Black Magic Woman with Mundanara Bayles

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It's National Missing Persons Week, and this yarn is one of the most important I have had on Black Magic Woman.
When Ginny Jones' little brother Jai didn't come home, her family knew something wasn't right. What happened next, and how fast our mob mobilised when the systems that were meant to help stood still, became the reason The Disappeared Project exists today.
The Disappeared Project is Australia's first Aboriginal-led organisation walking beside families whose loved ones have been disappeared. They stand with families through police, media and community searches, they are building the first First Nations-led database of our disappeared people, and they are working to change the way our people are spoken about and searched for. It is work that should have existed decades ago, carried right now by volunteers.
I sit down with co-founders Ginny Jones and Kevin Yow Yeh for a yarn about love, grief, and what our communities build when we refuse to let each other be forgotten.
This is a heavy yarn, and an important one. Please look after yourself as you listen.
If anything in this episode brings things up for you, please reach out. 13YARN 13 92 76 for First Nations peoples, and Lifeline 13 11 14.
To learn more about The Disappeared Project, follow them on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook, or visit thedisappearedproject.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheDisappearedProject
Justice for Monique
Monique Clubb, a proud Butchulla and Woppaburra woman, disappeared in June 2013 after travelling from Hervey Bay to Brisbane. Her family are petitioning the Queensland Minister for Police and the Commissioner of the Queensland Police Service to offer a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her remains. Sign and share the petition: change.org
Website: www.blackmagicwoman.com.au
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Black Magic Woman is produced by BlakCast.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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There are community legal services for so many of us. For women. For elders. For people with disability. For refugees. For mob navigating the justice system. But when Sarah Ibrahim went looking for one built for race and racism, there wasn't a single one in this whole country. So she built it herself.
In this yarn I sit down with Sarah, an Egyptian-Australian lawyer, human rights advocate and the founder of the Racial Justice Centre, the first community legal service in Australia dedicated entirely to racial justice. Sarah came to this country carrying the knowledge of what it means to move between worlds, and she has spent nearly seventeen years using the law to fight for people who've been told their story doesn't count.
This yarn goes places I didn't expect. Sarah is doing some of the most important work happening in this country right now, and after this one, you'll understand why I wanted her voice on this podcast.
Resources and Links
Racial Justice Centre: https://www.racialjustice.au
Follow the Racial Justice Centre on Instagram: @racialjustice.au
Central Lawyers (Sarah's commercial law firm): https://www.centrallawyers.com.au
If this yarn brought things up for you, please reach out to 13YARN on 13 92 76, a free and confidential service where you can yarn with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander crisis supporter.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I didn't know Akala Newman's full story before we sat down to yarn. And I think that's exactly why this conversation hit me the way it did.
Akala is a proud Wiradjuri and Gadigal woman from Sydney. A performer, songwriter, educator, and cultural producer who has been creating on her own terms since day one. She opened the Sydney Opera House New Year's Eve fireworks with her song Calling Country and is the founder of Gili Gatherings.
But this yarn wasn't about any of that. Not really.
It was about duality. About what it costs to move between worlds every single day. About the exhaustion of code-switching, of always being surveilled, of being Black no matter how light-skinned you are or how many spaces you are invited into.
It was about her dad, and the sacrifices he made. About the nephews and nieces she wants to look up one day and think, I can do this too. About art as the thing that holds it all together when the cycle of trauma feels impossible to break.
Akala Newman is on a rise. And this yarn is just the beginning.
Resources and Links
Akala Newman — akalanewman.com
Gili Gatherings — follow @giligatherings on Instagram
Website: www.blackmagicwoman.com.au
Follow us on Instagram - @blackmagicwomanpodcast
If you enjoyed this episode, please ‘Subscribe’ on Apple Podcasts or ‘Follow’ on your Spotify app and tell your friends and family about us! If you’d like to contact us, please email, info@blackmagicwoman.com.au
Black Magic Woman is produced by BlakCast.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She left a high-flying career at Google to start a drinks company. Three years later, she's on shelves at Dan Murphy's, on Amazon, and secured a $125,000 investment from a Shark Tank judge.
Tara Croker is a proud Wiradjuri woman and founder of Yaala Sparkling, an Indigenous-owned beverage company using native Australian botanicals to create premium alcohol-free drinks. In this yarn, Tara opens up about the moment she realised the native food industry was worth billions and Indigenous people made up almost none of the ownership, and how that became the fire behind her business.
She talks candidly about the highs and lows of building something from scratch, the mentors who believed in her before she believed in herself, and her Shark Tank journey from application to deal. It's a conversation about purpose, resilience, and backing yourself.
Resources and Links
Yaala Sparkling: yaalasparkling.com
Website: www.blackmagicwoman.com.au
Follow us on Instagram - @blackmagicwomanpodcast
If you enjoyed this episode, please ‘Subscribe’ on Apple Podcasts or ‘Follow’ on your Spotify app and tell your friends and family about us! If you’d like to contact us, please email, info@blackmagicwoman.com.au
Black Magic Woman is produced by BlakCast.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this yarn, I sit down with Sharon Winsor, a proud Ngemba Weilwan woman from Western NSW and the founder of Indigiearth, one of Australia's most awarded Aboriginal-owned businesses. For 30 years Sharon has been sharing First Nations food, knowledge, and culture with the world, not from ambition, but from a deep connection to Country and a knowing that this knowledge belongs to all of us.
We talk about building a business from scratch, the fight to keep culture at the centre of an industry that has largely shut First Nations people out, and why less than 2% of Australia's native food industry is owned by First Nations people. We also get into the moment Sharon nearly skipped an awards night and ended up winning the Bill Granger Trailblazer Award without knowing she was even nominated.
Resources and Links
Indigiearth: www.indigiearth.com.au Australian Native Food Festival at Carriageworks: https://carriageworks.com.au/events/australian-native-food-festival/ Support First Nations businesses: www.supplynation.org.au
Website: www.blackmagicwoman.com.au
Follow us on Instagram - @blackmagicwomanpodcast
If you enjoyed this episode, please ‘Subscribe’ on Apple Podcasts or ‘Follow’ on your Spotify app and tell your friends and family about us! If you’d like to contact us, please email, info@blackmagicwoman.com.au
Black Magic Woman is produced by BlakCast.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.