September 21 was the International Day of Peace. Wow, what a topic at a time in this world where peace can feel so elusive.

This month I spoke with Social Worker, Advocate and pioneer Maha Abdu OAM. Maha is the CEO of MWA, though you would never know from our interview or when you meet her. She is a humble, kind hearted woman, who always wants to raise others people up.

Their statement on their website, I think, sums them up and the work they do in their Linking Hearts Programme too:

“We are committed to fairness, equality and justice in all our interactions and activities that support diverse backgrounds.”

I met Maha at the DVNSW Conference soon after I started in the sector, a number of years ago. She made me feel so welcome and included. At this particular conference my job was to take the mic around for question time. Hiding my disability, I navigated the steps with caution and haste ha ha. When Maha put her hand up to ask a question, I was advised to leave the microphone with her. The reason…we needed to hear what she had to say.

Maha embodies Peace…love, acceptance and a willingness to hear other people, while grounding herself in her faith.

She displayed these qualities, and incredible patience, as we navigated every obstacle that came our way while trying to record this episode. Starting with technical issues to the point that we had to reschedule, we had constant planes, seaplanes, people coming in, booming rooms, motorbikes screaming past, trucks beeping while reversing (I’m sure I haven’t remembered them all). Needless to say our peace was challenged and this cotinued all the way through editing until it was finally loaded and scheduled. We both stopped and relfected that if it was this hard, it must be an important message to be heard. I’m so glad we persisted.

What Maha has endured as a child of war, how she has navigated through her life, and how she has come to be the person that she is. Her description of the resilience and creativity that she and her siblings show during war is really so beautiful. She has the ability to transport you with her descriptions, embolden you with her words and inspire you to connect with one another.

Have your mind expanded as we journey through what her life was like, through to what it has become, and how we can be, and bring an “avalanche of peace” into our world.

And remember Life’s Like That, and you can be 2nd Chance heroes by bringing peace and connection to your communities and beyond.

Warmest

Talie

Living and working on Aboriginal Land with gratitude

You can now listen to the Life’s Like That…2nd Chance Heroes Podcast on:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LifesLikeThatPodcast

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KkGVyJQ9I9sXDuT5itUex?si=DQjMBTcwTQSZdw0MZDE84w

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lifes-like-that/id1896804080

Please feel free to share this post with anyone who would enjoy it.

Welcome to your Friday Podcast! I will now be releasing the podcast on Fridays and the Articles/Posts on Tuesdays, both each still once a month.

This month for International Day of Indigenous Peoples I spoke with Ashlee Donohue, a proud Dunghutti woman, born and raised in Kempsey NSW. I acknowledge that this land is Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples’ land, and was never ceded. I truly pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging and thank you for all that you have given and taught us from the Oldest Living People of this land.

I love how Ashlee so eloquently describes the Welcome to Country as…“it is a welcome to the neighbourhood.”

Come join the wonderful yarn with this inspiring woman…The yarn is a traditional, non-linear way of learning from a group, listening actively, and passing down history and values. Which is definitely this conversation. It is so real, honest, sobering and insightful. She has a frankness in the way that she speaks that is so refreshing. The way that she paints the picture of what she and others have experienced gives greater depth to the experiences people who are the First Nations in their country have faced.

One of the most sobering thoughts is how the Aboriginal people were never a violent culture. They lived on this land peacefully for many years before colonisation. You will have to listen to really hear the clarity with which she puts it.

There is discussion of violence in this podcast, so please take care of yourself, but none of it is gratuitous or goes into graphic detail. Please reach out for help if you need it.

Ashlee shares these views as her own, based on her own life experience and she is careful to point that out. I love that we could grapple with ideas and really hear each other. At one point in the yarn I realised we weren’t on the same page, but it was important to navigate that, so we left it in. In the process we gained a deeper understanding of what we were both saying.

Towards the end of the interview she makes the most moving statement to her younger self: “Thank you for laying the foundation that’s made me the woman that I am today, because without you, baby girl, I would never have survived.” You will have to listen for the full context of this.

If you would like to know more about Ashlee’s Story, you can purchase her book here: Because I Love Him

Come and listen to the pearls of wisdom and insight this great thinker leaves us with in this space.

Remember Life’s Like That…and when we can truly hear ourselves and each other, we become the 2nd chance heroes in everyone’s Life.

