Introducing Emerging Voices

Satria 0:12
Hello, community.... SYN Radio. Both In The age it as emergent from so every. So, abit of... [?] my name is Satria... content creator, Disability, I broke it and I wrote to...so this is my first time on air, so bear with me... if I [?]. Today by my co host, Ryan.

Ryan 2:11
Hello everyone. It's great to be here.

Satria 2:14
Great - happy to ... so... [?] dancing. So I will do that as [?]. I I wneed to... a bit COVID.... What do you do?

Ryan 2:57
Well, what I do in my spare time is mostly I visit my family and friends, play, play my play my games, watch TV with my mum and watch stuff on my iPad.

Satria 3:09
That's definitely a bribe. Any good [?change]? No option that the moment?

Ryan 3:21
Well, there are a few movies that are coming out, and they're pretty good. But other than that, no TV shows at the moment.

Satria 3:31
Amazing. It's not good to be able to relax act like something. So my second question to Ryan is, have you travelled anywhere?

Ryan 4:01
Oh yes, I have travelled. I have, well, I've only been, I've only been to my home, home in Queensland. But other than that, I have been to the city a few times. So I've done a bit of travelling, but I haven't been to any other countries. Ah,

Satria 4:19
I love Queensland. What part?

Ryan 4:25
Somewhere in the Gold Coast,

Satria 4:29
it's lovely out there... okay, I haven't been there in a variety I would look forward to cover back then...

Ryan 4:47
I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Satria 4:49
My third question is, what did they do on the weekend? And. The food that [?shouted]?

Ryan 5:02
Oh, well, on the weekends, well, I really, I... relaxed at home and called some of my friends and went for a walk with Mum. But other than that, everything went smoothly okay.

Satria 5:20
Yeah, it's good to have a really smooth weekend.

Ryan 5:30
Yes, it's always nice to have a smooth weekend.

Satria 5:34
Yeah, I wake up to the should, know, I do really love... did she know?

Ryan 5:53
Well now I've got some questions for you. Now, this is a holiday topic. What was your most favorite, memorable holiday, good or bad?

Satria 6:11
We went to Singapore.Lovely. We went to Penang, it was a [?] favourite place. And [?] every age already and holiday designation.

Ryan 6:55
Well, it sounds like you've had a pretty big holiday travelling. Who did you go with?

Satria 7:13
And so we went with... [?] and over there... so yeah...

Ryan 7:19
Hmm, okay, so you went with your family. So what did you do there?

Satria 7:26
We caught up with family, people... [?] both sides [?] a lot of... [?] family, [?] over there. We were in Singapore, we see... [?] it was really fun, I was while like...

Ryan 8:04
Sounds like... sounds like you did a lot in your travels.

Satria 8:08
Yeah, I love to [?].

Ryan 8:14
I'll bet you do well. You're you're listening to Emerging Voices on SYN. We'll be right back. So now we're going to play a little track from Fallout Boy called the Phoenix. Hope everyone is ready to rise up like the immortal bird and burn everyone's worries away. Let's do it. (MUSIC)

Adam 8:38
And that was Silverchair with Straight Lines - the legendary Australian band. And speaking of legends, you are back with us here on emerging voices on SYN, and I'm here. I'm Adam, and with me today is Zimona as my co-host for this segment, and I'm just going to be asking you a few questions for the next few minutes.

Zimona 9:06
Sounds great.

Adam 9:07
Yeah. So I guess for our listeners to know, what do you do for your work or studies?

Zimona 9:15
I've done a few bits and pieces here and there in the past, study wise, but at the moment, I'm not studying, and I'm also in between jobs, like I'm doing a couple of jobs here and there in regards to mental health advocacy,

Adam 9:28
Nice, yep.

Zimona 9:29
So I enjoy doing that, but for the rest, I'm enjoying spending some time with my partner and also a lot of different hobbies.

Adam 9:39
Nice. And I mean, obviously radio is one of those said hobbies tell us about where the radio dream came from.

Simona 9:46
It started all when I was very young. I received a Boombox from my parents for my birthday, my 10th birthday. And, yeah, it was something that I really enjoyed doing, pretending like I was on a radio host, and my little brother would help me and be my co-host, and we'd make our own little yeah advertisements as well, record all the songs and stuff. So that was really fun. And then I went to [?sleep] for a really long time, and I loved listening to music, and still, you know, love music. I love playing music. And then this opportunity came up. I heard from this opportunity via the skits Inc and Eliza Hall reached out to Heidi and said that this opportunity was coming up, and I was really super interested in it, and that's why I'm here today.

