1000 Voices Byron Shire is a community-led project to help solve homelessness in the Byron Shire. The project is part of the Ending Rough Sleeping Collaboration Byron Shire.

Council is gathering the community's perspectives, ideas and experiences to uncover what's working, and what barriers need to be broken through. Your important local insights will guide immediate actions and long-term goals.

The 1000 voices SURVEY is OPEN NOW and is open to everyone living, working, or spending time in Byron Shire. Whether you’ve experienced homelessness yourself, supported someone who has, or simply care about creating a fairer, more connected community, your voice belongs here. I took a look last night and no special knowledge is needed, just your honest perspective.

Sama Balson talks more in depth about 1000 voices and her part in the Women's Village Collective Ltd, a local Charity based in Mullumbimby dedicated to homelessness prevention, specifically for women and children.

Did you know that people waking up from a coma speaking a foreign language is an actual thing? Yes, it’s true. It’s called bilingual aphasia, and this condition supposedly occurs when one area of the brain that learns a language is damaged while another remains untouched. Michel Paradis, a neuro-linguist at McGill University in Montreal, says that this happens so much it doesn’t surprise him.

This week on Belly we’re chatting to Naima Brown, a writer whose second novel Mother Tongue explores this well documented but rare phenomenon woven into the story of a character named Brynn who awakes from a coma speaking fluent French, and seizes the opportunity to start a new life in Paris, a seismic personal transformation that leaves a slew of shattered lives in its wake.

Author Naima Browns' creative and professional life has spanned continents, cultures, and mediums. These days she’s based in Ballina where she draws on a rich tapestry of life experience —from growing up in Northern California to living in Yemen and Afghanistan.

Naima has spent the last twelve years working in News & Current Affairs as a producer and filmmaker with her non-fiction appearing in Vogue, The Guardian, the ABC to name a few.

She is the founder of Duststar Productions, an audio production company with such projects as Age Against the Machine in collab with Melissa Doyle, an Empowering Guide for Women Ageing on Their Own Terms. Naima’s also the co-founder of Elli, a digital platform for women ageing with purpose & meaning.

Her short fiction has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and this weekend Naima will be bringing her latest novel Mother Tongue to The Byron Writers Festival 2025 program, where she’ll be appearing in 3 sessions across the weekend.

Before all of that, we literally kick the show off with the vivacious and energetic MC Medicinal aka Alex Mitchinson freestyling his gifts into the studio mics and presenting us with his latest track, released earlier this year called Forever featuring Tashmeen.

Warning: This contents of this track are highly addictive!

Ecological Literacy through Permaculture Education … what do those words evoke in you?

My first guest on the show is Bunya Halasz, he’s inspired by cultures that evolve creative practices of sustaining their material needs, in a manner of deep reverence for their natural environment and all its life forms.

Through the lenses of Permaculture, Regenerative Agroecology and Successional Agroforestry, Bunya works as a designer, educator and gardening mentor.

His work supports individuals and communities to grow food, fuel and fiber within ecologically regenerative systems, as well as facilitating pathways of knowledge and skill sharing through courses and traineeships. 

We’re going to hear more about The Living Agro-Ecology Course, - August 21 to November 9, 2025, at The Living Classroom @The Farm, Byron Bay.

Crafted by Bunya, along with many other local, cutting edge, ecologically regenerative food producers. It’s aimed at anyone - or anyone you know - who is interested in Deeply Regenerative and Resilient Food Production.

The collective of cultivators, grow food production systems that are informed by the processes of our local ecology. It’s about deepening our connection to our local ecology, and the community of earthy people finding their role in our ecosystem, as healers and providers.

In the second hour: Anthea Amore & Jay Richardson wear many hats but the ones they’re donning for the second half of the show are made of the earth.

They’ll both be here in the lead up to The North Coast Mud Trail, back for its 13th year, celebrating the region’s vibrant ceramics community with a self-drive weekend event across the beautiful Northern Rivers.

Held on 16 and 17 August 2025, the event invites art lovers, collectors and curious adventurers to explore 22 open studios, featuring 33 local ceramic artists across studios in the Byron, Ballina and Lismore Shire.

Yum.

There is much suffering in the world - physical, material, mental. The suffering of some can be blamed on the greed of others. The material and physical suffering is suffering from hunger, from homelessness, from all kinds of diseases. But the greatest suffering is being lonely feeling unloved, having no one. I have come more and more to realise that being unwanted, that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.

-  Mother Teresa.

Here in the beautiful bubble of the Byron Shire it may or may not surprise you to know we have the second largest cohort of people sleeping rough in regional NSW, second only to the city of Sydney – according to the NSW Government Street Count 2025.

A little hive of love and support, The Fletcher Street Cottage is a haven for crisis located in the heart of Byron Bay - 18 Fletcher Street.

It’s a welcoming, safe and respectful place for people experiencing homelessness, domestic violence and mental health challenges.

The Byron Community Centre operates this unique community services hub, providing wraparound services for locals in need to get practical relief, find connections and access broader support.

It offers assistance with housing, mental health, financial aid, legal advice, medical care, emergency relief and counselling, as well as meeting basic needs by providing a safe place to enjoy a meal, have a shower and even do some washing.

With the Byron Shire having the second largest number of rough sleepers in NSW, a place like Fletcher Street Cottage is a vital one-stop-shop for Byron's most vulnerable residents.

My guests in the studio this morning, are part of the Fletcher Street Cottage, and amongst all their hard work they’ve managed to find some time to come share some very recent and very good news with us that will help to shape a more secure residency for the cottage. Council have just granted the cottage a 15-year extension on the lease.