Warmest

Talie

Living and working on Aboriginal Land with gratitude

You can now listen to the Life’s Like That…2nd Chance Heroes Podcast on:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LifesLikeThatPodcast

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KkGVyJQ9I9sXDuT5itUex?si=DQjMBTcwTQSZdw0MZDE84w

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lifes-like-that/id1896804080

Please feel free to share this post with anyone who would enjoy it.

What is it like to be a refugee? What are our preconceived ideas? Maybe you have a deep understanding from being a refugee ourselves. Maybe we just understand Trauma.

For a while now, as I thought about who to interview for July’s podcast episode, one name kept coming to mind. It was so strong I couldn’t shake it, but resistance came in (I’m reading The War of Art which talks about the creatives’ resistance). I looked for excuses as to why I couldn’t ask him (which were valid) and other options of great people, but no matter how hard I tried Munjed’s name kept coming up.

With last month being World Refugee Day and this month the World Day of Hope, I could no longer ignore it.

I’m so glad I listened to that voice, as Munjed just happened to be in Sydney on a fleeting visit with a small window in our schedules where we could record. Whilst I knew a little bit about his life, from researching him before seeing him for my hip, I was not prepared for the depth of insights I would gain from this conversation. Munjed shows us that lived experience really does give us the best insights into policies and their impacts. It highlights the humanity often missing in politics and policies, how we need to be engaging with each other and ultimately the testament of the human spirit.

His goal in life is to leave the world in a better place than he found it, but this has not come easy; well, that’s an understatement. Even though the hits keep coming, his fighting spirit for justice just keeps getting stronger.

It’s clear the trauma he has faced has had an impact on his life, yet he chooses to continue to persevere. His reflections also encompass the importance of our experiences in life propelling us forward and that we learn and grow from them.

Calling himself a disruptor he lives by the codes that his father left him as he leads pioneering developments in medicine. It’s tough being a pioneer because you’re out there on your own, with no one having done what you are doing before. He doesn’t let injustice lie and fights hard for what he feels is right.

But how do you keep hope when you are stripped down to no longer having an identity and barely “existing?”

Munjed shows us time and time again how he continues to show resilience and the importance of acts of kindness.

There is one point in the interview he stops to thank me, I had not realised how moved he was by what I had said until we finished recording. I was genuinely surprised as all I had done was spoken truth. Munjed gave me my life back; I was allergic to titanium, no one was listening, and the position of my hip was shaving titanium into my body and slowly poisoning me.

During this interview, we do discuss trauma with a sense of moving through and of hope. I just wanted to give you a heads up, as this could be difficult for some people to hear with their own trauma backgrounds. I do hope though, you will see the hope in the story and feel the sense of pride rising in yourself that you are where you are today because of your inner strength and people’s acts of kindness.

We also mention seeing a dead body and working with cadavers (my friend donated his body to science when he passed) and a substantial amount of work seems to have been with plastinated body parts. For those of you who don’t know The National Library on Medicine states, “Human cadaveric dissection has substantial value in medical education. Not only is it viewed as a valuable educational tool for teaching and learning anatomy (Estai & Bunt, 2016) but it also scaffolds professional and emotional development in preparation for a career as a doctor (Flack & Nicholson, 2018).” .

Munjed states that all the bees are important to the hive; they all have their job to do. So any time you feel like you might not be important, remember you will always be an important part in the big picture of life even if you can’t see it.

We all have a purpose in life, whether we think it’s small or big. Maybe we’ll encourage or be the next medical engineer who creates something life changing. We need each other; no one is more important than another, whether they are a politician, a doctor or someone we consider important; they are still people just like us.

Kindness goes a long way to building a hopeful community. Look out for that moment this week when you could offer hope and do a genuine act of kindness, no matter how small you think it might be. Feel free to share anything that gives you hope in the comment section of this episode or the previous post Colours of Hope What hue are you in?

I hope this interview will encourage, inspire and maybe even help broaden your thinking as it did me.

Remember Life’s Like That, and when you harness who you are in this world, you shine as 2nd Chance Heroes.

Warmest

Talie

Living and working on Aboriginal Land with gratitude

You can now listen to the Life’s Like That…2nd Chance Heroes Podcast on:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LifesLikeThatPodcast

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KkGVyJQ9I9sXDuT5itUex?si=DQjMBTcwTQSZdw0MZDE84w

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lifes-like-that/id1896804080

Please feel free to share this post with anyone who would enjoy it.

