Race Matters

What does it mean that desire, even queer desire, is built on dead bodies? What happens when we realise that our desires, even our most intimate, erotic ones, may be rooted in specific, traceable violence and death?

Wiradjuri baddie and alleged tender queer Ethan Lyons on all things TWINK. The desire, the violence, the whiteness of it all. Joined by his dear friend David Soriano, on discerning the colonial parasite, the reproduction of racist harm in gay communities, non western queerness and how we can live truly as queer people, embracing decolonial practices.

This episode references the work if Driftpile Cree Nation writer Billy Ray Belcourt and the work of queer thinker Martin F. Manalansan, Global Divas.

Produced and edited by Ethan Lyons, with creative advice from Shareeka Helaluddin. Podcast edited and produced by Samantha Haran. 

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“Breath. Something we all have in common, yet most take for granted” 

An invitation to listen in, attune to, hold breath and be in solidarity with those in our community living with Long Covid. In collaboration with Dr Poppy de Souza, we bring you stories gathered from her Holding Breath exchange and from the Race Matters community, reflecting on their experiences and responding to: what do we carry with us? what do we leave behind? Together, these voices bring collective wisdom, and offer ways of living with/in embodied discomfort and crip ways of moving through the world. 

Continue to learn more about Poppy’s work, and to listen in solidarity and connect with Long Covid in our racial justice struggle: 

Holding Breath project

Jenna Bitar’s essay in Sick Times “Instead of supporting people with Long Covid, our government funds a genocide” 

Still Here podcast from The Sick Times

Breathing 4 Justice - exploring the intersections of long Covid and disability justice (U.S.)

The Colour of Long COVID series, supported by the Disability Visibility Project

This episode was facilitated by, co-produced and edited by Samantha Haran. Scripting, piano composition, invitations and co-production by Poppy de Souza. Supervising production and creative contributions by Shareeka Helaluddin. Graphics for our community call-out by Judy Ko, arranged by Sehej Kaur Sehmbhi. Image is from contributor Jody Haines, from Tommeginne Country, their ancestral lands where they can breathe most deeply. 

Holding Breath Episode Transcript

With gratitude to all those who contributed to this episode and gave us the trust to uplift your narratives of Long Covid, and our love to those impacted by its grief and loss.

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"We are in a decolonial moment, we need the energy to keep going"

A conversation between Shareeka Helaluddin and astrologer, spirit worker for the liberation, Ra Life. Hear them on what it is to use their gifts in the toolkit for revolution, guiding people to tap into their capacity and ancestral wisdom as tactic for political organising. Less woo woo, more depth and fury.

Produced, hosted and sound designed by Shareeka Helaluddin

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"... and in truth it is a story that is not mine nor hers; I am searching for the shape of what is ours."

Hear  Sara and Joannie are in conversation with Palestinian writer and academic Micaela Sahhar. Together, they discuss Micaela’s gorgeous new memoir,  'Find Me At The Jaffa Gate,’ which aims to assemble and reclaim the story of her family through fractured memories, objects and places. This conversation explores how both objects and music can hold and preserve memory, the complexity of being heard amidst censorship and the importance of the anti-colonial archive.

Produced by Shareeka Helaluddin and Samantha Haran. Podcast edited and sound design by Shareeka Helaluddin. 

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How do we understand hope as something within ourselves, and not as a far off horizon?

A conversation with anti-oppressive therapist and educator Leah Manaema Avene on their expansive practice rooted in abolition, love, repair and the strategies to transform harmful power dynamics in bodies, relationships and systems. A sprawling dialogue spanning themes of rupture, hope, and the will to keep moving towards revolution.

Image: Leah Avene by Amos Gebhardt part of an interview series MÅNGATA and photography exhibition.

This episode was hosted, produced and edited by Shareeka Helaluddin. Podcast edit by Yvonne Hong. 

