there was something really beautiful about that shared moment. I didn't expect to be doing that
I know that the producers were probably planting little seeds along the way but I'm a big believer
in I'm not going to stand here and sell you something if I'm not going to taste it or try
it or put it on my body so I just thought all of these beautiful beautiful humans were gathering
and they were sharing their stories and sharing their vulnerabilities with people they'd never
met before and I just I had this urge of passion and I thought I can't stand here and be like oh
you're all doing amazing and not get my kid off so I just thought this is the moment for me and
you know there's things about my body that I don't necessarily enjoy but I just thought
yeah I want to walk the walk and talk the talk and just do it and I just I embraced it wholeheartedly
and I felt so much lighter and and that shows changed my life and it's you know I had to
yeah kind of have a few hard truths that I had to open my eyes to and go all right what do we do
now and just keep walking and keep getting up and I just I absolutely as confronting as that show
was I think it has started honest conversations about the obesity
epidemic that's happening and that people need to not be so hard on other people because no one
knows what life is throwing at people and that there are genes and there is scientific evidence
to back you know why some people's bodies are the way they are and I think we just need to
send more love into the world love and acceptance and less judgment
because what also in that show you were talking about how one of the hardest things for you had
been the way that society would treat you because of the shape of your beautiful body yeah and that
still to this day you know it doesn't matter and I've seen it in a lot of entertainers and people
that are in the public eye as soon as someone loses weight it's like they're this brand new
human it's like they have this superpower and I'm like well that person has been the same person
this whole time and it's only now that you're opening your eyes to this beautiful human who's
changed their shape or you know gone on a journey for themselves to feel socially accepted or what
society puts on them to be accepted it's such a weird weird thing to kind of see and witness and
feel myself you know I'm living my best life and being healthy and trying to do the best and
looking amazing and feeling amazing but you know it's like oh my god you've lost so much weight
it's like well I've worked really hard to love myself and appreciate me and I don't
thank you that's nice but you know this is this is mine it's a difficult thing to go through and
to watch society slowly evolve with many many things that we've been pushing over the many many
years to change or to accept I think that it's it's a slow road we're getting there eventually
and also too you say how difficult it is but did it get as bad for you that you wouldn't want to
leave the house because of anxiety and depression over how people would perceive you or judge you
oh certainly you know still to this day you know body dysmorphia is very real and when
you know for me everything is amplified because there's always lots of eyes so I can't imagine
what someone would feel not being in this light and trying to go outside and to have all those
fears and thoughts and you know everything going through your mind to even leave the house it's
hard so I've certainly had those days and some days I still have those days I went shopping the
other day and you know we're looking for plus size or size inclusive clothing and I had to
go to the fourth level of a shopping center where it was steaming hot to find that there were
you know a few items of clothing for people that were over a size 18 and it broke my heart
because I just thought this is this is sad it's not inclusive it's not on the main floor with
everything else and there's lights and great music and now hi can we help you it's like
hello can someone help me find is it is there a dressing room anywhere so it's
yeah society tells us that we shouldn't be like this but here we are kind of going well
we're doing our absolute bloody best and you just keep kind of going no no but um yeah it's
about doing shows like that and starting conversations and breaking barriers and
everyone has the right to their opinion and I feel like there just needs to be less anger
and more conversations and more people listening and not taking it on as an insult but just going
as an insult but just going I hear that but this is my opinion there's certainly days where I just
I didn't want to leave the house and I just felt like all right I'll try again tomorrow and that's
all we can do is you just got to keep getting up and keep trying and is that what you do is that
how you you keep managing just thinking well okay today was a crappy day I'm going to get up again
tomorrow and try what do you do because I know that there'd be people listening feeling as you
felt and wondering how it is that they can get out the front door or to feel like yes I'm enough
I love myself yeah it's just knowing that everything is okay that other people's opinions
and feelings are not your own it's about knowing that you are enough and that you can get up and
that you will get up and that yeah life today or that day is hard and that's okay put a Disney show
on put some music on cook your favorite meal make yourself feel sexy put on some makeup
take yourself out of that realm and transport yourself listen to a book read a book go for a
