ChangeMakers

Australia is in the middle of a national conversation that could transform our relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But how much do you know about the long story that sits behind the Voice to Parliament referendum? Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man, born on Larrakia country in Darwin. He shares with us his journey into union activism and Indigenous struggle. This chat explores what it was like to be part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the community movement following it. He talks about the power and importance of the Federal Labor Government’s commitment to a national referendum to change the Australian Constitution and create a Voice to Parliament in late 2023. Thomas has written five books, and you can find out about them here. His latest book released in May 2023 with Kerry O’Brien called “The Voice to Parliament Handbook” is available via all major book distributors (see here). Thomas is on tour talking about the book and the dates and tickets can be found here. There are lots of organisations campaigning for a yes vote, including: https://yes23.com.au/ (space to volunteer) https://togetheryes.com.au/ (supporting kitchen table conversations) https://ulurustatement.org/training/#/ - a learning platform about the voice and the Uluru Statement from the Heart The Voice is a produce of a powerful collaborative process led by and for Indigenous Australians that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEARTWe, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago. This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown. How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years? With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood. Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness. We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country. We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history. In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few people have been as effective at agitating for a stronger climate and environment movement as Bill McKibben. He has consistently pushed new strategies and thinking in the battle to save our natural environment and our climate. In celebration of his agitator spirit, we are re-sharing this #InCaseYouMissedIt episode with Bill McKibben recorded in June 2022. In this chat Bill shares how he found change-making through a love of the natural environment and writing - and the lessons he has taken from the kind of movements he has helped bring to life, like 350.org and Third Act. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame talks with us about her journey into change making and the challenges she has encountered. She talks about the power of even small action, and the impact that petitions had in the #LetHerSpeak movement. She talks about how the pathway to making change can be uneven, made difficult by the experience of trauma. It is a wide ranging conversation where, with a full heart, Grace shares some of the qualities that have made her a fierce advocate for change. Grace’s book “Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner: a memoir” is available here. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we talk with Claire O’Rouke - a former journalist, climate campaigner and author of Together We Can - about the diverse and creative grassroots movement of people around Australia taking action to respond to the threat of climate change. Together We Can canvassed over 70 stories of Australians who have developed novel community based responses to help our climate, defying the logic that you need to be a scientist or a politician to make a difference. We unpack how people have sought to overcome challenges like climate distress and what Claire has learnt about what goes into the most successful forms of change. For more information about Together We Can visit: https://claireorourke.com/new-book-together-we-can/ For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So what do former Fire Chief Greg Mullins and Australian Cricket Captain Pat Cummins have in common? They both want action on climate change and they have both worked with Amanda McKenzie, CEO of Australia’s Climate Council, to build their strategy. Amanda is a climate communicator who has worked to catalyse different communities of people affected by climate change so they can become powerful climate advocates. She talks with us about her approach to climate communications and how long term engaged work with a variety of affected communities has changed the public debate on climate in Australia. You can find out more about the climate council here - https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/ For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karen Iles is long time social changemaker, lawyer and victim survivor of aggravated sexual assault when she was a child. As a young adult she went to the police to lodge a statement so they would investigate the crime, only to be stymied at every turn. After almost 20 years of police inaction, she has launched a campaign to create a duty for police to investigate allegations of serious crimes like child sexual assault. Today she shares her journey and the campaign she has launched. We discuss the power of personal experience in shaping political advocacy and her hopes for changing the legal system. For more on Karen’s campaign: Take action to support the campaign at MakePoliceInvetigate.org  Watch Karen on The Project Read Karen’s story in the Guardian and in News.com.au For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Modern society tells subtle but powerful stories that shape how we think about how we should live together, make decisions together and what we should value. Jon Alexander has identified three of these stories - the subject story of the tyrant strong man, the consumer story of the modern market and the citizen story, as alternative ways we can be. In this chat we identify how these stories impact how we make change. We look at how the dominant consumer story infects many change making strategies, and some of the ways in which groups have sought to challenge consumer logic with citizen practice. For more you can find out more about Jon’s book Citizens here. You can find out more about the New Citizenship Project here. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is a powerful movement led for and by the trans and gender diverse community building in Australia - and today’s ChangeMaker Chat is with one of its founders. Jackie Turner is a trans woman and a long time social justice and climate organiser. This chat explores how organising in her community has given her a new lens on how and why we make change. She outlines the threats to the trans communities in the UK and USA, and what that means for trans people everywhere. She provides plenty of advice for cis allies about what can be done to support the trans community. You can provide financial support for Jackie’s Trans Justice Project here. You can follow Jackie on Insta www.instagram.com/jackiemaeturner/ or on Twitter @jackiemaeturner. All her writing can be found in her bio. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s podcast looks at racism in the not for profit world. Aminata Conteh-Bigher has an extraordinary story; having developed powerful leadership qualities in Sierra Leonne civil war forced her to flee her home. In Australia she founded the Aminata Maternal Foundation to change the dangerous conditions that women face when giving birth in Sierra Leonne. Today she shares how this journey has placed her at the centre of the not-for-profit world in Australia, and the struggles around racism that she has encountered on that journey. This is a powerful and provocative conversation for changemakers that calls for us to change how we make change, if we truly want to live the values that so many of us preach. For more on Aminata you can read her book Rising Heart, and you can find more about the Aminata Maternal Foundation here. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the biggest hurdles to powerful climate action is changing our economy so it is no longer reliant on fossil fuels. Too often plans hatched by experts or environmentalists far removed from coal mining communities fail, because they are unable to bring affected communities and workers with them. This episode comes from Collie Western Australia and talks about how the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union worked with other unions, community groups and political leaders to plan for the closure of their coal mines and the creation of new industries and jobs for their town. In this episode Alex Cassie explains how she supported local workers to write this plan and turn it into state government action. The transition was years in the making and it is still ongoing, but in this story are lessons for every fossil fuel community. The story is also a powerful reminder for people worried about climate change that workers in fossil fuel industries can make powerful allies in the battle to end our reliance on coal. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.