Race Matters

“Intelligence is relatively new to life on Earth, but your hierarchical tendencies are ancient.” - Octavia Butler, Lilith’s Brood.

The dawn of generative AI may seem like a whole new age - but in reality, it is part of an ancient history. Today on the show, Sara El Youghun, Joannie Lee, Janey Li and Samantha Haran come together to map this new genAI tech within the longer history of capitalist-imperialist surveillance and exploitation.

Sara and Joannie discuss how they’re feeling in this moment as AI technologies are seemingly taking over. Sara reminds us of the science fiction of our childhoods that mirror the moment we are now living, and Joannie speaks to her recent experiences in community organising against the planned data centres in Western Sydney. Together, they reflect on strategies of organising, resistance and imagination. They listen through an interview that Janey and Samantha did with digital surveillance researcher and organiser, D.R. Sooriya. D reflects on and illuminates the fact amidst the outrage and uncertainty around what this new age of AI means, what we should most be focused on is the way it forms part of a longer, larger and deeper project on the part of tech billlionaries to force us into a certain kind of future. Most importantly, D reminds us that we are not helpless against this tirade - we can resist these techno-fascist futures, and build our own worlds in their place. 

Produced by Joannie Lee and Samantha Haran

Episode artwork by Janey Li

HOPECORE: ANTI-AI ORGANISING FROM AROUND THE WORLD

The Luddite Club

No Tech for Apartheid

Data Workers Inquiry

Recent win - Boorloo/Perth data centre plan revoked

Get involved with Stop the Slop! Campaign to stop the data centres in Western Sydney (join the Whatsapp channel)

Upscrolled (social media platform built by Palestinian organisers)

FURTHER RESOURCES 

Hell is Empty and the Devils Are All Here: AI and Imperialism in the Current Crisis 

Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence - Kate Crawford 

AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference - Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor

War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future - Roberto Gonzales

Imagination: A Manifesto - Ruha Benjamin

Glitch feminism: A Manifesto - Legacy Russell

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'There are two issues of our time really, that I think amount to a litmus test for morality as far as I'm concerned. One is what you're prepared to do on behalf of the Palestinian people and the other is what are you prepared to do on behalf of gay and lesbian people?"

- Black, queer poet and activist June Jordan in an interview for 'A Place of Rage' (1991) by Prabhita Parmar

What are people willing to do for the Palestinian cause? This is a question that Sara sifts through with Lebanese activist Ahmad Khochaiche and comrade to Maxime Camo, the spokesperson for the Australian arm of 'A Thousand Madleens' the freedom flotilla dedicated to organising civilians to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Amidst the conflicting emotions of rage and survival, in holding the privilege of existing removed from the bombings, Sara invites us to expand our perspective on our personal agency, like embarking for a journey right to Gaza, that will alchemise our grief for the Palestinian cause.

This episode was hosted by Sara El Youghun, produced by Yvonne Hong with help from Executive Producer Prinita Thevarajah. Huge thanks to Ahmad Khochaiche and Maxime Camo for being guests on today's show.

Resources:

★ Donate to A Thousand Madleens here.

★ Donate to Australian Palestine Advocacy Network here.

★ Buy After the Last Sky, a compilation album by Al Gharib dedicated “For the Children of Gaza” (a record label based in Tripoli, Lebanon). Proceeds go to the Dalia Association.

★ Read June Jordan's 'Poetry For Palestine' here.

★ Read how humanitarian aid has been transformed into a political instrument of coercion and control in Gaza here.

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Sehej, Leya and Yvonne hop into the studio today to chat about the history of looksmaxxing as an inherited tradition for all oppressed people.

Inspired by texts on the 'Politics of Being Ugly', digressions include Jia Tolentino's 'The Age of Instagram Face', the distinctions between gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia, and looksmaxxing as self-surveillance for brown Women of Colour.

This episode was produced by Ethan Lyons with help from Executive Producer Prinita Thevarajah.

cw: eating disorders and body dysphoria

Spoken from the personal experiences from our Race Matters hosts and recognise this is different for all experiences of gender, culture and bodies.

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This episode is a love letter to everyone mothering on stolen land, in displaced bodies, in the precarity of modernity. It is a reminder that queer and Indigenous ways of childrearing and matrilineal care are often similar practices. One and a half years into raising a child and a lifetime into raising themselves in community, executive producer Prinita Thevarajah collages conversations with Vanessa Marian Varghese, Midori Mukai and Ella Noah Bancroft to reveal the ultimate truth: that the violence of modernity world was built off womb envy, and that carework is crucial to survive fascism.

Vanessa Marian Varghese is a writer, movement director and community builder exploring movement, identity and contemporary culture through film, live performance and immersive experiences

Midori Mukai is a Tkaronto/Toronto based artist and arts facilitator — her creative practice explores ceramics and fine craft. Informed by ancestry, her work highlights traditional approaches off-centre from the Western lens

Ella Noah Bancroft is a descendent of the peoples of the Bundjalung nation and has bloodlines to England, Poland and Scotland. Australian born artist, storyteller, mentor and founder of “The Returning”. Ella Noah Bancroft is a pioneer for The Decolonisation movement. Through her writing and work Ella has been promoting re-wilding, the rise of the female energy, as way back to deep relationship nature and decolonizing of personal, social and ecological well-being for 10 years.She is widely respected amongst her community and believes in local communities with local economies as a way to find hope for the health of our planet and people.

For more on The Returning visit: https://www.thereturning.com.au/

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For this special episode of Race Matters, we are joined by Boe Spearim from Frontier War Stories, Gamilaraay and Kooma activisit and Dad who has been archiving so called Australiaʼs first wars since 2020. Frontier War Stories is a podcast that details across the continent, the wars waged by the colonising British, the massacres and horific dehumanisation that was used as a strategy of genocide by the settling empire and the profoundly dedicated resistance held by Aboriginal warriors.

