Hey Aunty‪!‬ Fireside chats with black women who've been there. Welcome Sis!

"Hey Aunty: What is Spiritual Activism?" is our conversation with the amazing Sister Eleanor 'Nalyirri' Dixon. This one is big 💥

Eleanor shares a deep understanding of liberation, which fully integrates her identity as a Mudburra woman from the community of Marlinja in NT. Her activism is spiritual and reflects her love of culture and country. It's a privilege to listen to a Sister who is so fully embodied and sovereign in herself.

The kid who rejected the church’s attempts to demonise her lore became a woman living proudly in her skin and on her land. Singing her grandmother’s songs, in language and commanding respect from all who listen.

What could be more powerful than that?

🎧 listen to a selection of Kardajala Kirradarra's tunes via @triple_j_unearthed at triplejunearthed.com/artist/kardajala-kirridarra

Support us with a 5 star review & a few words of joy through iTunes. Then share the love and the pod, so someone else can get this word ❤️

How is Radical Self Love Part of #BLM?" Our latest episode with the inimitable Sonya Renee Taylor. We get personal and explore the idea of liberation from inside out. Liberation by any means, but not at any cost.

Huge thanks to Sonya for her “habit of saying yes to black women.”

NZ based and making waves globally. Artist, Author, Activist and transformational leader Sonya Renee Taylor is a National and International award-winning writer and performer, published author, and founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, an international digital media and education company committed to radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool of social justice, whose content reaches over 1 million people monthly. She has shared her work and activism across the US, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Brazil and the Netherlands.

In 2016, Sonya was a guest of the Obama White House, where she spoke about TBINAA’s work at the intersection of LGBTQIAA+ issues and disability justice. Sonya currently resides between California and New Zealand where she is an inaugural fellow in the Edmund Hilary Fellowship for global impact change makers.

*occasional adult language and loud laughter. Beware.

Music in this episode by Jason Price and Michelle Macklem.

Hey Aunty - How are you Doing Right Now?

We are back to check-in, catching up with Aunties past/future for some much-needed community care in this challenging time. Chatting with Dr. Yadira Perez Hazel. Bronx native, Black Latina, mother, wife and much more.

Talking about what we have lost, what gems have been found. What we will leave behind and what we are holding onto as we get through this, together.

We've never appreciated the healing warmth of the sisterhood of black women more. We hope this chat brings that home for you, wherever you are.

Stay safe. Take care and talk soon.

Aunty x

Produced in Melbourne Australia on Kulin land. Hosted and produced by Shantel Wetherall. In my PJs with cameos from my dog Barkley and music from Jason Price.

Dr Chelsea Bond - Is Feminism for us?

This chat is packed to bursting with wow-moments, takeaways and t-shirt worthy quotes that will have you thinking for days.

We can’t wait for you to hear it and tell us what you think. This is exactly what we’re here for, deeper conversation with incredible Sisters about the things that matter to us.

We love sisterhood, so it’s scary to admit that it doesn't always come easily and that in some cases, it comes with a lot of baggage. Talking is the first step to making things better and Chelsea was brilliant. She’s a woman who really shows up and this conversation is fun, fierce and full of warmth. She was incredibly generous in sharing stories that reveal where she’s landed (on that day anyhow) on this important question.

Chelsea is an Aboriginal (Munanjahli) and South Sea Islander Australian. She works as a researcher, health worker and Senior Lecturer. She's also the co-host of the brilliant Wild Black Women show on 989FM and a must follow on twitter.

This conversation is very real, so there’s a little bit of strong language.

It's also packed with the type of intelligent, yet accessible analysis that Chelsea is renowned for and we managed to laugh a lot too. My goodness black women are magic.

There’s so much to learn when we have space to really #listentoblackwomen We’ve had this on repeat and found different gems every time. So it really is worth listening to a couple of times, maybe grab a cuppa or a journal in between and come back to see how you feel and what connects/doesn't connect next time around.

It’ll make you think, laugh and expand a little. We definitely did.

The full transcript is available on heyauntypod.com

Lovely folks have been getting in touch to ask how to support us. Thank you! writing a review on apple podcasts is the best bet for now and maybe sharing the pod with your friends.

Cheers, enjoy!

