Always was, always will be our stories

This episode is sponsored by Bumble, a dating app that is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for its community of over 95 million users. Bumble has partnered with experts at a range of LGBTQIA+ advocacy organisations to provide a space where people from across the gender platform feel safe and seen. With guidance from the community Bumble has created an extensive list of gender options for both new and existing users to choose from. When setting up their profile users can...

In interviews and general conversation, people often ask me who my role models are or who I look up to and while I struggle sometimes with answering that, because I’m lucky enough to find inspiration in so many moments with different individuals every day - there is one particular person whose story and strength is at the back of my mind as a constant source of inspiration and hope. It might be surprising to some, but one of my biggest role models is actually one of my younger cousins....

In lieu of a sponsor this week, we have donated both the space and money associated to Cultural Choice Association to support their work in preventing Aboriginal youth suicide. This is an issue we’ve spoken about before on the podcast and is one I’ll personally always make space to talk about, as it’s one of the issues I am most passionate about. Unsurprisingly, this conversation also comes with a content warning as there are discussions of suicide and depression. … In 2017, the latest...

On today’s episode I yarn with the dynamic duo behind one of the most recognisable Aboriginal owned and run clothing brands in the country - Clothing the Gap. Laura Thompson and Sianna Catullo are boss tiddas with incredible business minds and an attitude that sees them always striving to be better and do more. Leading a small but dynamic and passionate team, they’ve grown their business from products designed to work as health incentives attached to the Spark Health Promotion Business down...

With all the disjointment of the ‘Australian’ identity, it’s hard to pin down anything that universally binds us or even something that a good majority of people who live across this continent today can really agree on or join in on together. One thing that gets pretty close though, is our relationship to sport. There are definitely individuals who don’t play or support it, but I would take a fair stab at saying it’s a part of the life of most people who live in Australia. It’s also the...

DISCLAIMER: Today's guest is medical professional but not an expert in infection control or an infectious diseases expert, so if anyone wants any further information regarding the COVID19 pandemic they should go to the local state govt webpage on COVID-19 advice or call their local COVID-19 hotline. . . . From Gomeroi, Ngurrabul and Kooma, to Quintuplet and Medical Doctor - my guest on today’s special bonus episode of Always was, always will be our stories, Dr. Erika Chapman-Burgess, has...

TW: There are discussions of suicidal thoughts and mental health throughout this discussion that may be triggering for some. It is no secret that mental health and particularly depression and suicide disproportionately impacts our mob more than any other Australian group. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are nearly three times more likely to be psychologically distressed than non-Indigenous Australians and most devastatingly, suicide remains one of the leading causes of death...

Cissy Gore-Birch, is a mother of 5, the Executive Manager of Aboriginal Engagement for Bush Heritage Australia and such a positive, loving and passionate leader in her community who is forever fighting for the respect and protection of land, the importance of connection to culture and particularly, involving the voices of the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, in the conversations around solutions to issues that impact us today. This conversation provides...

In this very special episode of Always Was, Always Will be our stories, I sit down with Gomeroi and Muruwari filmmaker and journalist, Allan Clarke to discuss his new project, 'The Bowraville Murders.' This documentary investigates one of Australia’s worst unsolved murder cases that has been marred by systemic racism – the 1990-91 serial killings of three Aboriginal children, Evelyn, Colleen and Clinton. They were all taken from the same street in the rural town of Bowraville NSW, all...

If I asked you to imagine a $50 Australian note in your hands, what would you see? Firstly, you'd probably describe its yellow colour, then perhaps, the face of a white-haired, smirking man. Do you know this man's name? Do you notice the sketches of his inventions in the background of his image? He is David Unaipon, a proud Ngarrindjeri man from South Australia and one of our greatest ever inventors and scientists. He has often been referred to as our answer to Leonardo Da Vinci, and made...

When I say ‘debutante ball’ what comes to mind for you? A bunch of teenage girls, giggling, buzzing with nerves and excitement, dressed in flowing gowns, off to a flash venue, for the night of their lives, ready to debut into society - whatever that means. When you picture those girls and that event, do you picture them as being Aboriginal? And, if I told you that Aboriginal people have a history with the debutante ball that reaches back to the 1967 referendum, would you be...

Picture this, in the past 18 months you’ve had some of the biggest milestones of your life so far - you had your first child, a beautiful little boy, married your partner and graduated from university. It’s been some of the best times of your life. You’ve done all the reading on motherhood and the way things are ‘supposed’ to go, but you’re not obsessing over the milestones your baby is supposed to hit and when, your son is moving at his own pace and that’s fine with you. One thing that...

This is the first ever episode of Always Was Always Will Be Our Stories, in today’s chat Marlee Silva sits down with Butchella and Gawara man Isaiah Dawe. Like thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in Australia today, Isaiah grew up in foster care. During that time, he was forced to face unimaginable abuse from carers, to navigate a world without someone to call ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ and in the midst of it all, try and figure out his cultural identity and what I meant to be...

Yaama, I’m Marlee Silva, a Gamilaroi and Dunghutti writer and the Co-Founder of Tiddas 4 Tiddas. In these frightening and uncertain times, it feels as though there’s little left in life that has gone unchanged. Coming from the oldest, continuous surviving culture on Earth - that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - there is something my people do, that never has and never will falter. That is, our tradition of storytelling. For over 80 thousand years, we have exchanged stories...