Joined by King, a Ghanian/Wiradjuri creative and newest member of the RM team, these episode dives deeper into the lore of Pemuwluy and Dundali. Pemulwuy, being the first resistance fighter against the colony, organising and leading mob to retaliate against the genocidal regime. Dundali, being the last publicly hung warrior, a symbol of the colonisers to others considering resistance.

Over a weekend that memorialises one version of history that seemingly erases the Truth about what happened on this land, this episode reminds us of the ways colonising nation states utilise propaganda and dehumanise resistance.

With a special thanks to Clothing the Gap for sponsoring this episode. We are so grateful to be joined by Boe as we attempt to subvert the revisionist history of so called Australia.

Audio including sound bites of Malabar Beach, Parramatta and Magandjin CBD

Marcia Langton on Pemulwuy for the ABC
Uncle Coco at the 2020 Dundali Remembrance Day in Magandjin
Pray by DRMNGNOW

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We are bound by the same chains, therefore we must forge the same key. Two stories of interconnected struggles and how we can forge the tools towards freedom. 

Day Soriano chats to Sunday of Philippines liberation movement Anakbayan on yearning itself can be a weapon, and that until the diaspora can return, they must continue to fight the struggle of the people no matter where they are. Then, Virginia Barahona with Yung Prodigy cofounder Maia Ihemeje on the ripple effects of parental/kinship incarceration and how their work with young people is guiding us towards a more free and connected world from the ground up. 

𖡼 Join YP and their freedom on the line campaign to make prison calls free. 

𖡼 Follow Anakbayan Syd for more on their movement building

𖡼 Stay updated with the Thousand Madleens flotilla getting aid to occupied Gaza, and their fundraiser in April 

SOIL was a radio mentorship designed for young people through the model of liberatory radio and community-centred wellbeing. It spanned 6 workshops, shared meals, new friendships and audio ventures.

𖡼 Thank you to our teachers Aunty Angeline Penrith, Tanya Ali, Darren Lesaguis, Sara Khan, DOBBY, Tan Safi, Dr Nakad.

𖡼 Program co-dreaming and coordination by Lil Barto, Maia Onyenachi ⁠and Shareeka Helaluddin with support from Natalie Chiappazzo

𖡼 Digital Coordinator and video editor Yvonne Hong

𖡼 Artwork by Leo Tsao

𖡼 Documentation by Samantha Haran ⁠

𖡼 Additional broadcast support by Samantha Haran, Yvonne Hong, Prinita Thevarajah

𖡼 SOIL has been made possible by City of Sydney

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From the rivers of Chile, the mountains of Gyeonggi-do, to the Cumberland Highway, exploring what it means to be and live and remember in relation to place.

Our first episode in collaboration with abolitionist youth organisation Yung Prodigy, after a mentorship exploring radical radio from the roots up. Two debut works by Lucy Norton and a newfound colalbroation between Leya and Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi. The many sounds, textures and frays that tether us to place, family or memory.

SOIL was a radio mentorship designed for young people through the model of liberatory radio and community-centred wellbeing. It spanned 6 workshops, shared meals, new friendships and audio ventures.

𖡼 Thank you to our teachers Aunty Angeline Penrith, Tanya Ali, Darren Lesaguis, Sara Khan, DOBBY, Tan Safi, Dr Nakad.
𖡼 Program co-dreaming and coordination by Lil Barto, Maia Onyenachi ⁠and Shareeka Helaluddin with support from Natalie Chiappazzo
𖡼 Digital Coordinator and video editor Yvonne Hong
𖡼 Artwork by Leo Tsao
𖡼 Documentation by Samantha Haran ⁠
𖡼 Additional broadcast support by Samantha Haran, Yvonne Hong, Prinita Theverajah
𖡼 SOIL has been made possible by City of Sydney

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Extreme music for people with extreme experiences.

Noise is a genre that can be misunderstood as anti-social and harsh, but for our guest producer artist Carmen Mercedes Gago Schieb aka Society of Cutting Up Men (S.C.U.M); it’s been a vital source of place-making and connection.

Alongside artists Rosa / Making Out and Yvette Ofa Agapow, she brings us an interstate perspective on the purpose of noise in the face of identity politics, and the possibility of noise as a transmission for freedom.

This episode was produced by Carmen Mercedes Gago Schieb with creative direction and final audio production by Shareeka Helaluddin. Image of Carmen by Valerie Joy, songs courtesy of the artists. 

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A bittersweet send off to Executive Producer Shareeka Helaluddin who has metamorphed Race Matters into the ever abundant, ever expansive program that it is.

Previous producers Darren Lesaguis and Tanya Ali bear witness to Shareeka's shepherding of the show, bringing to mic the unheard and the unseen.

Also hearing from six of the Race Matter's current producers, Sara El Younghun, Toobs, Joannie Lee, Sehej Kaur, Yvonne Hong and Samantha Haran who reflect on the legacy of Shareeka, and her embodiment of anti racist community organising though radio as craft.

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We know that what we do today is intiamtely connected with what has been done before. 

Samantha Haran and Tim Worton reflect as kinfolk on their journey with Race Matters, and expanding into their queerness.

They pay tribute to the episodes and producers that drew them into community, and challenged them into evolving and unfurling their embodiment of queerness in so called Australia, as two young queer people of colour. With reverence and gratitude to those who created space for us here: Tanya Ali, Darren Lesaguis, Sara Khan, Rhyan Clapham, Georgia Mokak & Shareeka Helaluddin. 

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