Adam 10:42
Awesome. Yeah, and I mean... going on your music taste that you referenced there. If you were to summarise your music taste in like three artists, who would it be and why?

Zimona 10:54
Oh wow, that's a really... I would have to have a bit of a think about that. It's very eclectic. I like trance music, so back in the day, that would probably be Tiesto. So one of the other, yeah, composers I really enjoy listening to is music by Hans Zimmer. And then for the third one, it's just really eclectic. I've got music on my playlist from Sultan, Shepherd, Elder, Brook, Flume, Muse. So it's all it's all there, very different, yeah. So that's a little bit of a insight into my taste of music.

Adam 11:43
Yeah, love that. Just, just a real mix of everything and yeah, and..

Zimona 11:49
Just, listen to music in general, really.

Adam 11:50
Yeah, the experience of music and live performance, such a great feeling. What's the best piece of advice you have, received from someone around you?

Zimona 12:02
To not sweat the small stuff. It's a super well known one. But I, yeah, I tend to kind of overthink things. And... yeah, one of the things that was said to me is, you know, will it matter now, from like, five years onwards? So that's something that really stuck with me.

Adam 12:23
Yeah, I think a lot of our viewers will relate to this piece of advice a lot. So yeah. I mean, if it's not, if it's not something that's gonna stick with you in five years, then it really isn't, as you say, that that big of a problem.

Zimona 12:41
So true.

Adam 12:41
Yeah, so and... for my final question, I have here, you have been granted one wish. What would it be for? And it cannot be for more wishes.

Zimona 12:55
Yeah, that's... interesting one... I think I'd wish for everyone that I love to live a long and healthy life.

Adam 13:06
Very wholesome.

Zimona 13:08
Thank you. So I guess this is the time for me to get to know you a little bit better, and for the listeners to get to know you a little bit better?

Adam 13:16
Absolutely.

Zimona 13:18
So what are some hobbies that you really enjoy doing. And why?

Adam 13:23
Hobbies... I mean, obviously, I've been a volunteer at this station for... yeah, a few years. I've hosted one of our fellow shows, that's The Hoist in the past, which is Australian music... I love attending gigs, obviously, yeah, and also, I love going to different sporting events as well. I mean, Formula One's my... biggest passion, you know? And yeah, cricket as well, and all that. So it's, I've got a few hobbies of various degrees, but yeah..

Simona 14:07
Yeah, sounds like it. It's very varied. What do you like the most about your hobbies?

Adam 14:13
I mean, with, with music, it, it's the connection for me, like there's nothing more pure than the connection with, you know, a performer on stage who's, you know, kind of pleading their heart out with all their songwriting and all that. So I love getting to know people you know that way, and finding more underground acts. And then, I mean, obviously, for the complete opposite thing, you know, the formula one side and all that, that's just been something that's always been in my life. It probably started, you know, fast, fast cars go vroom. But now I don't know, it's just. The competitive aspect. 

And yeah, once again, personality. Again, I love the personalities of the drivers following, following their career. And yeah, just just enjoying the whole experience from race to race. And yeah... same with a lot of other sports, I guess. So, yeah.

Zimona 15:24
Sounds really great. Sounds like you've got a really broad, you know, variety of hobbies.

Adam 15:29
Thank you.

Zimona 15:30
And... if you had a superpower, what would it be?

Adam 15:35
Superpower? ... I know the initial one is to always go flying, but at the same time, you'd have to think of government airspaces. So I think you rule that one out. I don't know. I mean, I feel like you know the ability to read everything that another person is thinking in a moment, you know, telekinesis type thing... it would be quite handy to know when people are telling the truth to you or not.

Zimona 16:16
So true.

Adam 16:17
Yeah. I mean, I don't know what. I don't made it a manipulative way, but more of a, you know, just, just being able to read the read the whole process. And, yeah.

Zimona 16:28
Yeah, for sure (LAUGH) Good choice. If you could run your own radio show, what would it be about?

