As the noise continues and racist rhetoric unfolds across the continent, Race Matters will be deferring our platform entirely to First Nations activist and community groups to amplify nuances beyond the yes/no rhetoric of The Voice and to centre complex and healing dialogues. 

This week, we hear from Kieran and Dan from Black People's Union: a revolutionary organisation that aims to empower Indigenous people in Australia through the pursuit of full self-determination and sovereignty. They chatted through the BPU's objection to the voice and its links to an illegal, racist constitution; the problem with leftists and white progressives, plus tangible ways forward to sovereignty. 

Learn more about BPU, and if you're in Naarm, catch their live event and fundraiser, Sovereignty in the Time of the Voice with Shiralee Hood, Lidia Thorpe, Dr Chelsea Watego alongside Kieran; happening on September 28th - details here. 

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Tahlia Palmer's work grapples with tensions of the weight of colonial trauma and finding comfort in recovering ancestral practices. She's an artist of Murri and European lineage, working in a variety of mediums to explore history, identity and perception. Her art practice works on confronting the conditions that create and perpetuate inter-generational trauma, as well as finding pathways for healing. She chatted with Race Matters and unpacked her creative process and what it is to turn political intentions into poetic musical expression. 

You can catch Tahlia performing as amby downs as part of the Volumes festival happening at Art Gallery of NSW on September 27th from 7pm. Entry is free, more details here. 

 

 

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BEYOND THE BARS X RACE MATTERS SOLIDARITY SYNDICATE

From Gadigal to ... those on the inside, with love. 

This week we dedicate our airwaves to the trailblazing, radical output of Beyond the Bars Prison Radio, on 3CR Radio. An honor to be joined by Shiralee Hood - she's a Noongar, Kurnai, Gunditjmara comedian, broadcaster and educator. She uses her work in prison radio as an extension of her deep rooted practice of storytelling and healing, nurturing relationships with those who are incarcerated. 

We’re also going to hear excerpts from those on the inside: incarcerated first peoples who have made radio with Beyond the Bars sharing their stories, their poems, their music. We’re honored to hear them here on Race Matters and urge you to listen to the full broadcasts that we’ll link in our show notes.

Excerpts in order: 

Dwayne - Only Loves Remains (poem)

Amanda - Ashley's Poem

Amanda, Chantelle, Alishia - Language

Wayne, Cody - Learning Language

Cane - Jail Doesn't Help (rap)

Troy - Back into Culture 

the women at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre - Ngarra Burra Ferra 

Gre - Look out for each other

Daisy - Story in a painting 

 

LISTEN TO & SUPPORT BEYOND THE BARS EVERY JULY DURING NAIDOC WEEK. The Broadcast is also archived online, and highlights on a CD available. 

 

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RED RATTLER X RACE MATTERS PRESENTS: EMBERS

Listen back to a tender and generative conversation held at our live community gathering at the Red Rattler, Embers. Following a screening of Lizzie's Borden's cult-classic Born In Flames, we were joined by community builders and artists Aaliyah-Jade Bradbury, Kween G, prince and facilitated in conversation for one last time by Darren Lesaguis. 

Hear them deconstruct and reconstruct the 1983 film, talk through every day acts of resistance, anti-capitalist solidarity, ways of finding joy, disruption and silence amid all the noise. This event was Darren Lesaguis' final show as co-host of Race Matters, hear at the end how we honor the five years of his inimitable, joyous, caring tenure on the show and the gifts he has offered this next chaper of Race Matters. 

Thanks to Lizzie Borden herself and cinenova in london for making this screening possible, Kween and Viv and the rRed Rattler for inviting us, Tanya Ali for the music, the Race Matters volunteers: Samantha, Tim, Aish, Jessica, Toobs, Alicia Zhao for the incredible artwork for the event, Justin for photography, Lachlan on sound and lighting, Ross for filming, Judy from Love & Peace Catering, Sammy, Professor and Ya for setting up the space, Shareeka Helaluddin for co-producing the event. 

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What are our responsibilities when it comes to sharing stories of vulnerable communities, and those that have been displaced?  What are ways that we can understand one story as ways to disrupt, to uncover the truth of so many more that go unnoticed, untold? 

Our show today traces the flows of displacement of a Tamil family that was thrust into the national political spotlight as they experienced the harsh violence of our asylum seeking system: Nades, Priya and their daughters Kopika and Tharnicaa, the Nadesigalum family. We hear from co-producers and creatives, Jay Ooi & Thinesh Thillainadarajah from You Have Been Told a Lie.  Together, we explored what it is to build relationships across language, culture and geographies to unveil truths And, what we can learn from the generosity of one family’s story to unravel the systems of immigration and how we are all implicated in processes of displacement. 

