Afleveringen
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In this episode I share some of my own story as well intimate insights around what led me to hosting this series before diving into deep conversation with each of my guests in the following episodes. You will hear how I am very much mid process at the moment in terms of my recovery from the immense trauma I experienced surrounding the 2022 catastrophic floods in the Northern Rivers and I have a meandering slow, long form, way of sharing that I trust.
ABOUT ME
I am a proud single mother of a 24 year old daughter and I love my daughter to the moon and back. I have been living in the Bundjalung region for 25 years and have been a resident of Mullumbimby, on Arakwal and Minjungbal Country for 15 years. I have Italian, German and English known heritage in my blood and I am a second generation Australian, born in Booderee Country and raised in Dharawal Country, south of Sydney. I pay my respect to my known and unknown ancestry and I acknowledge that I am living on stolen land. Sovereignty has never been ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land.I have been immersed in community work over the last 10 years largely within COREM, First Light Mental Health Peer Support Network and Renew Fest. I played a significant leadership role in coordinating the vital community-led 2022 flood response and recovery for Mullumbimby and surrounding ridges and valleys. I am trained in Biodynamic Craniosacral, Dynamic Governance Fundamentals, Contemporary Dance and Japanese Sword Arts. I experienced an extreme mental health breakdown in 2013, which I felt as an internal and external full system emergency.
My healing journey from this time is what has led to my dedication, over the last 10 years, to focusing my time and care on supporting the plight of full system wide and deep regenerative change. Participating in the Bentley Protectors Camp in 2014 and getting to witness and be inspired by how many of the long term incredible activists of this region go about creating great change, had a huge positive affect on me and called my spirit forward. I sees myself as a student of life and I am deeply interested in what it is to truly care.
I acknowledge the Arakwal people, the Minjungbal people and the Widjabul people of the Bundjalung Nation in Northern Rivers NSW Australia were I live and work and were I was at the time of this recording and pay my deep respect to their elders past and present. -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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This is my first ever recorded conversation of this nature and it was such an honour and treat to share it with Annalee. She is a woman of great wisdom, heart and compassion. Join us as Annalee speaks on crisis, birth and about her experience of diving deeply into serving her community in the Bundjalung region of NSW, Australia during the catastrophic 2022 floods...
ABOUT ANNALEE
A founding member of the nonprofit community journalism organisation Pregnancy Birth and Beyond Media, Annalee is a Producer with over 20 years experience in the fields of events, entertainment, music and production. After setting on the path to becoming a mother she turned to coaching, mentoring and consulting and is passionate about representing and forwarding women's voices and intelligence at the table.Annalee teaches public speaking and leadership to women and for over a decade, has been a dedicated Maternity Consumer Representative and advocate in her local area of Northern NSW and is also the former National President of Maternity Choices Australia. She works tirelessly locally, nationally and internationally to bring maternity consumer voices to the forefront of the conversation.
As a regular content producer and host on the popular Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond radio show and podcast Annalee brings her passionate truth-telling and compassionate listening to imbue the listeners’ experience with a sense of purpose and connection.
Annalee is also a founding member of the Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond Outreach Hub supporting Flood-Affected Northern Rivers families which came together as a direct response to the Feb/March 2022 weather and flood catastrophe affecting thousands of people across Northern NSW.
Annalee lives with her family and works on Bundjalung country in Northern Rivers NSW Australia, the unceded ancestral lands of the Bundjalung of Byron Bay Arakwal people, the Minjungbal people and the Widjabul people.
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth WA where I was and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation in Sydney NSW Australia where Annalee was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present. -
I so loved this conversation with Erica. She shared so generously and humanly with me about the extreme mental health crisis she experienced when she was a teenager, how she found her way through and how that time in her life has deeply informed her walk, work and heart beat as she journeys on.
ABOUT ERICA
Erica is a mother rich in experience and research with a fire in her knowing that we are all so much more than we are told through our conventional parenting and educational narrative. She sees that the thread we hold within ourselves is an essential part of the thriving tapestry of life.Erica lives in the hills behind Mullumbimby with her partner Paul in a blended family. The young people born through her range in age from 20 years to almost 7 years.