June 5th was UN World Environment Day, a topic so many find confusing, challenging or just sometimes depressing. I thought this would be a good opportunity to have a positive and healthy discussion that could encourage us and spur us on collaboratively.

When meeting with Kobi Shetty in May, who reached out about my podcast to find out more and to offer support, I discovered that she had been studying a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development and Sustainability (Kobi is a State Parliamentary Member in Australia). I had been trying to think through possible guests I could reach out to for this topic and found that Kobi had such a good, balanced way of viewing the environment, that I thought she would be an interesting person to interview.

I had seen Kobi around in parliament and had wanted to meet her, and our paths had never crossed to actually meet in person. I had always felt she seemed very approachable, genuine and someone who really wanted to make a difference.

Kobi offers wonderful insights, encouragements and personal reflections in her journey with the environment, from writing a book in High School about a frog to being in Melbourne when the Black Saturday Fires happened. She has lived in the country and in the city, which gives her a broad understanding of the issues. Her personal and professional experiences offer such windows into the thought patterns that have led to where we are now.

She shares of her deep desire for community and the environment right from when she was a young girl and how that desire led her to where she is now.

On a topic that could be so discouraging, I found Kobi so warm, friendly, approachable and real. It’s refreshing to meet with a politician who really models being there for the people, and I have to say I had so much fun interviewing her.

So, whatever your level of understanding, politics, and action on the environment, this interview is for everyone.

I hope this conversation helps to broaden our thinking, bring a sense of unity, and help us to have practical things that we can do to contribute positively to our environment. Each Action we take, small or large, sees our names on the “Star Wars type credits” that unite us with all the other people around the world (you’ll have to listen for this to make sense ha ha).

Remember Life’s Like That…and every little step made is a 2nd Chance Hero on a global stage.

Warmest

Talie

P.S. In this podcast episode Kobi mentions Woolies and for our international audience Woolworths is a supermarket.Living and working on Aboriginal Land with gratitude

You can now listen to the Life’s Like That…2nd Chance Heroes Podcast on:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LifesLikeThatPodcast

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KkGVyJQ9I9sXDuT5itUex?si=DQjMBTcwTQSZdw0MZDE84w

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lifes-like-that/id1896804080

Please feel free to share this post with anyone who would enjoy it.

These posts and podcasts are brought to you with the assistance of Sabine Hattersley, post-production admin.

May 19 marks World Fair Play Day, a celebration dedicated to promoting sports practiced in the spirit of friendship, solidarity, tolerance, inclusion, and non-discrimination. “Fair play fosters mutual respect among participants, teaching us to value and honour one another” (UN 2025 World Fair Play Day).UN World Fair Play Day

I love how, like with art, sport imitates life. In this interview we meet Janaya Gurtner, an Occupational Therapist in Australia. I have known Janaya for over a year and have known she was a sporty person, but I had no idea just how sporty. A colleague had recommended her to me and I wanted to know a bit more about Janaya first. I remember looking her up on the net before we met, as so many of us do, and when I did, I found an article in her local paper where she had won a beach competition. At that time I had no idea where our connection would take us.

Janaya is a bubbly, energetic, kind and generous person which comes across in the interview. She has a self reflective quality that I’m sure has enabled her to continue to do so well in the sports that she does, and enables us to hear her process as she speaks.

As we go deeper into her love of sport, she shares her personal struggles, challenges in life, what helped her to come through.

In this interview Janaya reflects on the opportunities she had as a child and those that were not available as a female, her journey into motherhood, experiencing isolation and it was interesting to hear her reflections on how things are changing. As we talked it became clear that we need to continue championing women in sport and celebrate the strength that lies behind it.

The saying that art imitates life is definitely what happened for me preparing to record and editing this podcast. There were times where I was stretched to the limit and the past voices were trying to derail the process, challenging me with this “being too hard” and “too out of my comfort zone.” I was able to acknowledge the limitations of my current level of knowledge and move through the discomfort to bring you this interview. Every recording I do I learn so much more about myself, what past messages still need some refining and how to move into that state of flow that we discuss in this interview.

When I listened back, I couldn’t help smiling at Janaya’s vivaciousness, warmth, strength and determination. She is kind and embracing as she speaks, and we have a wonderful moment of celebrating Women in sport…and in life.

So remember life’s like that and embrace the flow state to come out as the 2nd chance heroes in not just yours, but others’ lives as well.