PS - The correct Alice Walker's quotation is "womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender" Not sure where lavender came from, but love do love all shades of purple :)

Delighted to share the next conversation on the subject of learning to loving our bodies. This week we chat with the brilliant and beautiful Fatu Sillah. Please excuse my gravelly voice I was in the depths of a cold when the intro was recorded, so kept it short and sweet. Fatu lives in Sydney and works as a social worker, supporting young people who have been in social care. She grew up in a number of African nations after her family had to leave her birthplace, Sierra Leone when she was young. She moved to Australia in 2004 at the age of 13 and she’s been largely independent from there.

Fatu Is An Incredible Woman

And my goodness she has lived and learned a lot. She is everything I would wish for in an Aunty and I am so excited to share our conversation with you

She is unflinchingly honest about her experiences
Proud of her achievements
Breaking generational and cultural barriers
Real fragile and vulnerable
A little bit sweary (beware)
Distinctively and impressively her own woman
Full of joy and illuminated from within

Fatu is a survivor of FGM and an ambassador for No FGM Australia. You should be aware that she talks frankly about her experiences and that means some discussion of sexuality and the body parts involved as well as a bit of strong language.

That’s what you need to be - Growing up in the Ivory Coast social norms for beauty are super different to those in ‘the west’. In the West Africa Fatu grew up in, womanhood and beauty was very much about looking plump and healthy. So that’s what young women were conditioned to be, because that’s what men were looking for in a wife.

Isn't it fascinating how culture persists, that’s how important it is to us. Governing even things as personal as our relationship with our own bodies.

Coming to Australia Culture shock and mind-body separation -Remember the bizarre feeling of living in your body at 13? Fatu experienced all of that, while learning a new country and culture. Most of the time she was trying to simply survive and that threw up a strange situation where her body was a focal point for other people. It was simultaneously the biggest/least of her problems.

So many women are faced with that conflict and want to simply fade from view. Fatu speaks so candidly about taking steps to try to erase her difference, just to buy herself enough space to think.


Attraction & Objectification -
“At home - you’re being told what your body should be…”
“In Australia - there's an entire different set of standards projected onto you…”
“A waste of time a waste of energy and exhaustion...”
“I woke up one day and thought I am beautiful as I am”
Fatu

Colourism Is Often An Inside Job - I suppose this was about intergenerational trauma. How families pass on harmful norms because that’s what they themselves have inherited and how Fatu has learned to view these people in her own life with compassion. Yet she speaks out, to family and community so that those beliefs are not passed on to the next generation. A beautiful discussion and especially powerful considering the depth of experiences that Fatu has had to reconcile.

Owning Her Narrative and Feeling at Home in Her Body - “I don't get angry anymore. It’s part of me I’m going to embrace it”
Fatu

Being honest about her experience with FGM and it’s impact on her life and health was a risky choice, that must have taken a lot of courage. It’s transformed Fatu’s relationship with her sexuality and body image. She speaks her truth on this and so much else to own her narrative. To be comfortable with her stories is to be comfortable with the way they are carried by her body. She owns her scars and is proud to stand out and revel in her freedom. Pink braids, shining skin, short skirts and bra free if she wants to be. All I can say is Bravo Sis, you deserve every f-ing bit of it.

We all do.

Welcome to the first episode of Season 2 of Hey Aunty!

Tarneen Onus-Williams - How'd you learn to love your body?

“This body gets us to work every day. This body puts up with the racism and the complete violence of colonialism. My body gets me through a night of partying. My body gets to give my nieces and nephews cuddles. It gets to make Christmas dinners, go camping and chop wood. We really need to see what our bodies do for ourselves and for other people, the people that we love.” Tarneen Onus-Williams

Tarneen is a Yigar Gunditjmara, Bindal and Yorta Yorta person.

Tarneen is a community organiser for Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance working on Invasion Day, Black Deaths in Custody Justice for Elijah and Stop the forced closures of Aboriginal Communities in WA. Tarneen works with women who’ve been in prison and also sits on the Koorie Youth Council as an Executive Member.

Through Tarneen’s activism, they have become a writer and have been published in IndigenousX, The Saturday Paper, NITV and RightNow.

Every waking moment we're bombarded with messages about beauty, femininity and gender. Layered on top of the family and cultural stories we inherit. It takes a whole lot of love to cut through, keep going and recognise what's so special about you.

Tareen's stories are tender, hilarious and incredibly relatable. Charting their journey from carefree country kid, through self-conscious times to become the self-assured person they are today. An honest, refreshing and uplifting chat that we know you'll enjoy.

Thank you Tarneen!

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