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"You have to speak the truth, even if your voice shakes"

What does it mean to commemorate Nakba, not as a singular historical act, but as a way to honour the resistance that has continued long before October 7th? 

A conversation with Dana Kafina from 3ain Radio and Toobs Anwar.

This episode was hosted and produced by Toobs Anwar, with final audio editing by Shareeka Helaluddin. Live broadcast producing by Alicia Zhao. 

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Without truth, what ground is there to stand on?

We started this piece into Creative Australia's appalling decision to rescind Lebanese artist Khaled Sabsabi's position from the Venice Bienele, however over many weeks this piece evolved beyond one act of silencing. We are watching the normalisation of this genocide, enabled by imperial mechanisms of censorship, and as creatives how do we grapple with our responsibilities to this while honoring the fight of Palestinian liberation?

This episode brings together four artists, organisers and truth-tellers, who have been sounding out the call of institutional collapse so we can see these structures for what they are, and resist. Each conversation offers us clarity on the humanity that is at stake and strategies to ground in resistance, alterity and refusal.

Episode credits
Sehej Kaur and Sara El-Youghan speaking with Palestinian artist Feras Shaheen, and poet Omar Sakr
Alicia Zhao with illustrator and organiser Matt Chun
Toobs Anwar in conversation with poet, educator, and arts worker Hasib Hourani
Scripting and narration by Janey Li
Supervising Producer Allison Chan
Creative direction, final mixing and additional Sound design by Executive Producer Shareeka Helaluddin

Above all we honor the martyrs, the fighters and the families of Palestine. We remain committed to the sacredness of all Palestinian life and liberation. We hear the Palestinian call - “We will not be silenced"

Image: Samar Abu Elouf via The Sunday Paper

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We’re not just data, we are storytellers. Sometimes, the most radical thing we can do is speak, loudly and deliberately, into futures we get to shape ourselves.

Ethan and Janey are joined by Nyungar technologist and futurist Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker to traverse the world of machine tech and human autonomy, learning how their work reimagines the embodied and expansive possibilities of a First Nations practice in tech. Across her poetry, speculative-fiction and tech justice advocacy reminds us that even in systems built to monitor, there’s power in reclaiming how we’re heard.

This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Ethan Lyons and Janey Li. Supervising Production and sound design by Shareeka Helaluddin. Podcast edited by Yvonne Hong. 

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“We only have wood and stone to fight with to preserve our life”

The words of young activists from Kanaky (so-called New Caledonia) who are engaged in fights to reclaim their land from French occupation, fighting for life and independence. Ethan and Shareeka speak to Roscoe, a special rapporteur for Radio RATA, a decolonial media, culture and mutual aid network, operating across the Pacific. Roscoe has been pivotal in establishing networks and connections with the Indigenous people of Kanaky. Through his work we learn that colonial systems are not the only thing that can duplicate and expand borders -- so can Indigenous knowledge and solidarity.

This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Ethan Lyons and Shareeka Helaluddin. Audio editing by Ethan Lyons, sound design by Shareeka Helaluddin. 

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"We're holding hope for other people and each other, and that's what the peer model is."

Content Note: this episode contains mentions of suicidality. 

Queer Muslim baddie takeover ~ in dedication to Imam Muhsin Hendricks - Allah Yerahmo. The intersections of queerness, religion, and ethnic identity are so heavily intertwined and (sometimes) difficult to reconcile. Join Host Sara El Youghun, Mohammad and Aiysha of the Multicultural Peers Project to speak on queerness and Islam, the struggle with mental health and synergising these values to emerge into adulthood in queer, Muslim pride. Multicultural Peers Project is a Western Sydney initiative aimed at helping queer and trans youth from Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian and Muslim backgrounds in NSW. You can connect with them on Instagram at @multiculturalpeersproject - a bastion of ethnic, empathetic therapy. 

This episode was hosted by Sara El Youghun, supervised by Shareeka Helaluddin, produced by Yvonne Hong, and Janey Li assisted on social media.

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