At first I was ashamed of having more milk in my cup, making the tea light and mild.

Other people who don’t drink tea and only have milk in their cups say

“You’re drinking the same thing as me, Milk! Not tea.”

There are also people who enjoy their tea darker that have said similar things like

“That's not enough tea for it to be real tea!”, which hurts a lot.

Because my tea isn’t strong, when I was younger it was harder for me to tell them they were wrong. Sometimes I even wanted to believe them when they said things like that. I thought maybe it would have been easier if milk was the only thing in my cup…

But then I would have to pretend I'm not drinking tea!! And I know how that goes, my great grandparents had to pretend they weren’t drinking tea, and it hurt them very much.

I am proud of the colour of my tea, mainly because of my family and their love of their tea!

I see the pigment of our tea reflected in Country, and that helps me remember that weakness in tea does not equal weakness in taste!

It does not equal weakness in acceptance!

Or weakness in connection to my tea!

My Ancestors love and accept the colour of my tea! And I love the colour of my tea.

Like My Mum always says “it doesn’t matter how much milk you put in, it’s still Blak tea”."

- Madi Mercer