Scott x Josh 'Flewnt'
Connecting with inner strength to grow through struggle
Growing up, Gooniyandi man and mental health advocate Scott felt alone with his thoughts and feelings, unable to share his story because, what if other people had it worse?
With proud Nyoongar rapper, Flewnt, Scott shares the message that everyone has a story worthy of being shared – when you connect with your inner strength, you can grow in the unlikeliest of places and through the toughest of terrain, like a Desert Rose.
Scott Wilson (he/him)
This expression is about discovering your inner strength, especially when feeling alone in your own mental health lived experience. I always felt that my story wasn’t much to share because I thought, “It’s not severe enough, it’s not worth sharing – there are so many other people doing it really tough”. I did not realise that I had normalised my struggle, and I feel a lot of people across Australia can relate to that discovery.
When you hear the song, you can really see the ins and outs of my experience. Finding that inner strength really helped me grow and also built up the strength to know that I was going to be ok. That’s always been a part of my journey – building and relying on that strength that comes from culture, family, role models and from my own understandings of the world.
Josh 'Flewnt' Eggington (he/him)
The expression is a hip-hop track that we put together – me, Optamus (the producer) and Scott. It was different because I always seem to write from the perspective of myself and I still wrote as if it was me, but having all of Scott’s journey in my mind at the time that I wrote it.
A lot of the lyrics are true to who I am but it’s also in mind with how Scott’s journey was. It’s an incredible process – it kind of opens your eyes and your mind so much that you get into a really, really creative space. It’s almost magical. It’s been incredible and so different and I’ve grown as an artist. I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to do this.
MY VISIBLE MESSAGE
If you do what is easy, life will be hard. But if you do what is hard now, life will get easier.
It’s hard to share your inner self, to share your story, but because it’s hard, that’s the thing that your body, your mind is prompting you to do. The key message is about inner strength. Growing up, I felt I was alone with my own social and emotional wellbeing and mental health journey. I didn’t think I could share.
Building resilience helped me to do things I never thought were possible. I want to share with young people that you can do it. Even though you might feel alone, you’re going through a lot of things – you can find that inner strength to grow through it.
There are services and they are there if you need them. But that inner strength is so important, and we need to make sure that our people across Australia know that if they’re alone that they can rely on that inner strength.
The collab
It was an embodiment of destiny combined with compassion, joy and connection.
It’s an incredible creative process and different to most things that I’ve done because of the way that we’ve kind of all met and come together. It started over Zoom with Scott and me speaking about our journeys. After that, we met in Broome and we were able to really go into depth about what we wanted the song to sound like and represent.
We were also lucky enough to record at Pearl Shell Studio – a really important place to be when it comes to making incredible music because it has that history. A lot of things came together that made it feel like it was meant to be.
From the get-go, there was a spiritual force I felt within the connection gained with Josh that was a really big part of the process. He was able to come to Broome and be immersed in my life here, and also connect with my family. When I hear what Josh and Optamus created, it reminds me of that connection and how important it was to create this. Also, it represents a future of First Nations peoples continuing to connect, share, respect and celebrate as one mob.
Scott Wilson (he/him)
Scott is a Gooniyandi man from Muladja community who grew up with the Yawuru people in Broome, WA. Scott believes the youth mental health sector should be holistic in its approach when supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander well-being; recognising the connections and interactions between the different elements of one’s life. In Scott’s free time he is working on the production of his own comedy cartoon and Aboriginal Superhero comic series.
Josh 'Flewnt' Eggington (he/him)
Flewnt is an award winning, Proud Nyoongar rapper from Boorloo (Perth). With a strong family legacy rooted in activism, Flewnt uses Hip Hop as his platform to articulate a powerful, positive, and uplifting message for his people.
