Wellbeing underlies message from Shanna Whan AM at Dookie Discovery Week

Dookie ag students and local young farmers heard from Shanna Whan AM, who is standing beside Associate Professor Ros Gall, Director of Dookie Campus; Dr Sara Hely, Director of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub; and lecturer Karen Edwards.

Listen to the Nic Healey from ABC Radio Statewide Victoria talk with both Shanna Whan AM, from Sober in the Country, and Ros Gall, Director of Dookie Campus:

Alcohol not needed to make vital social connections

“You don’t need alcohol to be sociable with your mates,” Sober in the Country founder Shanna Whan AM told nearly 200 young people at Dookie Campus this week.

Sponsored by the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub, the 2022 Australian of the Year was speaking to the new cohort of first-year Bachelor of Agriculture students along with a few lucky local young farmers as part of activities at Dookie Discovery Week.

Such is the impact Whan has made, that Nat and Fonz Corbett also made the trip to Dookie from Holbrook to hear her. The couple, whose new leather-care product is a finalist at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards to be announced later in March, credit Whan for changing their lives.

As she spoke to the group, Shanna Whan AM described her path to misusing alcohol – from her early childhood in Zimbabwe, to boarding school in Australia, a gap year working on remote northern Australian properties and then university in Canberra.

“I had severe trauma, but I didn’t know and I was so out of my depth in Canberra at uni during O Week.”

Whan spoke candidly about the trap of feeling like the only way to connect can be through “getting hammered” and depending on alcohol to facilitate the social connections that are vital for humans.

She also covered the danger of Australia’s rural identity being inextricably linked to alcohol. “People say ‘you’re okay, you’re just Australian’ meaning there’s no problem with alcohol. But alcohol addiction is on a spectrum; you don’t have to be extreme to have an addiction.”

A vital part of Whan’s message is never being “preachy”.

“The words and language you use are really important. I’m not a prohibitionist. The language I use is that it’s my choice not to drink.

“We regularly reach 250-300 thousand people through our social media. How have we achieved that? By having user-friendly conversations, not by preaching abstinence.”

She gave the students some practical tips around hosting and being at events with alcohol-free options and then encouraged them to follow Sober in the Country on socials and talk about it with their friends. “Taking action, the step beyond awareness, is what we need.”

Whan said several times how the young students before her can be real agents for changing how alcohol can be misused.

Associate Professor Ros Gall, Director of Melbourne Uni’s Dookie Campus, agreed.

“These young Bachelor of Agriculture students are just starting out on their university journey. Agriculture studies have had a bit of a reputation around alcohol in the past and so I think Shanna did a great job of talking to them about it’s okay to say no, and it’s not necessarily about not having a drink but that it’s okay to cut back.”

With Whan citing statistics around rural people more likely to struggle than their city counterparts, Ros Gall said it can be harder for rural people with limited support, so raising awareness and offering practical tips was excellent.

Dr Sara Hely, Director of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub, which is supported by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and brought Whan to Dookie, said there were underlying similar messages of inclusivity, diversity, resilience and community – and “looking after your mates” to foster sustainable people in sustainable communities who live and work in sustainable agriculture.