One of the core values she holds close in life as a woman and within the container of family is that we are all inherently genius. That we have passions and loves for good reason, to guide us. Erica sees her role as deeply respecting this process and actively supporting the unfoldment of it.
She finds this a challenging and profoundly inspiring journey. The learning she is experiencing is ever presenting itself as she navigates the mysteries in these challenging times we find ourselves living in.
Erica offers online and in person one to one sessions around education expansion, parenting, family visioning and postpartum planning as well as deeply nourishing Hearth of Familial wisdom women's circles.
For more information about her work visit www.familialwisdom.love
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth Western Australia where I was and the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation in Northern Rivers NSW Australia where Erica was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present.
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I am in awe of Maddy and the epic ongoing caring ways she shows up for life and her community. In this intimate conversation she yarns with me about her life and heritage, what is lighting her up at the moment around climate activism and about her experience of living on Widjabul Wia-bal Jagun in Lismore, NSW, Australia during the catastrophic disaster of the 2022 floods. Maddy shares her story in this session with deep sensitivity and care for all people navigating the traumas of climate crisis events in Lismore, the Northern Rivers and around the world. It's an honour and treat to listen to her.
ABOUT MADDY
Maddy’s pronouns are (she/they). She is a Queer, Lismore (which is on Widjabul Wia-bal Jagun) - based change-maker with a focus on climate justice and building community resilience through creativity, intersectionality and collaboration.
For the past six years, Maddy has worked in climate and social justice non-profit organisations, locally-led climate resilience and disaster mental health research and participated in grassroots social movements. Some of this work has included time spent supporting the operations and development of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action; working as a local Research Assistant at the University Centre for Rural Health (UCRH) where she was a key part of a team working to understand the mental health and wellbeing impacts of the 2017 floods on people living in the Northern Rivers at the time, and the implications for community resilience to climate disasters.
In 2017, Maddy co-founded Resilient Lismore after her involvement in the community-led recovery after those floods. More recently, Maddy has participated in community-led efforts to recover from the 2022 catastrophic flooding in Lismore, and works as a Flood Recovery Program worker at Social Futures. It is these experiences and more that lead to a growing lineage of community-building, active participation in socially-based climate adaptation in her community. Social justice and ‘right relationship to change’ are core values for Maddy having lived through adversity and uncertain times.
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth Western Australia where I was and the Widjabul Wia-bal people of the Bundjalung Nation in Lismore NSW Australia where Maddy was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present. -
This woman! Kali is a dear long time friend of mine and it's such an honour to be sharing this intimate conversation with you about how deeply and bravely she respects and shows up for the healing that her life has required. She is a wild hearted being filled with treasures hard won.
ABOUT KALI
Kali is a mother, a poet, a painter, and a gestalt Psychotherapist. She is deeply motivated by cycle breaking and narrative repair in all areas of her life.
Kali has lived in the northern rivers region for the past 13yrs and was living in Wilsons creek at the time of the 2022 floods, where she experienced narrowly escaping a landslide.She was born in Bundaberg, QLD, where having been born into a cult, she was, in a way, born into crisis - experiencing intensely complex compounded trauma and ongoing abuse.
Kali sees that there is the crisis of her experiences and then there is the crisis of being a body that just by existing threatens deeply normalised and depended upon structures and recipes of hope. She threatens the flimsy idea that if you try hard enough it will all be ok, that if you do good it will work out : and recognises that this is a terrifying threat for many as it requires a truer truth and a more hopeful hope- a sobering up to being human.
Learning how to live through these experiences in ways that are deeper and truer than performing okay’ness has been an ongoing investment in loving herself courageously and defiantly. Life has been a bold and tiring journey of continuously exploring ways to counter the often dehumanising elements implied on those with deep suffering and has required Kali walking in an opposite direction to what is understood as the healing path and rather step towards herself to seek repair in a ruptured world.
