The Weekly Service Podcast

Abe Nouk is a poet, a community educator, a mentor and a humble human being with an infectious sense of gratitude. In this podcast he talks about how he fled civil war in Sudan to come to Australia, and his journey to creativity and gratitude as a way of unravelling the numbness and trauma he grew up with. He talks about discovering how important it is to be 'available for life', and his daily appreciation of the lavish freedom of living in a peaceful country. Through his story, Abe encourages the audience to be open to both suffering and joy, and 'know your truth, keep your peace and speak your joy'. Abe also performs some of his of his spoken word poetry.

In this podcast, Weekly Service members Henry and Jeremy offer guidance on how to curate a service. They talk through the three pillars of atmosphere, facilitation and creating a safe space. Before Coronavirus this was a 7-hour in person training but they've done a good job of distilling some stellar advice into 20 minutes! This follows on from our podcast 'How we co-create services' and goes more in-depth into the role of the curator.

Inbal left her birth country of Israel twenty years ago - but being a migrant doesn't define her. A few years ago, Inbal decided to reconstruct family - and she wonders why people say "sorry about your divorce". Inbal has three boys who sometimes wear pants and sometimes wear dresses - and she feels pretty good about that. Inbal has braved child abuse - and she talks about it, simply. Because silence is oppressive, and we must turn on the lights. Inbal is a member of The Weekly Service and a pretty inspiring human. With a strong will and a quiet smile on her face, she is stepping into her power and deconstructing unhelpful narratives. For herself and for others. Please note there is a content warning for this story, which will mention sex and sexual child abuse.

In this podcast, Jarrah talks about how The Weekly Service is co-created. She explains a bit about the background of The Weekly Service: the intention & structure. And then she introduces the roles and the process for how we make the Service itself. If you're interested in being a storyteller or a curator for one of our Services, this podcast is for you!

Connection to each other and the earth is key to our future. Yet it is easy to feel disconnected and isolated amidst the swarm of people, noise and movement of a bustling modern city. How is our sense of connection related to our cultural identities and values? What do Indigenous cultures and their time-tested ways of being have to teach us? This week’s storyteller, Hineani Tunoa Roberts, is a Māori / Australian with her own family story of decolonisation. She has always lived with a foot in two worlds. A graphic designer and media artist, Hineani is currently a participant in the Emerging Cultural Leadership program at Footscray Community Arts Centre. Hineani creates public artwork that explores stories of culture, (dis)connection and place. Join us for a story with heart that unpacks cultural privilege and explores what identity can tell us about connection and place.

When Sally, sleep deprived and bewildered in early motherhood, first began making tombstones to mark the end of the day with her small son, she knew little about what would unfold in her life. Within a year, she had lost her beloved partner to cancer and had birthed her second son. This is the first time that Sal has shared her story of living in and through loss. Sally brims with questions about what it means to live intimately with death. She sees the world through the eyes of a poet, an artist, a mother, and a widow. When one sits down with Sal to talk it feels real in a way that is hard to describe - enlivening, raw, hilarious, deeply sad, yet hopeful. Her story speaks to complex questions surrounding our times, exploring the mystery of birth and death, and the invitation these can provide within a secular society. What price do we pay when we ignore death? How do we truly host our own pain? Might our capacity to be with loss hold the key to transformation?

"We are born from the Earth and we return to the Earth. It is our birth rite, to be one with the land and all of nature, we belong to the land.” Born into a farming family, raised on the land and reliant on the land… Karla grew up understanding her intricate connection to the natural world. In lonely isolation in remote Queensland, she grew akin to the animals, often in silence with only the trees and the red dirt as her playground. From this foundation, she developed her own relationship to the natural world. This became her foundation for life, for when she is in nature, she is home.

Murali Neelamegam is an integral psychologist, facilitator, counsellor and storyteller who believes we all have the intent, drive and ability to find inner peace and happiness. Murali’s story started with a poem and includes a short chant and a moment of stillness. Murali’s story of uncovering his inner peace began in childhood, continued when he relocated to regional Victoria, through his studies and career. We heard about stand up comedy, culling the ‘deadwood’ in big corporations and the link between peace and purpose. We heard about unfolding peace, about finding peace with others and about the choices we have when our peace is challenged.

Psychologist Dr Kari Gibson has been working in Tuvalu, exploring and responding to the relationship between climate change and mental health.. We heard stories about Levi jeans, Bingo machines, poverty, happiness and big waves. These stories made us think about the dilemmas that arise when working outside our own cultural context: how do we balance individualistic human rights with collectivist communities? Should we do good if we’re lucky and privileged, or do nothing because if you do good outside your cultural circle the risk of harm is great? When do we know enough to intervene and how and when should we do that?