Adam 16:36
Run my own radio show? That's a good question, because I actually have run my own radio show in the past, a seasonal show. Here it was like a, I don't know if you know, Charlie Pickering and his show, The Weekly... so it's kind of like a summary of the news of the week in kind of a comedic fashion. So I so that was the first one I did for actually running my own show. 

But, yeah, if I was doing it more now, I probably would be more along the lines of, you know, The Hoist, as I mentioned, the past Australian music that that's a passion of mine... I always like looking for more underground acts that, I mean, you know, independent acts that aren't doing it for the money, they're doing it for... you know, for the passion and... yeah, just love everything about music and everything. So it would probably be, I know, kind of like, Take Five with Zan Rowe... where, you get a different artist in each week, and you just get to get to know 'em, about why they...love certain types of music...

Zimona 17:53
That sounds awesome.

Adam 17:54
Yeah, yeah. Just just a... little conversational show with various independent artists that they obviously need the publicity and and support that that I mean listeners like this, this program here, and I mean the broader general public.

Zimona 18:14
Thank you so much for that answer. That was really interesting to get to know you a little bit more in that regard. What would your dream job be?

Adam 18:24
Dream job? See, this question comes up occasionally when, when I'm doing, like, recruiting things and all that. And the thing is, I know, I know the answer should be that I say video editor for Martin Scorsese or something like that, you know? But, but it's always hard for me as a question, because in my mind, that's, that's Everest, and I haven't even reached base camp, you know, so... it's like I set realistic goals to get to base camp of Everest before I even think of what Everest is. 

So, yeah, I mean, obviously I'd be, you know, biggest editor in Hollywood and all that. But, I mean, I know I'm not... I mean, I could reach there, but at the same time, it's... gonna be a long journey to ever reach something like that. So, yeah,

Zimona 19:26
So what's the closest kind of... the next step, I guess, in yourcareer?

Adam 19:32
Yeah, closest would... I love to do, like, editing for... I mean, obviously, you know, I have a passion for music, as I say, so like, editing for... I mean, I'm just gonna say a name out here, like a G-Fip, a [?great array], you know, like Australian artists that... I really respect, and a lot of the times I know them, and as, you know, in a more personal connection and like, I just yeah, maybe, like, you know, wholesome environment, but also being able to have that creative freedom to... create a music video and be involved in the process, and that, so yeah.

Zimona 20:18
Amazing. That sounds really great. Well, thank you so much for that. That was really interesting getting to know you a bit more. This is Emerging Voices on SYN. Hope you enjoyed getting to know us a bit more. Adam and Simona. The next song is a choice you've made, Adam. So Adam, tell the listeners what and why you chose this song.

Adam 20:36
So my choice here, this is an artist called Darcy Haven. She's from Perth WA - and this is a song called A Letter, and it's part of a new EP, Better Left Unsaid. So... she's a smaller artist that deserves more respect, in my opinion, been involved in like Unearthed and other platforms. I think we've featured her on the Sweet 16 here at one stage earlier last year, as far as I know. Be it A Letter, it's... a really nice song. The vocals are incredible. And, yeah, I could go on about the songwriting for ages, obviously... but I think it's just, as I say, Better Left Unsaid. So this is A Letter by Darcy Haven, and you're you're with Emerging Voices on SYN.

Imogen 21:40
That was No Apologies. By [?Jacketine], a great local artist. This is SYN, Emerging Voices, and I'm Imogen,

Sammy 21:50
Hello, and I'm Sammy. I'm technically not a part of the Emerging Voices team on air, so I'm just jumping in here today to chat with Imogen. How you going, Imogen? How's your day been?

Imogen 22:00
It's been slow and cold, but not as cold as usual. I've kind of rugged up like it was last week, where it genuinely felt like the Arctic chill, whereas, like this is actually a relatively mild Melbourne winter day.

Sammy 22:13
Yeah, so I haven't actually looked into it, but have we passed Solstice yet? Are we...

Imogen 22:17
Yes, that was on Friday night, I believe.

Sammy 22:20
The theme of today's show has kind of been slowly introducing the team to our listeners. There's quite a few people that are part of Emerging Voices, so not everyone was on air today as well. So people will hear more Emerging Voices next week. But just to introduce yourself a bit, Imogen, what are some of your interests? What piqued your interest about joining the Emerging Voices team here as well?