Warmest

Talie

You can now listen to the Life’s Like That…2nd Chance Heroes Podcast on:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LifesLikeThatPodcast

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KkGVyJQ9I9sXDuT5itUex?si=DQjMBTcwTQSZdw0MZDE84w

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lifes-like-that/id1896804080

Please feel free to share this post with anyone who would enjoy it.

These posts and podcasts are brought to you with the assistance of Sabine Hattersley, my post-production assistant.

Hey Life’s Like That community, This is our first “official” Podcast. I’m so excited to introduce you to our 2nd Chance Hero Rosemary Blight. Rosemary is the Founder, Producer and owner of Goalpost Pictures (apologies I do refer to the studios rather than Goalpost Pictures in the podcast), which she had built with an incredible team. Please check out the link to find out more https://goalpostpictures.com/television https://goalpostpictures.com/television

Rosemary is a wonderfully warm and generous woman and is such a blessing, not only to interview, but to work with.

Through this interview we discuss what lead her into this work, from “Special Education” as it was known back then, to working in the music business, making music videos, cleaning houses to building a very successful production company.

I find it so fascinating hearing people’s life journeys and how so often we can plan to do one thing and then end up somewhere completely different. This is my journey also. We do not truly know what trajectory we are on, we are often just navigating the twists and turns, which can be difficult and challenging. And sometimes it seems to organically finds us.

Working with Rose on Black Snow 2 (and then 3) really has been a life changing time and helped be one of the catalysts for me to realise that what was missing from my life was more creative expression, hence Life’s Like that 2nd Chance Heroes.

Black Snow 3, which has just started filming, will be released on Stan, and in the meantime you can watch Black Snow 1 and 2. They are a powerful cold case detective series with Travis Fimmel.

I thought in honour of International Day of Creativity and innovation on April 21 it would be fitting to interview Rosemary who is not only a creative, but set up a company that raises up new talent as well.

When AI Fails

Sadly the picture above is the only visual I have of my interview with Rosemary Blight. She was so generous in our conversation and I really appreciated the honesty she brought to this episode. Unfortunately, although I had a well-edited episode for my first time with video ready to go last week, it did not come to fruition. Watching it back before we loaded it, I noticed a section missing. I went back to rectify to this and found the whole episode gone. On a deadline with Sabine’s availability to be able to do the next process I set about re-editing the whole episode again, laughing at the same parts and learning more each time I listened. Happy with what I had done, I woke up early to ensure we were ready to go…To my shock the episode had disappeared again! Totally stressed at the deadline looming and knowing there was no other time with Sabine, I set out to re-edit the whole episode again. Sleep deprived and my body being really challenged, I was only able edit half by the time we met.

We went back and looked at the platform to find it had amalgamated all the episodes into a 2 hour long episode with no clarity on which one was which. I then set about trying to fix this to only realise it was going to be futile, as I felt my insides tighten and restrict with the looming job ahead of me, I knew I had to pivot.

I had decided after a brief trial, and success, to use a new/different platform from the Taster episodes. After so much stress and so much self talk to keep going, I have gone back to the original audio version of editing for now. Though it is not the first episode that I was so proud of, it is still a great interview in terms of Rosemary and what she shares. The great thing about it is that I still continued to laugh at the same parts and felt more encouraged each time I heard it!

A huge thanks to Rosemary for her generosity in sharing her journey during filming and looming cyclones, and as Rosemary says, “You and your voice should be heard. You have a right to be heard. You have a right to be here.”

I really hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did…and as Rosemary says “I did it, We did it” and lets celebrate those wins in our lives, “big” or “small.” When we do, we reprogram our neural pathways and enable our brains to look out for what we do well, and it helps us to see the people who walk with us along the journey.

So remember Life’s Like That. With so many challenges around us, it’s good to remind ourselves there are things that we can draw around us to inspire us and help us to rewire, to see what we have achieved. From getting out of bed to building a company, it’s all to be acknowledged. When we give to ourselves, we have so much more to give to others.

Let’s not shut down to cope, but reach out to those people who sit with us in the struggle and help us navigate better ways to engage. Because Life’s like that and together we can do this thing called life, and be the 2nd chance heroes we need to be.

Warmest

TalieLiving and working on Aboriginal Land with gratitude

These posts and podcasts are brought to you with the assistance of Sabine Hattersley, my post-production assistant.