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth Western Australia where I was and the Minyungbal people of the Bundjalung Nation in Northern Rivers NSW Australia where Kali was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present.
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Swarna is a dear and cherished friend. She is one of those humans who is tiny in her physical form, yet huge in spirit and depth. In this episode we take a deep dive into her journey with cancer, in a way we haven't ever before as friends. I found it confronting to realise this and I was deeply moved and inspired by all that she shared of her experience in a real and humble way. I am so thrilled to be having this conversation with her in this context where it is being shared with the world...
ABOUT SWARNA
Born in Sri Lanka, Swarna began life in an orphanage before being adopted at 4 months old and brought to live in Australia amongst a predominantly white community. Being raised in white culture, without connection to her heritage or original family, has given her a unique perspective on what it means to be a person of colour in Australia and the challenge of identity.As a traveller, student of meditation, crisis counsellor and the co-creator of a local women of colour group Swarna is passionate about supporting personal and cultural transformation through creative expression, authentic relating and deep listening.
At 27 Swarna was diagnosed with cancer, soon followed by the passing of her sister. These events initiated a deep dive into understanding death, life and freedom, shaping an understanding of the power our original stories hold.
Swarna identifies as ‘the average brownie’, your friend, neighbour, workmate etc that doesn’t have a huge insta following, platform or resume signalling the value of her voice and perspective as a person of colour. Swarna’s context comes from lived experience, deep enquiry and the examination of ordinary moments. She is an advocate for conversations on race, power and privilege, unpacking the hidden attitudes that write the scripts of our culture and how we each contribute to writing them.I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth Western Australia where I was and the Minyungbal people of the Bundjalung Nation in Northern Rivers NSW Australia where Swarna was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present.
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Oh the laughter I share with this woman! Mel is someone I have met through my work in the climate crisis and resilience space. In this conversation we drop in around the climate crisis event that was the 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers, NSW, Australia, where she lives with her family. Mel shares with us about her experience of this national disaster, what her focus is in the long tail of recovery and how crisis is something she has always sort the gold in as a way to traverse and transform adversity and to guide her sons and her community.
ABOUT MEL
Melanie was born to make the world a better place and has endeavoured to do just that in a number of ways including through science and politics. After spending the early part of her life trying to halt climate change, she has recently shifted focus to building the capacity of humans to deal with the consequences of failing at that endeavour. Her hope for the future lies in her faith that Humans can quickly adapt and overcome obstacles when needed. She recognises that the time to do that is now.Melanie is the founder and current president of Resilient Uki, a bottom up community organisation, with the goal of building connection and capacity across the Greater Uki area in the Northern Rivers of NSW. Resilient Uki are currently supporting a series of community led initiatives with a view to sharing these with other communities.
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth WA where I was and the Bundjalung people in Northern Rivers NSW where Melanie was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present.
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I met Vashti in the dance studio at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium in Lismore in 1996. I remember being moved and really curious about her in a shy kind of way. This time feels like eons ago and it's wild for me that she said yes to being one of me guests in this series... to feel the breadth of time since then and all that has occurred, changed and transformed. We both have children now who are older than I we were when we met! I find Vashti super honest and I deeply respect and am grateful to her for this. In this conversation we take a journey through her life and she shares about moments of crisis and how they have deeply informed her relationship to self care, care for country and for life.
ABOUT VASHTI
Vashti was born in a small village in the UK to an Indian father and English mother. She squatted in London for 10 years doing various semi-skilled work before she married a Chinese/Australian man in 1991 and came to live on Bundjalung country when she 4 months pregnant with her son.Vashti has worked as a massage and beauty therapist for 20 years and has been involved in the community through collaborative dance, theatre, support groups, anti racist work and weaving.
She currently works mainly with NDIS clients and also volunteers with the Northern Rivers Community Healing Hub as a weaver and space-holder to support the community after the devastating floods in 2022.
Vashti lives with Complex PTSD and depression
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people in Perth WA where I was and the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation in Northern Rivers NSW where Vashti was at the time of this conversation and pay my deep respects to their elders past and present.