Imogen 22:20
(LAUGH) Yeah, I'm just always interested in trying new things and learning new things. Also, I think that community radio is just absolutely brilliant. So... loved the opportunity to get involved, learn more about you know, how it's made and yeah, look into any opportunities to get involved.

Sammy 23:06
Do you see yourself getting involved with other community stations, once we're wrapped here with Emerging Voices?

Imogen 23:11
Yeah, I'd be really interested in learning more about opportunities.

Sammy 23:14
Yeah, amazing. What are some of the stations that you enjoy listening to?

Imogen 23:18
Oh, look, one of my longtime favourites is PBS. You just get such an eclectic mix of music and really passionate presenters and, like, fantastic, obscure music comes on. So, yeah, that's definitely one of my long term favourites. Isn't it great? How, like, I just, yeah, I love how people get this little platform to just do a deep dive into their special interest and just share it with whoever wants to listen. It's fantastic.

Samm 23:41
Yeah, no, I love it so much. With Emerging Voices here, is there any particular goals you have that you'd like to kind of achieve while you're on the show or...?

Imogen 23:50
Mm, well, I've... enjoyed learning a little bit more about community broadcasting standards and some of the skills needing for presenting. This is not going to make me sound incredibly proactive, but honestly, I'm just interested in learning whatever we have the opportunity to learn, and seeing what I can get out of it.

Sammy 24:12
Yeah, amazing, amazing.

Imogen 24:14
And I'd have to go with the flow, a lot of the time. I've got quite fluctuating health, so it can be very difficult to plan ahead, and if I do plan ahead, there's no guarantee I'll actually be able to follow through on what happens a lot of the time. So... hence my flexible attitude.

Sammy 24:30
Totally. Totally.

Imogen  24:31
It's a bit of a shift in headspace. I think that, like, it's been interesting to see that during COVID and then post COVID, during COVID, there was a necessary shift towards flexibility, but it was very much driven by a sense of, this is an emergency situation. We have to adapt and keep keep the books rolling, so to speak. And it's been really interesting to see how some places have gone with that as the restrictions have been pared back, and they've kept those practices in place and said these actually work for our employees or volunteers, and like, we should be doing what we can to make life easier and more manageable for people in their lives. 

And then you've got other places, and other other sectors and organisations that have done the opposite and said, like, Okay, this isn't strictly okay for us, any... like this isn't strictly required anymore. We want to go back to just rules that... I don't even know if they realise why they were there in the first place, it's just like how it's been done. And want to revert to it. But yeah, obviously community radio bit more on the people side of things. There's a lot of personal adjustment. 

I think for me, one of the biggest shocks to for me becoming chronically ill with a few conditions, but one of them is not that dissimilar to long COVID in some regards... one of the biggest shocks to me was how the world treats you rather than... and how... exclusionary the world can be just to exist in and participate in. So yeah, there's the personal adjustments, and then there's that, Oh my goodness, I'm now trying to function within systems that basically don't want me to be there - whether that's workplaces, education, like, even just public spaces. 

And I don't mean to be demoralising when I say this, it's just, it is... a genuine, I don't know, I want to say burden, as in, it's a burden placed on us by... kind of an ableist, by an ableist approach that we have in general, within certain planning, even a lot of architecture the way organisations are built, they're not built with inclusivity as a central part of that tenant. And the result is that a lot of us are, like, actively or passively excluded. Like for me, starting to use mobility. 

One of the biggest shocks for me was just realising, when I was going past a shop that I used to just duck in, like I used to duck into Haig's in the city, if I was there, and just pick up a couple of truffles or something for, you know, sustenance for the... ride home. And I realized that I couldn't get into the shop because there's a step to the entrance, and I ended up, sort of, you know, flagging down a very reluctant sales person and asking them to help me, but... yeah, look, it was a shock to my system. It took a long time to adjust, and it still pops up every now again as something and... 

Yeah, just when you were mentioning people adjusting to being chronically ill, I think it's important that we acknowledge that... it's not just a personal responsibility for those who are chronically ill. It's something that we all have a responsibility to to see, to start to even recognise the barriers that might not impact us as individuals, but do impact a lot of people and a lot of members of our community, start to notice it and start to pay attention and speak up and do what we can to to make sure that it's well known, that this is a priority for us, and that we care, and that we... want to build a world that does better.

