Troy Brown’s earliest memories are of music, sitting on the living room floor, watching his Dad strum a guitar.
“He would just play simple chords,” Troy said. “That’s how I learned. Watching Dad play. There was always a guitar around the house.”
Music is in his blood. His grandfather was a musician. (Troy uses the word “artist.”)
“We grew up on country music. Alan Jackson and all that stuff.”
If music is one of the defining themes in Troy’s young life so far, the other is Geelong Grammar.
Following in the footsteps of his Uncle, John Baxter, Troy boarded at Geelong Grammar from year 7 to 12 on a Yalari Scholarship for Indigenous students, an experience he describes as both difficult and positively life-changing.
“I grew up at GEGAC pretty much. I’ve always had a connection to GEGAC. To me it’s more like a family.”
“At 12 years old, being away from my family and everyone I knew, in a completely different culture, it was hard,” he said.
But it shaped him.
Though the first two years were difficult, a profound experience would soon reveal its rewards.
In year 9, Troy spent an entire school year out in the bush, at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop Campus, Taungurung country, living a cabin with 15 other boys.
“There were no phones, no computers,” Troy said. “We’d go on long hikes, long runs through the bush. The point of being there was to be isolated, to have nothing but the people around you.”
For Troy, this year would be one of the pivotal moments of his life.
“I loved being out there, being in the bush. You’d notice more. It reminded me of home, of being on country.”
“It taught me what you should value in life. The simple things. Friendships. Water. Social connections. And it made me think more about the care and respect you should give people, because they were all you had, really.”
Care and respect for people is at the heart of what GEGAC is about, and so we were stoked to welcome Troy to the GEGAG team earlier this month.
“It taught me what you should value in life. The simple things. Friendships. Water. Social connections.”
Troy is our newest GEGAC Academy Trainee, and will be working with Jake Lynch in the Marketing and Communications team.
In this role he will be finding and telling the stories of GEGAC – the terrific work our people are doing, and the services we provide to help Community.
Like music, GEGAC is in his blood, too. His great grandmother, Eileen Baxter, was one of our founders. And his mother, Sarah, has worked at GEGAC most of her adult life, and is now the Dental and Medical Practice Manager.
“I grew up at GEGAC pretty much,” Troy said. “I was here all the time. After school, I’d come to Mum’s work and annoy her. I’ve always had a connection to GEGAC. To me it’s more like a family.”
And although he is still figuring out his plans for the next stage of his life, he says after his years away at boarding school, that connection is something he feels drawing him right now, in a way that he can’t fully explain.
“At the moment I just feel that I want to be around family, around this culture, to learn,” he said. “I just want to be around here.”
