They say fortune favours the brave. At least that’s what UNE alumnus and now Honours student Craig Raymond is hoping.
Before COVID he led an active life as a personal trainer and ran a successful corporate gym in Sydney’s CBD with some 250 members. Then, in 2019-20, he was struck by a “double whammy”.
“The COVID lockdowns sent all office workers home and my business collapsed overnight,” Craig says. “Then I broke my neck and had to have major surgery. I’ve never been the same since.”
Although he was very thankful not to be left paralysed, Craig began to experience constant pain and lost half the strength in one arm. Nor did business fully recover. Personal training was no longer an option and memberships plummeted to 40 in a gym surrounded by vacant shops and offices.
So Craig found himself at a crossroads.
“I had contemplated returning to study – after 25 years – for about a decade but I doubted that I could do it,” Craig says. “When all this happened, at 50, and without the money to retire, I enrolled at UNE to study for a Bachelor of Psychological Science. It was very daunting.
“My use of technology was limited. I couldn’t even set up a Word document. I didn’t know how to join Facebook sites to meet my peers.”
Craig became the first in his Wiradjuri family to complete a university degree and graduated last year, with his wife and 12-year-old son by his side.
But Craig became the first in his Wiradjuri family to complete a university degree and graduated last year, with his wife and 12-year-old son by his side. Now hard at work on a thesis investigating the over-representation of Indigenous people in jail, Craig’s sights are firmly set on becoming a clinical psychologist, to help First Nations peoples and communities.
“That’s my passion, moving forward,” he says. “It will take me a few more years, but there is a severe shortage of Indigenous psychologists across the country.”
Craig only became aware of his Indigenous heritage in his late 30s, after his mother died and he began researching his family tree. “I traced my Dad’s family right back to the First Fleet and thought it was quite impressive that I was 10th generation Australian, but I kept hitting roadblocks on my mother’s side,” he says. “I ended up doing a DNA test, which revealed that I was Indigenous and I’ve since discovered that my mother’s family were subjected to racism and incarceration.”
A former police officer, Craig is painfully aware of how Indigenous people can fare in the criminal justice system.
“You can’t change the past, but I now want to honour Mum and her family, and be a positive example to my son,” he says. “I have been given an opportunity that other members of my family haven’t and I feel I should make use of it. I also want to give back to the Oorala Aboriginal Centre and all the people there who have helped me and boosted my confidence. People like Dr Bernadine Cocks, who was always there for me from my first unit back in 2020 and continues to be a source of strength to me now as an Honours student. Just having that one person who believes in you can make all the difference.
“It would have been easy to give up during my Bachelor degree, because the fences were too high to jump over. I still struggle with self-doubt, and starting honours this year I have felt like a little fish swimming with big fish. But all I can do is give it my best shot and stick with it, and hope I can have a positive impact on those around me.
“We all have self-doubt. You’ve just got to take that first step.”