Sammy 28:13
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, you referenced, like architecture and, you know, some, some stuff like that, which Melbourne has a funny... you know, heritage listing. There's a lot of buildings where people are just like, No, we won't make it better, because it's old and it's important for some reason,

Imogen 28:29
it's everywhere and like, I don't know if this is entirely the right terminology for here, but I find it hilarious that we hold the esteem of look. I live in old houses. I've always lived in old houses. I have great, like, appreciation for history, but we're talking about cool, like, we're talking about houses that white people built on stolen land, or buildings that are less than 200 years old in in pretty much all cases, built on stolen lands, and... oh, land that we have such a short history on, and that we prioritise that above honouring the human rights of disabled people for access to public spaces.

Sammy 29:11
Yeah.

Imogen 29:13
I mean, it is often a lot better in places like, you know, banks, post offices, supermarkets, they have they're often a lot more complex. Compliant with disability access standards. But even things like pharmacies - try going into a chemist warehouse with a mobility aid, whether that's a walking frame, mobility scooter or a wheelchair, they've got boxes in the middle of aisles. You can't go in to half of the aisles. Trying to turn around is next to impossible. Like, this is a pharmacy. This is an essential service. This is what you would hope would be one of the exceptions. 

But then, you know, you look at restaurants and other venues and it's like, yeah, if there is an accessible entrance, it's generally like, you know, round the back, you go past the bins and... you know, go down some cobblestones, which aren't exactly... turning into a bit of a rant here, I don't mean this in the negative sense, it's just more of a this is the reality of what we're working with. And yeah, there are, there are exceptions of people who were doing better. But yeah, I do find the... I do find that heritage seems to be used as an excuse an awful lot.

Sammy  30:23
Yes, yeah, I would definitely agree. And I definitely agree on that discrepancy. Of like, there's genuine sacred sites that won't be given the grace of heritage, but like, the Federation Square is a heritage site. It's... an interesting time.

Imogen 30:39
Yeah, I would also say, just encourage everybody to find disabled public figures and follow them and listen to them. Just listen to disabled people and their experiences. They're not going to be entirely consistent, but you will gain insight. Alot of accessibility committees and various offices, there won't be people with lived experience. There are, I'm sure, a lot of people who are excellent at their jobs, but they will be working on specific guidelines that, again, don't always include people with lived experience. 

Or you'll have, they'll have panels, or they'll run consultation sessions with disabled people and not necessarily implement a lot of their feedback, which is... like we had that happen recently with the current proposed NDIS bill, the recommendations of consultations with disabled people seems to have been completely put to the side. And that's a really common experience, like a lot of disabled people I know, we just stopped going to those types of consultation because it seems like it's a tick box activity at the end of the day. What we really need is people with lived experience at every level of the decision making and implementation process. Ideally.

Sammy 31:59
Yeah, nice not to put you on the spot, but do you have any kind of disability advocates or activists that come to mind that be good to send people to?

Imogen 32:09
Including in Melbourne - I mean, Carly Findlay is one of the best known at the moment, I think, and she shares regularly a lot of great content. Dr George Teleporos...

Sammy 32:21
Nice.

Imogen 32:22
He is on X... the site, formally known as Twitter. I'm not personally, but he is. I think he's also on Instagram, and he's done a lot of fantastic research, and is a phenomenal leader in the space. And there are, there are many more. I can come back, I'll come back with a list at some point.

Sammy 32:43
Yeah, for a future week.

Imogen 32:44
Oh, thanks for having me here on emerging, Emerging Voices on SYN. I've been Imogen. I still am. I will continue to be. Thanks for following my rambling thoughts on everything accessibility and Melbourne life. Here is Some Lessons by Melody [?Gardow].

Ryan 33:04
Well, this has been Emerging Voices at SYN, we bid you farewell... from me, Ryan... Adam?

Adam 33:13
I bid you adieu.

Ryan 33:16
Zimona?

Zimona 33:17
See you later, everyone.

Ryan 33:20
And...

Satria 33:21
Love... take... [?]

Ryan 33:26
Okay. Well, so before that, before we truly head off, here's one last song. This is Fireflies by [?Our City]. Hope you all enjoy it.