The Wisdom & Action Podcast

In May 2021, we ran our first four-week Storytelling for Change Course at Small Giants Academy. Each Wednesday, 15 participants would gather in the Zoom room to talk about how story shapes our individual lives and the cultures we are part of. We learned skills for finessing our stories and were joined by some of our much-loved Dumbo Feather storytellers, including Padraig O Tuama, Lydia Fairhall and Danielle Caruana.Across the course, participants were tasked with composing a story from their life, which they then shared in the final week. We were all blown away by each other’s heartfelt, creative, hilarious sharings, and felt the magic of being intertwined in one another’s stories.In this episode, three participants from the course have very generously recorded their stories for you all to hear. First up we have Lizi Hamer reading “The Car Ride” followed by Hermione Stewart reading “Love Survives” and finally Ben Duke with “The Blue Lagoon.”Ben Duke is a performer and choreographer and the artistic director of the U.K. based dance theatre company Lost Dog. You can check out more of his work over at lostdogdance.co.uk. And Lizi Hamer is an author and storyhunter and Regional Creative Director at Octagon. You can check out more of her work over at lizihamer.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 2 of our music mini-series on the Dumbo Feather podcast, where we’re sharing readings, conversations and most importantly music to celebrate our latest issue of Dumbo Feather magazine. In this episode, we’re bringing you a reading by Melbourne-based recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey. Genevieve creates poetic, sensual worlds in a variety of contexts – from the stage to the garden to the radio.During the ups and downs of 2020, Genevieve created the album Bower. In the following reading she shares what that experience was like for her and others within the arts community here in Australia.Genevieve has generously shared some of the music from Bower to accompany her reading, which has been magnificently producer by sound engineer Jim Atkin. The order of music is as follows:Lou Bennett Baiyan Woka arr Erkki VeltheimErkki Veltheim Nocturne over blue ruinsJohann Jakob Froberger Lamentation faite sur la mort très douloureuse de Sa Majesté Impériale, Ferdinand IIIAndrea Keller I SurrenderMadeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey A Mutual Support for Precarious TimesBree van Reyk threaded in amongst the infinite threading Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meet Jade Miles from Black Barn Farm! Black Barn is a regenerative, intentional orchard and nursery that operates on permaculture principles. They run farm tours and workshops, and promote homesteading within the rhythms of the seasons. Jade recently released a beautiful book called Futuresteading: Live Like Tomorrow Matter which is full of practical skills, recipes and rituals for connecting with your environment and community, and embracing a simpler, steadier way of being. Jade shares her story and passion for building localised food systems with our publisher Berry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lydia Fairhall reads her essay from Issue 64 of Dumbo Feather magazine titled "On Healing." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greetings friends! This is the first of three music episodes of the Dumbo Feather podcast, a mini-series we’ve put together to celebrate our music issue of the magazine, which you can get over at our website dumbofeather.com or at speciality newsagents and retailers.For the next three months, we’re going to spotlight some of the musicians featured in the pages of the issue and bring their stories and music to you ears.We’ve got two musical powerhouses for you in this episode. Indigenous opera singer, contemporary songwriter and performer Jess Hitchcock, and piano virtuoso, composer and local Fitzroy jazz player Monique diMattina.Thanks to our partners Bank Australia for helping us bring this mini-series to life. If you’re looking to put your money somewhere that’s having a positive impact on people and planet, then get yourself over to Bank Australia. Bankaust.com.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're sharing the recording from the launch event of our truth issue of Dumo Feather - it’s a conversation between two familiar voices on the podcast – author and activist, Sarah Wilson, and publisher of Dumbo Feather Berry Liberman. We are very sorry about the poor audio quality. The event was recorded live in Sydney and streamed over Zoom, hence the sound didn't come out so great. But, the conversation is so insightful and useful for anyone grappling with the divisiveness and mistruths of this moment, we really wanted to put it out there. The event took place in March this year. Big thanks to our partners Nature Footwear for sponsoring the episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello! Today we are sharing a conversation between two extraordinary women who have both featured in the pages of our magazine, Claire Dunn and Ella Noah Bancroft. Both are passionate rewilding facilitators, leading their communities into deeper relationship with the natural world, them selves and others. Claire has just released her second book, Rewilding the Urban Soul, which we’ll be hearing more about in an episode down the track. Here, she is getting us acquainted with Ella’s mission. Ella is a Bundjalong woman based in the Northern Rivers who writes stories and poems, leads workshops, has a podcast, and for several years has been running the Returning, an annual event that provides a place for all women to relearn the way of their past. We love the intersections in Ella’s work. As well as rewilding, she is thinking deep and wide about decolonisation, the rise of the feminine, belonging, sexuality and movement.Thanks to The Cape for sponsoring this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In anticipation of our music issue of Dumbo Feather, we're sharing an oldie but a goodie with you all. It’s our chat with Aussie music legend Xavier Rudd, which took place a few year’s back. Xavier is a folk, blues artist and multi-instrumentalist, whose songs speak to the heart of many environmental and social issues. He’s speaking here with another familiar voice, songwriter and Dumbo Feather friend, Lydia Fairhall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we hear from Fiona Armstrong, Executive Director of the Climate and Health Alliance. These legends exist to highlight the health impacts of climate change, believing that if the health sector leads on climate advocacy, then decision-makers and the public will act, because we the community care about health and trusts health voices. Earlier this year, The Climate and Health Alliance released a fascinating study titled “Australia in 2030” which presents narrative scenarios of 5 possible futures for our country. Fiona talks about those scenarios, as well as her work in climate and health advocacy, with Dumbo Feather contributor, Myke Bartlett.Thanks to Bank Australia for sponsoring this episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the things we love at Dumbo Feather is learning about new models of success which we can implement in our communities and nations to ensure more prosperity across the board - for people and planet, not just the top one percent. A trailblazer in this work is Kate Raworth, an economist for the University of Oxford who devised the doughnut economic model, which defines the social and environmental boundaries we must live within in order to thrive. If you haven’t come across this work already, we suggest you press pause now and familiarise yourself with the doughnut - there’s plenty about it online. And then dive into this scintillating chat with Kate, which was recorded mid-2020 as part of our Small Giants Academy Next Economy series. The conversation was facilitated by our publisher Berry Liberman. Also, check out the work of Regen Melbourne and their localised take on Kate’s work. The Melbourne Donought is being used to chat a more regenerative future for the city. You can learn more about it at regen.melbourne.This episode was produced on the lands of the Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations - we acknowledge the traditional owners, and elders past and present. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.