Creating Space Project

"I am the fourth generation of incredibly strong women."

When Julia was four years old, she was run over by the family car and pronounced dead. Somehow, she was revived and recovered from the incident without lasting harm.

Julia Baird is the daughter of Nea Worrell, the amazing woman integral to the Drought Pantry at the Baradine Country Women's Association, and previously interviewed on the podcast about the ways this drought, the worst in living memory, is impacting rural NSW, Australia.

Cut from the same cloth, Julia talks to the Creating Space Project about the strength of the women in her family, from her grandmother down to her own daughter.

She also talks about the faith that sustains her mother and sustains her, one that is linked to Mary MacKillop and the charism of the Josephite Sisters, also women of great strength.

"She [mum] just has this attitude – you just get on with life.. I think she got that from my nan."

The intergenerational transmission of values is a process that I am very interested. Listening to Julia reflect on her family provides fascinating insight into the ways that families pass down an ethos of hard work, kindness, and never giving up.

"Mum always said "You just get on with it, you're my daughter, you know what to do, get on with it."

Family is one of the places where we shape a powerful sense of who we are, of our own identity, and this can be one of the forces that generates resilience in us.

"Through the telling of these stories and the acceptance of who we were as women, I really took on, "I'm Julia, I know who I am, I have this strength, I have this power."

The Baradine Country Women's Association is 90 years old. At the moment, its hall is full of supplies and vouchers, donated from around NSW and Queensland to support farmers and to try and keep the local shops alive.

Nea Worrell, part of a family with five generations in the CWA, talks to the Creating Space Project about the impact of the drought.

"We've had that farm for forty-odd years, my husband has been farming for seventy years, and we've never had dry dams."

Nea and her family have been handfeeding their animals, from sun-up to sun-down, for 18 months. They're reduced to their breeding stock, and are wondering how they get through summer, never mind beyond that.

There is no rain predicted.

Nea's story is not unique. Farming communities are facing enormous hardship. As well as struggle, though, what shines through is the strength, wisdom and kindness of women like Nea, building community resilience and hope.

"We have ladies burst out crying when they see us. They're being strong for the men in the farm and then they come in here and we say "How are you? Are you alright?" And then the boom gates open. So cuddles and cuppa teas and cakes are free here at the CWA. They go away feeling restored and better. And if we can do that, that's great."

When you interview someone at the Risk and Dare youth justice conference, held in a high school, it's tough finding a quiet spot, especially when you only have 10 minutes...

Elise talks about being moved by the story of two women who arrived in Australia as refugees.

"The refugees I've encountered are so strong."

The resilience shown by people fleeing vulnerable situations is the key characteristic Elise sees.

She believes young people in Australia need to hear these stories - stories from really dark places and people who have lived many lives - in order to build their own resilience.

She also believes we are stronger when we tell our own stories.

Storytelling shares lived experience. It gives hope for the future. It lets people learn from other's experiences and create their own stories as well.

Stories form a human connection.

"That's important, that human connection."

Christiane Nakhle and I are at Risk and Dare, a justice conference for young people from across Australia. She talks about homelessness, and young people being vehicles for justice.

Women are the most significant proportion of homeless people in Australia, due to domestic violence and lack of support.

Christiane traces her concern for homeless women to the influence of her cultural background, Christiane is Lebanese-Australia, the closeness she feels to her family, and the influence of her mother and grandmother on her life.

Christiane strongly values empathy and using the resources she has to be an instrument for change.

It was an interview grabbed spontaneously as Christiane was very busy, and kindly took time away from workshops to speak to me. So my apologies for the difficulties with the noise. We are in sonic competition with the loudspeaker for most of the time.

Boundaries and being other.

These are concepts that interest me greatly. So there was a wonderful synchronicity to having a conversation with Celina McEwen.

This is the story of the meeting of Celina's parents, a French woman and a man from the West Indies.

As well as being the story of the cultural backgrounds of the two people that Celina embodies, it is also about that "big question mark of how people relate across cultures, [what] makes people want to cross those boundaries, and [be] attracted to the other."

Intersectionality; the politics of relationality; the diversity within a single person; the choreography of relating to other people; the ties between memory and language. Celina is as graceful and light as a dancer in the way she explains ideas that can otherwise be a little bit daunting.

Politics dressed up as the production of spores.

Olivia reads a poem written by herself and a friend, Marcus.

Then the other young poets of the Spark Youth Theatre respond to it.

It's witty and clever, and the conversation does not disappoint either. I loved interviewing these young poets.

Uploading this episode from a campsite in Goondiwindi, with the baby playing in the dirt, the preschooler sulking in the tent, and the birds scattering about the grass, I'm reflecting on this episode from the backdrop of the emaciated cows and bone-dry dirt that I saw yesterday.

The insight and awareness of these young people gives me hope.

"I feel too much, like it's more than I can hold, and I will break"

Seb is fourteen years old, enormously articulate, and very insightful. He reads us a poem.

Then Gabe Journey Jones and the Spark Youth Theatre respond.

They talk about many things, including being bullied and feeling down about everything.

What emerges is resilience and strength. The future is not perfect, but you will get there.

This is the second of three interviews with the Spark Youth Theatre. Spending time with them was wonderful. I felt so energised by all they know and share.

This is the first of three interviews that I enjoyed enormously (I enjoy all of my interviews, to be honest, but this one was something else again).

I got to talk to the young poets from the Spark Youth Theatre. Each took a turn reading a poem, and then the rest of us, including facilitator Gabe Journey Jones, chatted about the poem.

"A witch's house that goes walking"

Fourteen year old Orlando reads an original poem, Baba Yaga, that he had written moments before.

Then the group respond to it. Their insight, wit and originality is just a delight.

Rachel Menzies researches the role of death anxiety in mental health. She is passionate about ancient history and psychology.

From Gilgamesh and Persephone, to the local death café and anxiety disorders, Rachel came to realise that a fear of death, and an avoidance of talking about it, is pervasive throughout human history.

For Rachel, mindfulness of death helps her to live deliberately and in the moment, living with meaning, purpose, and a deep appreciation of life.

It is about "using death to live well."

Rachel Menzies is a clinical psychology and PhD candidate. Along with Ross Menzies and Lisa Iverach, she recently edited the book Curing the Dread of Death.

"It's very rare for me to lose that sense of my own heartbeat."

Meeting on Gadigal/Wangal land prior to the Unspoken Words Festival, poet and percussionist Gabrielle Journey Jones performed The Happening for me.

There's a heartbeat drum at the pulse

Twenty-four hours in the zone - never alone - never alone

Like the voice of women which will not drown in patriarchal oppression

The voice of women in the rhythms...

Powerful and evocative, Gabe's drumming and poetry opened up a fascinating conversation about rhythm, sound, feelings, creative community, heartbeats, intersectionality, queer communities, representation, mental health, self-care and greedy time... a conversation about "bits of debris that float in."