Creating Space Project

The Creating Space Project interviewed Miria and Ziggy, two young people on the Yaama Ngunna Baaka Corroborree.

We were travelling with the Water for Rivers convoy in outback NSW, camping in the river towns from Walgett to Menindee. The purpose was to learn about the plight of the rivers from a First Nations perspective. 

The rivers are empty or near empty. This isn't just about the devastating drought or the climate emergency. The rivers are literally being sucked dry by big corporations. It is a death sentence for Aboriginal communities, for whom the rivers are life itself.

Miria and Ziggy reflect on the impact that Uncle Bruce Shillingsworth has had on them, as well as the theft of water and climate change.

When is about people not gender? 

Sahra and Ruth explore patriarchy as a system of oppression that affects all genders. 

Far from experts on the matter, we are two psychologists sitting with self-doubt and the discomfort of critically examining what it is that we value, and how we bring that into a therapy room. 

Trillions of dollars have been spent by the Australian government detaining asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for six years. It would be far better governance to bring about an end to this situation. 

Cathy McGowan is the former Independent member for Indi, in rural Victoria. She talks to the Creating Space Project and asks each of us, right now, to email our local Member of Parliament and our state Senators and ask for answers to the following questions:

What are the Government's plans for the asylum seekers on Papua New Guinea who can't go to the USA?

What would it take for the Government to agree to New Zealand's offer?

If you are an Australian citizen, you can find the relevant email addresses on www.aph.gov.au and it only takes about 15 minutes.

The Creating Space Project is currently exploring feminist psychology and intersectionality, through asking listeners the question “What would you ask a feminist psychologist?”

In this episode, Sahra O'Doherty and Ruth Nelson talk about Tanya's question regarding how you weave feminism into counselling, about being a values-based therapist, and the embodiment of values.

What would you ask a feminist psychologist? Ruth Nelson and Sahra O'Doherty respond to Jess's question about the effect of patriarchy on women's mental health, and how many problems stem from inequality.

"I should look good."

Ruth and Sahra explore the ways feminist values inform their psychology practice. They also explore systems of oppression, layers of privilege, intersectionality, who is allowed to get angry, cultural expectations of women, pain and motherhood, unrelenting standards and the male suicide rate. 

Photo 'Tern with a Fish' by David Noble

It’s very hard to find the words, “I have experienced this.”

What brings people into counselling?

The Creating Space Project talks about therapy and mental health with psychologist Sahra O’Doherty.

People can spend a lot of time squishing uncomfortable feelings back down, and get worried that if they lift the lid, they’re not too sure what’s going to emerge.

We can be pretty afraid of our emotions. Society teaches us to fear failing. Shame and guilt feel painful. Vulnerability is frightening.

So to come and talk to a psychologist can take a lot of courage.

And what’s it like to be a psychologist sharing space with clients? Sahra talks about the ways that providing counselling has shaped her and how if we, as therapists, can’t sit with our own discomfort and vulnerability, how can we expect it of anyone else?

The research tends to show that 70-80% of the effectiveness of therapy comes from the relationship between therapist and client. It’s the relationship that heals.

So if you have a really fantastic and strong therapeutic relationship, that can facilitate positive change.

“I find it very hard to accept that Australia’s national interest is about putting security listening devices of the walls of our poorest, nearest neighbour.”

This is an interview about espionage, exploitation and politics.

Elizabeth Biok is a lawyer and member of the International Commission of Jurists.

She talks to the Creating Space Project about the case of Witness K and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery. These two men exposed the Australian government for bugging the offices of the newly formed government of Timor-Leste.

“The Australian intelligence agents were asked to put listening devices inside the cabinet room and some of the ministers’ offices in the parliament of Timor-Leste. And that was no doubt to eavesdrop on what the Timorese politicians were saying, while the negotiations were going on with Australia about the oil boundary, and sharing the resources in the Timor Sea.”

For exposing corruption, Witness K and his lawyer are charged with breaching the National Security Act and are now imprisoned and facing a trial that lacks open and fair justice.

Elizabeth went to East Timor as a legal monitor of the Independence Ballot in 1999 and bore witness to the political oppression and militia violence of the Indonesian occupation.

She takes us, with wonderful clarity, through the history and geography of our relationship with Timor-Leste, and our place in South East Asia, to help us understand how this situation came about and how it pertains to processes of economic development, democracy, and our identity and values as Australians.

Cherie Heggie is wonderful. She sees the world with an openness and compassion that many of us just can’t seem to attain.

She declared as a Bahá’í in 2015 and what drew her to the faith is its belief that all the major religions of the world are from God. In her life, she has found no difference between herself and the Muslims who live around her.

Talking two days after the terror attacks on the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Cherie talks about privilege, peace, fear and the outrage that we are wasting time on hatred between religions when the true crisis facing us is the climate emergency engulfing us all.

Australia has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. That is amazing and a credit to our public health system.

And, of the people who give birth in Australia, one in three experience it as a traumatic event.

Grace Jeffery is a student midwife.

She talks to the Creating Space Project about helping people feel safe and empowered in labour, and the importance of continuity of care throughout pregnancy and of good post-natal care, to reduce this experience of trauma for families.

Grace also talks to the gendered nature of midwifery, which translates back to "with women", and the ways in which this can exclude people who don't fit a binary construct of gender. 

She reflects on how, while it is traditionally a very feminine space, it is fine to extend that space for people who don't identify with "woman", or "man", or "mother" or "father", so that they also can feel safe and comfortable in their experiences of becoming parents.

This is a beautiful, relaxing, bilingual conversation between guest interviewer, Gavin, professional interpreter, Sajsajee, and naturopath, Jik.

Jik is a naturopath. She practices Kai Therapy. 

With her husband, she has established an organic city farm in the middle of Bangkok. Their hope is to educate people about holistic approaches to health. 

From volunteering with street children, Jik now tries to educate people about integrative medicine, from the importance of fresh food, to changing the behaviours of consumerism.

It is important to Jik to live the way that you teach, and becoming a Kai therapist was a way of fulfilling this, using ancient wisdom from Japanese villages to bring a new model for healthy living to modern Bangkok.