Integration, cherished moments, authenticity and dog-like joy. These are the notes of the kind folk, some of the many hands that pruned and poured, picked and parented, dreamt and dared at Zig Zag Winery. As The Weekly Service season and wine vintage 2019 both came to a close we gathered at the cellar door for a celebration and ceremony of harvest. Jeff shares a poem about moments of quiet and solitude that nurture integration. Maddy speaks about 'women's work’ and the cherished fleeting moments that quietly enter narrative and become a connection and a community. If being in relationships is hard, being in community is even harder. Being let in to witness both the loving kindness and the stress and tension allowed Jeremy to be his authentic, imperfect self. Scott tells a story about sticking his head out the top of a moving tractor, and experiencing dog-like joy.

Kate Dundas shared her story about all things urban reforestation, landscaping, her project 3000acres and her time on Greening the Apocalypse on RRR.

We live in a time where it seems our society is becoming more and more polarised in the way it engages with and discusses issues with two opposing sides. As a society we seem to use words as weapons more than we do to create connection. So if we are going to learn how to engage with topics that are potentially polarising in a way that leads to deepening connection as opposed to widening separation, then we might as well start with a big one! 'God' is a word that in just three little letters seems to be able to inspire love, hate, anger, generosity… the whole gamut of human emotions. A word meant to signify our connection with the divine, source, the universe, our eternal self… basically a concept so large we have spent most of human history trying explain! This service was an opportunity to listen to three very different stories of people interacting with this thing we call 'God' to open a space for us to explore this concept in a way that will (hopefully) lead to greater understanding and empathy for the way each of us interact, or don’t interact, with this concept of 'God'.

An Embodied Approach: Authentic partnerships with myself and society Anna McCracken shares her story about how recovery from 'dis-ease' and the restoration of agency and trust transformed her approach to human rights. An approach that moves away from thinking about social change toward feeling into social change.

Catherine Crock is a physician who has dedicated her life to softening the hard edges of healthcare. Long before user experience and person-centred care entered the medical lexicon she listened carefully to her young patients and their families and discovered a novel way to improve their journey through the health system. Catherine pioneered the use of music in operating theatres and waiting rooms to create a calming and kind environment for children undergoing surgery. She subsequently founded the Hush Foundation which is dedicated to using art to improve the healthcare experience. Catherine's story is a living testament to the power of kindness and empathy - of deeply understanding another person’s needs and doing everything you can to meet them.

Miream came to Australia with her family five years ago as a refugee fleeing Syria. Her strength and bravery to resist and speak out is awe-inspiring. She continues her activism through her powerful art and believes that art is the way to make change. This is a voice that deserves to be listened to.

Harriet Churchill has moved 20000 miles away from her parents, siblings and closest friends to become a wine maker, vineyard manager and mother. She told her story of what family means to her and how a yearning for family, and her drive to recreate family, plays a central role in her life.

"The revolution is embodied. We can't think our way into reconnecting with the Earth and remembering our place as stewards, just like we can't think our way into bike riding. We must feel it in our bodies to know how! We have to dance it baby! Just as all our ancient ancestors did." ~ Thanks Brittany Jane for sharing pearls of wisdom and your vibrant energy.

Our natural state is living in intimate connection with the earth, others, and ourselves. And yet we live in a culture of profound disconnection - the source of much of the world's suffering. We hosted our first service South or the river, in a room full of wattles, natural light and wild humans. Claire Dunn knows the wild. She is an explorer and pioneer in the movement known as 'Rewilding,' and facilitates nature-based reconnection retreats and contemporary wilderness rites of passage. She has published 'My Year Without Matches: Escaping the the City in Search of the Wild', a memoir of her year living in the bush.

Aseel’s story was so moving for so many of us. Home is a concept that feels real to us all in some form. We were reminded again that simple stories can be so profoundly universal. Yet in that simplicity, Aseel also touched on some complex societal issues. For instance internalising messaging that around cultural superiority/inferiority, and what that means for personal identity. She left us with a lot to ponder. For us there was also the sweet sense of fruition seeing Aseel take the chair. She has attended the Service for years and expressed disbelief about how we find so many people with interesting stories. Now her story has elegantly emerged; it’s come full circle. It’s always a gift to see the extraordinary ordinariness, the humanity and the uniqueness of everyone’s stories.

A bottle of wine contains more than the sum of its parts: more than fruit, soil, sun and tender care. Wine is a labour of love filled with the uncertainties of living off the land, laughter, tension and patience. Henry Churchill took us behind the veil of the vineyard, to reveal the intimate emotions that will be infused in Zig Zag Winery's 2018 vintage. Thank you Harriet Rose Devereux Churchill and Henry Churchill for hosting this divine Service in Malmsbury and to the sun that shown continuously throughout the day – for this we are grapeful.