[00:00:00] Yemi: Sometimes I wonder, what are you doing this Yemi? What did you do in a past life that would now have you hosting a podcast, which talks about trauma, you know, the stuff that no one really wants to talk about. And so I really had to sit with myself and answer the question. You really gonna do a recording every week?
[00:01:00] The answer is maybe. maybe not part of decolonizing is unsubscribing from this notion that I must always produce and so I will listen to my mind, my body and my soul for when I want to speak, interview and not. But I wanted to speak to some of the things that have happened recently. We are in April 2024, that happened recently in Sydney.
[00:01:29] There was an unfortunate. offence of a man who has been labelled of having mental health issues, illness, stabbed six people, five women, one man, and I think it was within a couple of days a priest had also been stabbed. Now Australia really prides itself on having gun laws and gun reforms since the 2019 I have no other word but massacre that happened in New Zealand, another Australian man.
[00:02:06] And I share all of this and really remind you, especially for those who are new to my podcast, to just practice self care and pause whenever you need to. I rock back and forth a lot more than I used to. Or for some of you, just tap, just tap your collarbone or tap the side of your palm if you find the conversation a little bit distressing or you find yourself So just wanted to leave your body.
[00:02:30] On the premise you're in a safe space physically. Um, you have my word that you're in a safe space psychologically and socially. So just bring yourself back into your body. So going back to these events that I mentioned. took place. I monitor people's behaviors, language, how they respond, bearing in mind that this is, you know, in between all the other chaos that's happening in the world, the war in Sudan, the genocide in Palestine, the constant terror that Jewish people will also be facing because of the war and the genocide in Palestine.
[00:03:13] And if you've listened to my previous podcast, maybe two podcasts ago, I really highlight an understanding and an empathy I, I have for a lot of people that are on the different sides of war and genocide. And I appreciate that, you know, you may have a different opinion to me and that's okay. And I ask him, we disagree and have discourse and not feel the need.
[00:03:36] to stab or kill each other. Real talk. Can we? Can we disagree without feeling the need to want harm for the other person? And then I have a part of my ego that says, but get me, this is how humanity has been doing it since the beginning of time. Off with the head if you disagreed. And I know that we have evolved and so that's where I have hope that we can keep evolving.
[00:04:08] Where am I going with this? Firstly, just the space to air out all the confusion, because this is complex and ambiguous loss that we are all facing. We are trying to make sense of a world that we have either been born into or we have bought into, which is that there will be peace eternally.
[00:04:33] And part of the decolonizing lens I want to attach to that, without being negative or a Debbie Downer, is to ask, can we? The peace that some of us are looking for, which is that there'll be no ill, no ill thoughts or actions taken out on anyone else, that we will not be harmed and our loved ones will not be harmed.
[00:04:57] Is that reasonable? Considering history leaves clues, is it reasonable that there'll be no harm in? And I know you don't want to hear this, but radical honesty, like if we are going to get through and if we are going to sustain humanity, we're going to need to start having difficult conversations. Because where it may have been feasible for us to put our head in the sand or to assume that trauma can only be experienced by those who are constantly being put on the front line, whether back in the day it was actual physical war, whether it's the nurse or the paramedic who is going to have to deal with people who sadly lives have been taken or they have been injured.
[00:05:42] I mean, what are we expecting? Let's do this as a community. This isn't blame. This isn't shame. This is, let's have the conversation. What are we expecting to happen? When people, more now than ever before, appear to be really close to the front line. But what we have done is given the impression that we cannot handle it or we should not think about it.
[00:06:15] So we do not bring down the morale. So we do not be Debbie Downers. Yet most of us are facing this daily. And when I say most, I really do mean most because all you've got to do is have access to social media or regular media. And I appreciate that some of us feel the best way we can deal with this is to switch off media.
[00:06:36] Doesn't mean it's not happening. And that's just for those of us who are able to witness these stories from the comfort of our homes. What of those who are in the stories we are watching?
[00:06:52] So without knowing what I'm even gonna name this because it just feels like a ramble and I actually think rambles are okay for us. Because whatever we don't bring out either in words or moving through our body, just ends up being festered in our bodies and the body does keep the score. Yes, some of these might be taboo, but we're better off actually talking about it.
[00:07:18] I send my love to those who lost people in the stabbing at Bundy Junction, Westfield. To those who were harmed, and I know that there are many stories that associate the stabbing of the priest and those that were injured who were in church. Question I want to ask you, really, ask yourself, and you don't need to tell anyone if you don't.
[00:07:43] Would you be willing to harm someone if they thought different to you? Because that's what we've got to figure out. Where are we going as a species? And that's what's on my mind today. Love, light and healing.