Plus, we hear an excerpt from the first episode of the series. To learn more and listen to the six-part series, visit You Have Been Told A Lie. We thank the Nadesigalum for allowing us to share their story, to shed light on this critical issue. 

This episode was produced by Samantha haran and Shareeka Helaluddin, and hosted by Shareeka Helaluddin. With gratitude to Jay and Thinesh for letting us air an excerpt from their 

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DECODING RACE, AI, ALGORITHMS & AUTOMATION

The  tech we use  impacts  our  lives. They aren’t neutral objects but can have particular worldviews baked-in to the very operation of them. It can be overwhelming to begin to challenge those cultural biases when a lot of mainstream conversation on technology is wrapped up in speculation and paranoia. How do we make sense of all this? On today’s show we begin to decode some of this with guest producer Dr Sarita Herse in conversation with feminist technoscience Dr Thao Phan. Together they chat through race, AI and algorithms helping us see through the veil of opaque and insidious tech; and ways to co-opt these forms to find meaningful resistance. 

** updated link ** To learn more about the “Study In” that Thao mentioned at the end of their conversation, follow us on socials or submit your expression of interest via the Art+Australia website. 

Learn more about Dr Thao Phan’s work

• 5 Questions on Liminal 

• Listening to Misrecognition - her amazing performance lecture on machine listening and racialised English 

• Read some of her academic work here

  This piece was produced by Sarita Herse, and was co-hosted by Sarita Herse & Shareeka Helaluddin.

 

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On Race Matters we head to Damascus, Syria as we are joined by researcher and creative Mia Shouha, co-founder and director of Souq. In an intimate chat, she shares how artists create in a complex, post-war context and craft through autonomy and imperialism resistance to find magic and connection. Alongside her collaborator Romy Cole-Groth they’ve begun working on a project that elevates the value and dignity of Syrian craft, collecting beauty in a time of crisis. 

To learn more about Souq and how you can support the launch of their first collection Yasmin, head to their socials @souqq__

This piece was produced and edited by Shareeka Helaluddin. Image courtesy of Souq. 

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Content note: this talk will mention Black deaths in custody, policy brutality, grief and mention of torture. These are told from the lived experience of our guest and how this shapes their response to the conversation. In some instances this is described in detail to shed truth, so we ask that you go gently and decide when the time is right for you to listen in.

On today’s show we’re asking: What if our institutions were life-affirming, instead of death-making? This is the question at the heart of abolition, a political tradition that demands the end of prisons, as well as the end of the kind of world that could ever even have something as violent as a prison. Our guest for this week is Latoya Aroha Rule - activist and writer working to ban the use of spithoods in this country who's work explores all this and more. Their journey towards this has been deeply rooted in grief and love as well as the power of creative protests. 

This piece was produced by Sam Haran and hosted by Shareeka Helaluddin. Featuring music by Mo'Ju - Bran Nue Wurld. 

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RADIO SKID ROW X RACE MATTERS SOLIDARITY SYNDICATE

This week we dedicate our airwaves to the trailblazing, radical output of Radio Skid Row 88.9FM. An honor to be joined by Aaliyah-Jade Bradbury - she’s host of Skid Row’s Blak Friday / Koori Connection, and comes from a lineage of radio makers and storytellers at Skid Row and beyond. She’ll be joining us to talk through the power of community radio and how we can continue to support the work that they do. Plus, some tracks curated by Aaliyah! 

SUPPORT RADIO SKID'S ROW 40TH BIRTHDAY 

If you have the means, donate here and continue to signal boost the campaign via social media so they can expand their reach beyond the inner west into digital radio! 

Music: Awa Mbaye - Black Girl Magic 

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Our friends Marina & Xuan at Amplify Bookstore are back for another anti-racist Book Club takeover!

The episode spans works around invisible labour and recovering knowledge systems. In the first half we hear them delve deep into a contemporary fiction by Balli Kaur Jaswal. Mystery meets sharp social commentary with Now You See Us shedding light on the lives of 3 domestic workers in Singapore. The plot thickens as one of their friends gets accused of murder and the rest of them try to figure out if she really did it or not. 

We then hear Xuan and Marina in conversation with Adnyamathanha regenerative farmer, cultural educator and author Damien Coulthard. Hear him chat through what it is to decolonise through food, and the ways in which he cultivates relationships and practices that are preserving knowledge systems and natural resources. 

To find out more about the book and Damien’s work at Warndu, you can catch him in conversation at the Sydney Writers Festival on May 27 as part of two events. “Future Food’ and “The Dinner that Changed My Life’ MORE DETAILS HERE. 

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