walk do something to remove yourself from those moments and then yeah keep going sometimes that's
not going to work and you know a nap is what's going to fix it but I can yeah just you just got
to get up and keep going and you'll know when to get up and keep going and when you do you'll be
like and it does get easier with each time because you build a tolerance and you build a mutual
respect for yourself which you have so much I mean I when I talk to you you you do have this
calmness and you do have this self-acceptance and self-love which I think is so beautiful to see
thank you yeah it's look I take a great pride in who I am and to show people that
yeah vulnerability is not a weakness it is something that keeps you going and you can't
apologize for that and you all you can be in your in life is yourself and I feel like the more people
who are wholeheartedly them the world would just be a brighter place and yeah that brings me joy
if people can do that so your vulnerability is very much a superpower and I wonder if that's
because you you've learned who you are and is some of that also about discovering more about
your Indigenous heritage as well well certainly there were many years where I didn't have answers
as to who I am and I felt you know I had imposter syndrome of being having an Indigenous heritage
because I just felt like I wasn't accepted by my family or given the tools to yeah kind of know
what was right and wrong it was like this kind of thing that was yeah I felt for me like it wasn't
mine other people held that power and it wasn't until I did um who do you think you are on SBS
that going back to country and talking to my elders and my family opened my eyes to know that
this is my journey and this is a bit of my culture and community no one else can take that from me
and that was a very very big thing for me to to understand and feel that
that for most of my life I felt like I was yeah an imposter and I'm not that anymore I'm a proud
Gumbayngirangari woman from the mid-north coast of New South Wales and I'm proud to be Indigenous
I'm extremely proud and I can carry that with me now and hold my head high and go through life
and say well no one can take this away from me. And that journey that you say you went through
what was it that you learnt or what what did you discover about your country and about who you are?
Look I discovered a lot um there's so much love for you know that experience in my life I
learnt that my three times great grandma Nana Flow was a midwife and would walk hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of kilometers to help women give birth to their babies and went to a
beautiful watering hole and just met amazing people that could help me with my life and open
doors for me um and also I got to look through the Balangirri side of my family uh which was
I'm a Donovan but the Balangirri side was very very interesting and it was beautiful to know
that there was relations up there that were very very proud of me and the person that I've become
and and what I've done for the family and the community so yeah it really did unlock a lot
for me and it's just another thing of self-acceptance and self-love and and shedding
that negativity that I felt and carried around with me for so many years.
Well you exude this beautiful joy and Casey I have loved talking with you I cannot wait to be
in an audience a live audience and be cheering you along and listening to that incredible voice
of yours you're going to be doing nine to five do you do the the Dolly Parton da da da da the
the sea look I don't even know the words the blood the nine to five yes yes yeah yeah can you do
that yeah we sure do can you do it call me on the spot Jessica um working nine to five what a way
to make a living baby getting by it's all taken and no giving they just use your mind and they
never give you credit it's enough to drive you crazy
you are the best Casey Donovan thank you thank you so much for just sharing so much with us and
gee I've loved talking with you because I felt you know over the years I I've admired you seen you
perform worked with you but not sort of properly and you're just a revelation you really are I
love seeing you happy I look at you and I feel like you're in a good place you're in a sweet spot
and you just keep spreading that joy because it does so much for so many of us so thank you Casey
thank you very much now it's been lovely thanks for having me
thank you how special is Casey do you know that my beautiful producer Nick and I both of us want
to be her best friend she's the sort of person that you just need in your life she is real
she's warm she's funny and she's wise oh love talking with Casey and she's joyful to top it
all off she's comfortable in her skin I could keep going on but I won't because what I want
to do is tell you where you can see Casey she is starring in Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 the musical
and if you want to find out more about this and Casey's touring dates throughout the year
head to CaseyDonovan.com for more beautiful big conversations like this search the Jess Rowe
big talk show podcast and while you're there I'd love you to tap follow and add me to your
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and fingers crossed your friend could also be Casey Donovan the Jess Rowe big talk show was
presented by me Jess Rowe executive producer Nick McClure audio producer Nikki Sitch supervising
producer Sam Kavanagh until next time remember to live big life is just too crazy and glorious
to waste time on the stuff that doesn't matter listener