Australian Survivor: Jennah-Louise: 'This isn't school camp!'
With Sue gone at the last tribal council, the remaining members of Fia Fia finally realised they would soon have to vote out each other.
While Jennah-Louise hoped that meant people would try to work with her to make a big move, it only sealed their perception of her as a strategic threat. Isolated and infuriated, JL knew the only way to stay in the game would be to win the immunity challenge.
Alas, it wasn't meant to be. While Jennah-Louise had won back-to-back individual challenges, it was other challenge beast Brooke who took the balance-memory contest and secured safe passage, leaving JL and Kristie on the outs.
Who spoke to Jennah-Louise Salkeld, a 27-year-old law and politics graduate from the Gold Coast, about becoming the seventeenth person to leave Australian Survivor and the fourth member of the jury.
Q: So, you were the last Vavau member standing!
A: That really highlighted my journey. Obviously I had a pretty strong position in the original Vavau and then coming back to that camp absolutely on the bottom of a new tribe, yeah, it made me think. I was proud of myself for being the last Vavau but at the same time, it wasn't a good position to be in at that point in the game.
Q: You've told us that your mum is the big Survivor fan. How did she respond to seeing you on TV?
A: My mum was just over the moon! She was so, so proud of me. She gave me so much support. She was constantly jumping out of her seat and text-messaging me because we don't live close to each other. It was funny because before my elimination episode last night, she had no idea I was being voted out. I wanted her to experience it for herself. But she wrote, 'Oh, I didn't really like that episode.'
Q: What was it about El, Brooke and Flick that made them so formidable?
A: As a power trio, they were extremely dominant. They played an excellent social game and essentially had Sam and Lee wrapped around their fingers, so with a strong five, they were just so powerful. It was interesting to watch the guys, and even Matt, just not care about it. It was like they didn't understand the position they were in. It was very fascinating as an outsider to keep watching because at the end of the day, this is a game and you've got to be on top of your game for yourself and not just for your alliance. I definitely think they were more concerned with friendship than thinking about the game. I even said to them, 'This isn't school camp. This is Survivor! We're here to play. Let's be friends outside of the game but in the game, let's have fun. There's only one winner, so play like you want to win.'
Q: Kate said she had tried to reach out to you when she and Conner came over but you didn't seem to respond. What do you remember from that time?
A: To be honest with you, I still don't really understand why Kate or Conner didn't come up to me. Granted, I don't know if that would have changed my game so much because either way, I think I was going to be on the bottom of any sort of alliance that I made. Kate and Conner were very close and even if I went in that direction, I would have been on the bottom and I had past experience being in the Saanapu tribe, so I knew Sam and Lee weren't going to turn and it was best for me not to do anything because obviously when you cause heat, nothing happens and you just get eliminated.
Q: How does Kristie fit in the mix?
A: I think that Kristie is definitely playing an under-the-radar game. I guess for her, she's making small moves and I think that's really interesting because those are the people you really have to concern yourself with, the people who keep getting through the votes and not making big moves while everyone who is making the big moves gets voted out.
Q: Could it be argued that the big move the core alliance made was picking the makeup of the tribe that has let them coast for so long?
A: No, I don't think it's a big move, picking a strong tribe. I think that's just sort of granted that anyone would have done that. I think that it's unfortunate that it happened that way. I think it changed the game significantly for a lot of people and, unfortunately for me, my Vavau tribe was pretty much decimated by the time we merged and I didn't have a whole lot of people to play with. We lost some really good players. For the dominant alliance, they've had a really easy game so far. They haven't had to play too much.
Q: You've said you have heard from fans thanking you for your strength in the face of bullying. Did you expect to be such an inspiration?
A: I think being an inspiration is an absolutely amazing feeling. That's one of my biggest goals in life, I suppose, is to inspire people. It was interesting thing to me to be an inspiration about bullying. I think bullying is a very strong word and I don't think that the girls bullied me. I was definitely isolated and there were moments that weren't so nice, but I think at the end of the day, the lesson is, you've got to be true to yourself and you've got to hold your own.
Q: When you got home, what struck you about life off the island and what are you doing now?
A: I think it's just back to being so busy. It's fascinating how busy people are these days, to the point where I think that most people don't truly know themselves. I think Survivor was a great opportunity for the contestants to take a step back, slow things down and have that self-exploration and see who am I and who do I want to be after this. I left the corporate world in December and since then, I've been volunteering in Kenya with humanitarian work and then on Survivor. I just started a blog about my journey and getting to know my true self. I studied law and politics for six years and then went into the corporate world, and I kind of lost who I was, so now I am trying to pay more attention to my creative outlets and passions. I think a lot of people are very unhappy with what they're doing these days and I think it's very important to stand up to what you want to do and actually do it.