Identity, community and wellbeing with Sagalee
Sagalee is one of CMY’s newest Shout Out speakers. He is also the founder of Shooters Shoot, an African youth-led organisation, a street journalist with his platform Locationest and a creative.
As a speaker, Sagalee focuses on identity and belonging, creative practice and paving your own path, sharing pivotal moments of his own journey as a young Oromo Muslim man. CMY sat down with Sagalee to learn a little more about who he is, what he represents and his journey as a speaker, creative, community leader and street journalist from Melbourne.
CMY:
Thank you so much for making time for us. I’m really excited to interview and learn more about you. Shall we get started?
Sagalee:
Let’s do it.
CMY:
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Sagalee, who are you and what do you represent?
Sagalee:
Yeah. Cool. So my name’s Sagalee. I’m originally from Oromo, based in Ethiopia. For those who don’t know, East Africa. I really am passionate about, and push for having a platform of voice, community and overall, wellbeing. Just learning how to navigate through life through human connections and coming together. I feel like that helps us all get through this thing we call life. That’s what I represent, community wellbeing and having a voice and just yeah, the journey.
CMY:
You’ve done so many projects, from Locationest, to Shooters Shoot basketball tournaments and fundraising to mental health programs for schools. Can you tell us a little more about these?
Sagalee:
My first project that I’ve really dived into was Locationest. Around 2019 I decided that I wanted to do something with a bit of meaning. I was very inspired by Brandon Stein, the guy behind Humans of New York, and I want to do it in my own way and push myself out of my comfort zone and get to know people and hear their stories. That’s something that I just love doing naturally. That started around that period and then the rest has been history. It keeps transforming, keeps changing, but the core of it all is still the same.
Giving people a platform for their voice and hearing people’s stories, not just for my benefit, but for others as well, because I feel like we all learn a lot from stories.
Locationest is also me figuring out who I am, being Oromo and being Muslim. My name actually means “the voice” in my language, so I don’t believe it’s coincidence. I think that’s there’s a reason for that and we’re just gonna figure it out, I guess. I really just want to see as many people in this world, meet as many people as possible, have genuine conversations. And also let other people hear these stories and have the opportunity to be connected.
The other thing is Shooters Shoot, which is hosting charity basketball tournaments and raising money. We’ve been blessed to raise over $66,000, which we’ve been able to put towards free therapy for young people. We’ve worked with over 500 young students. My mum educated me about mental health at a very young age, since she was a mental health nurse and I put those two together with all the people that I love in my community and we were able to create something beautiful. And now I want to keep on doing that.
CMY:
What would you say are the topics or areas that are most important to you?
Sagalee:
It’s, one, to make sure that a person’s story is being told the best way possible. And two, making sure that there is a platform, that is safe, and where everyone is a part of this showcasing their talents.
It all stems from identity. I feel like identity is so important, ’cause that’s your engine. That’s your fuel to just keep going through life because that’s who you are. You can’t strip anything back more than who you are.
That’s the most important thing for Shooters Shoot and Locationest. It’s just literally making sure that this person’s story gets told the best way possible, creating the best platforms for people to showcase who they are and their talents.
CMY:
We’re very excited to have you as a Shout Out speaker this year. What made you join Shout out and what do you hope to gain or achieve from this experience with CMY?
Sagalee:
So man, shout out to the Shout Out crew, shout out you and Ikram, real ones. My sister actually saw it and sent it to me. She’s like, I know that you’ve done some public speaking and stuff, but you should definitely try this out because there’s also opportunities to speak. One of my goals is to be a public speaker around the world. And Inshallah, through that, there’s inspiration, conversations, perspectives, and motivation that sparked from these conversations.
I’m not trying to talk just to talk, I want to experience life, so that what I say has substance. That’s why I want to gather all these interviews and talk to as many people and travel around the world, backpack, whatever.
With Shout Out I want to improve my public speaking because there’s so many things that I could work on and improve, and I know that Shout Out is a beautiful and safe place where I can do that. I know people who have been a part of it, such as Titan, Mohammed and I just thought it was a beautiful opportunity. When I joined, it was such a good weekend. It was very calm, very relaxed.
Everybody was cool, I felt like I could be me and just connect with CMY on a deeper level. I feel like what I do aligns with CMY and the people who are part of it and I feel that it’s very cool to connect. So as well as the public speaking opportunities, I’m just excited about every part of the experience.
CMY:
As a speaker, you shared a little bit about your journey as a creative and how that has intersected with the community work that you do. What do you think are the common themes or motives that underpin your work as one a community leader, but also as a creative and a journalist?
Sagalee:
The main things for me with trying to be the best version of myself, tying that all in with my community and really creating a space where there’s more positive that’s coming out of the situation. I also want to tie in unity. I’m trying to create something where we’re not just like locally known. The goal is to be globally known, where people look at Melbourne and are like wow, this is Melbourne culture.
Looking at Locationest, really good storytelling is something that I’m continuing to work on. We all have a story to tell. We all have a point of view or emotion that I know so many other people would love to hear. My job is to make sure that I can tell it the best way possible.
In my journalism, the theme that I always strive for is being present and attentive. Everybody just wants to feel seen, you know? At some point in life, everybody wants to have somebody that they can trust, or that looks at them and sees them for who they are. And that opens up everything else. If I can give the best conversation and be the best listener, then I’ve essentially done my job.
CMY:
Becoming a Shout Out speaker means public speaking in front of strangers, which is definitely not for the faint hearted. What’s something that you’re comfortable with sharing about yourself that most people might not know about you?
Sagalee:
I’m Muslim and I’m Oromo. But there was a time where I wasn’t that – it’s not like I was a whole different background and faith, but I just didn’t know who I was.
I grew up in the West in Werribee where there weren’t a lot of black people or people like me. For a long time, I wasn’t around anybody that looked like me. I remember looking in the mirror and asking myself like, why do I look like this? Why do I have all these features? It’s kind of weird, it was just confusing, you know?
Year 8 was the first time I actually stepped into a mosque. My mum was so busy, she was working three jobs and studying. I didn’t even speak my language actually because my mom never had the time to teach me. I would hang out with my friend, who was Australian, and see his world. I ended up not going to the same high school as him, and that guided me to a school with people like me. And then that’s when I started to figure, ok cool, this is my background, this is who I am, this is my faith.
That kind of formed the roots of Locationest. I love to talk to people and hear their stories because I had to understand everybody else’s world except for mine. I was confused in like my early ages and I just didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know who I was. I could have easily gone in so many different directions.
That’s a bit about me that people don’t know. Now, I’m very strong in my identity and culture, but there was a period where I wasn’t.
That’s why I’m so passionate about identity. You need something to hold you down in this life because if you don’t have a solid foundation, you will be pulled and thrown away in directions where you can be confused even more.
CMY:
So with all of that, what is next for you?
Sagalee:
Really working on trying to be the best version of myself, as we all are, but the reason why I say that is because:
If and when these things start to roll out and I do become closer and closer to that version, I want to make more of an impact, more of a change and carry more responsibility that will help others as well as my own life.
I want to get back to Locationest and really tell stories again, get consistent. Level up on the way I tell stories and make a really positive concrete add on to the culture of Melbourne. I’ll be happy. And then yeah, my life goal is to meet as many people as I can in this life.
CMY:
And finally, as a young African, Oromo Muslim man from the West, what’s one word you would use to describe the multicultural youth of Melbourne?
Sagalee:
I’m gonna say rich. Rich in culture and community.
Follow Sagalee’s platform @locationest on Instagram.
Book Sagalee for your next event or learn more about all of our Shout Out speakers here.