Modern storytelling – A new podcast season recorded by the Youth Reference Group
After a successful first season of the ‘Healing Our Way’ podcast, The Healing Foundation’s Youth Reference Group (YRG) have come together to record season two. Gathering in Sydney, the group sat down in the studio with host Rachel Hocking to begin the conversation on sharing stories and experiences of resilience, strength, trauma and healing.
“I think it’s important that the Youth Reference Group is involved in this podcast because it enables us to have our voices be heard,” reflected YRG member Blake Tatafu. “There’s definitely a connection between podcasting and the way that our old ones used to tell stories around campfire, around the water. And it’s probably a modern way of doing it, but we know that the stories that we’re telling today in our podcast will spread a lot further and they’ll be digitally kept, so we’ll be able to access them whenever we want.”
The second season of ‘Healing Our Way’ podcast takes on the YRG theme, ‘Counting Actions not Anniversaries’ referencing the Youth Reference Group’s powerful 2022 statement which was presented to the Prime Minister at Garma. Podcast host, journalist, moderator, tv presenter and Warlpiri woman, Rachael Hocking leads YRG members through topics such as ‘Making Healing Happen’, First Nations strength and resilience, youth wellbeing, and youth issues.
Listeners will be able to ‘sit in’ on the conversation, which addresses a range of questions such as, how to create a future where healing is possible, caring for yourself when confronted with those who deny your history, and what intergenerational healing truly looks and feels like.
“Having a lot of diversity in the room around these podcasts from mob across the country is really important to me, because I feel like I’m richer because of their experience, “says Blake, a proud Wiradjuri and Dhungutti man whose family come from Trangie and Kempsey. “I’m richer because I’m learning from their cultural diversity and their cultural experiences. We may all be Aboriginal and Torres Islander people, but we’re not the same.”
“I really hope that everybody listens to this podcast,” Blake continues. “there’s a lot of richness about our experiences in it. I think you could be absolutely anybody, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or not. You could learn a lot from our individual walks of life, and it’ll be a nice little time capsule to share with future generations as well.”
You can find season two of Healing Our Way on Spotify or listen NOW on The Healing Foundation website.
