Storytelling with Mariam Issa & Morag Gamble

In this episode of Sense-making in a Changing World, I speak with, Mariam Issa, story-teller, author, speaker, community gardener, community-builder, human rights activist and  ambassador for the Refugee Council of Australia.

A few years ago I met Mariam at an Australasian Permaculture Conference where she was a keynote speaker. We've been dear friends ever since. She has come to stay with me here in the ecovillage and I have visited her at the RAW Garden - a community garden in her suburban backyard in Melbourne.

Mariam arrived in Australia as a refugee over 20 years ago from Somalia, via Kenya. We speak together in the middle of Refugee Week here in Australia 14-20 June.

Mariam talks of how, through permaculture she found a way to belong in her new home, to connect, to contribute and help others. In her backyard, Mariam created a community garden where people come to grow, harvest and share delicious lovingly-prepared food right there in the garden. There are regular cooking classes led by people from all different cultures, regular gardening days and story-telling circles.

Her inspirational way of storytelling uplifts and transforms. She awakens the storyteller in each of us, and shows how, through connecting this way, we are able to make sense.

Links to Mariam's work

A Resilient Life  is Mariam’s book about her refugee journey from Somalia to Australia. 

Mariam and I also have chapters in the book Reclaiming the Urban Commons

Mariam is featured here in Dumbo Feather

Watch this clip about Mariam's Garden

Transcript
Check the transcript tab

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• Check out the Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast website.

This podcast is hosted by Morag Gamble, founder of the Permaculture Education Institute - the leading-edge international online school for integrated permaculture design, education, leadership and [pr]activism.⁠

• Explore Morag Gamble's permaculture courses. You can start today.

Morag also shares conversations through monthly masterclasses, Our Permaculture Life YouTube, and monthly film screenings.

This podcast is broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage food forest on beautiful Gubbi Gubbi country.