We’ll hear more about what this news means for the cottage, its people, and how we as a community can continue to support the lifechanging services it provides to those most in need when I'm joined by my guests today Damian Farrel (Fletcher St Cottage Manager) and Bec Robinson (Relationships Manager).

Would you like to donate, lend a hand or keep updated? Find out how to get involved at www.fletcherstreetcottage.com.au. or contact: [email protected]

Tune into BELLY live each week - Tuesdays 9-11am - www.bayfm.org

THE HAXAMMLL PODCAST by Sista Rasela

A CBF grant funded project raising the profile and status of women aged 55-85.

This six-episode series acknowledges the value of older women and their crucial role in society as wisdom holders.

Ep. 6: MAHA LAXMI GRACE aka COSMIC GRANDMA.

Birthing doula, activist, astrologer, public speaker and respected community Elder.

While still at school this budding cosmic astrologer was chosen as Australian ambassador for the United Nations and travelled to the US during 'The Summer of Love'.

Some would say Maha is homeless, although I'm sure she will tell you the world is her home.

We meet spontaneously between the ocean and the bush, the sound of cicadas vibrating loudly in the background and without any formal preparation, to record her extraordinarily moving story.

Traditional storytelling at its best with wisdom and knowledge shared through the age-old art of conversation.

This is a CBF Grant Funded Project in collaboration with #BayFM Byron.

A CBF grant funded project raising the profile and status of women aged 55-85.

This six-episode series acknowledges the value of older women and their crucial role in society as wisdom holders.

Ep. 2: LILITH ROCHA.

One of Australia’s most respected astrology columnists, writer for Women's Weekly, published poet, model, survivor, teacher to Hawaiian Hula Troupe: Mana Aloha and ongoing astrology columnist for the Echo newspaper.

Nothing fills her heart like the islands of Hawaii and the principles of aloha, but Lilith also shares traumatic events that shaped her life and reshaped her beautiful face.

Lilith also talks openly about the planning of her own funeral party after being told by 'the voice' she would die at 82, her current age!

This interview is interwoven with audio from her Vagina Conversations performance, live on stage at the Byron Theatre, to which she received a well-deserved standing ovation.

Traditional storytelling at its best with wisdom and knowledge shared through the age-old art of conversation.

This is a CBF grant funded project in collaboration with #BayFM Byron.

A CBF grant funded project raising the profile and status of women aged 55-85.

This six-episode series acknowledges the value of older women and their crucial role in society as wisdom holders.

Ep 3: NANCY FALCONE.

Nancy Jo to her listeners, is a proud founding member of BAYFM community radio and has been involved in the Community broadcasting sector for over 30 years.

She worked for 12 years as a volunteer in the early days of BAYFM presenting different programs, serving all executive committee positions, including President, fundraising, and sponsorship to name a few.

Over the years she has also worked as a station manager in the First Nations sector in WA, an administrator for the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council in Melbourne and a Radio Broadcast trainer for the CMTO (Community Media Training Organisation).

Having come full circle, she’s very happy to be back as part of the Multicultural Nation radio program team. You'll hear her every 5th Tuesday of the month, focusing on stories from migrant workers with their music and cultural aspects of living in Australia, contributing to our truly Multicultural Nation.

Traditional storytelling at its best with wisdom and knowledge shared through the age-old art of conversation.

This is a CBF grant funded project in collaboration with #BayFM Byron.

A CBF grant funded project raising the profile and status of women aged 55-85.

This six-episode series acknowledges the value of older women and their crucial role in society as wisdom holders.

Ep. 5: SANDY LEATHEM.

Octogenarian, Founder of 'Movement Matters’, Feldenkrais Practitioner, Physiotherapist, Embodied Aging Consultant, Grandmother and the inspiration behind this project.

Growing up as a kid in a Tasmanian National Park on the Freycinet Peninsular, informed within her a healthy childlike curiosity, playful creativity, and quirky ‘outta-the-box’ common-sense thinking.

The osmotic ripples from this nature-based upbringing have permeated throughout her life, yet it’s only now that Sandy feels able to find the language that best describes the experience and its ongoing effects.

Her own professional career began in 1964 when she founded as a sole trader her online business 'Movement Matters’ and since then she has worked continuously both internationally and nationally in many diverse settings, cultures and countries.

Sandy brings a rich synthesis of evidence-based science and lived experiences into the programs she teaches, bringing to her work a wealth of over 50yrs experience in the field of intervention prevention healthy aging and longevity. She is passionate about engaging the body’s innate ability to heal and restore optimal functioning regardless of age.

In her late 70’s Sandy was given a clinical diagnosis that in Sandy’s words was 'a profound relief’. We’ll hear more about neural diversity and the effect it’s had on Sandy and those closest to her as this interview unfolds.

Traditional storytelling at its best with wisdom and knowledge shared through the age-old art of conversation.

This is a CBF Grant Funded Project in collaboration with #BayFM Byron.

A CBF grant funded project raising the profile and status of women aged 55-85.

This six-episode series acknowledges the value of older women and their crucial role in society as wisdom holders.

Ep. 4: CHRISTINA COVINGTON.

Long-time local, dancing devi, businesswoman and Ayurvedic alchemist.

Known for her presence on the Byron Shire dance floors for over 25 years and as the creative force behind the inaugural We Dance Festival in late 2024.

Christina was Founder & previous Owner/Director of Hari Har Chai and winner of the 2017 APAC awards for her innovative approach to business.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Flinders University, Adelaide, before studying Ayurveda while living in India.

Having reached the 'other side' of Menopause, Christina shares positive perspectives from an Ayurvedic as well as personal viewpoint.

Traditional storytelling at its best with wisdom and knowledge shared through the age-old art of conversation.

This is a CBF grant funded project in collaboration with #BayFM Byron.