Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I are Far South Coast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We need houses, we need That's one of the biggest issues.
Like one of the biggest barriers for women is like
where are they going to go?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Hello? Ali Drouer with you. And as International Women's Day
arrives in our calendars, this episode is a salute to
every single woman on the Far South Coast who contributes
to making this part of the world a safe and
thriving place to live. Women who are mums, sisters, daughters,
grandma's carers and also great mates. Our guest for this
(00:32):
episode is Karen Wright. She's manager in the Biga Valley
of the Southern Women's Group. The daughter of Indian immigrants,
Karen is never one to sit silently with the injustices
of the world around her. A spell as a Biga
Valley Shire counselor in her twenties, this mother of two
has found her self advocating for improved services in mental
(00:54):
health and also in domestic violence response on the Far
South Coast. For many women, their lives are often shaped
by defining moments, and Karen Wright is no different.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I had lots of interesting things happen in my life,
but probably the worst thing that has ever happened is
the loss of my father to suicide in twenty seventeen.
So I'd already been working in community services. I was
working in age care while my children were quite young.
And Dad had lived with, you know, pretty complex mental
(01:26):
health throughout his life, but it was still we were
completely blindsided by his suicide death, and that set me,
I guess, on this journey like pivoting into the mental
health space and trying to understand, you know, the complexities
around suicide and mental health and what people can be
going through leading up to that. It's completely changed the
(01:47):
way I look at life, you know, the way I work,
and made me really passionate about working in this space.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And when you said blindsided, the fact that that was
his personality type that he just didn't want to burden
to me many people or what was it about that?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, I think there were some factors with Dad. You know,
he'd been living with depression for at least twenty years,
so we were kind of like he's always depressed. And
then one day out of the blue, I mean, like
he did lose his job a year prior, and one
day out of the blue, I couldn't get him on
the phone and I knew he was really depressed, so
(02:23):
I was thinking, Oh, who do I get in contact with?
And in the end, his psychologist rang the police to
ask him to do a welfare check because he hadn't
turned up to his appointment. And yeah, he decided to
take his own life. You know, you think like, oh,
he's living with depression and he's got this far, like
we're never going to lose him, and then suddenly he's gone.
We'd never had a last conversation to say goodbye. You know,
(02:46):
it's completely blindsided.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So obviously that experience has shaped you to some degree
with the way you approach the advocacy that you do
in your work in your professional life. What other qualities
do you think you have that makes what you bring
to the role exceptional As a woman.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I guess let's talk about my mum. My mum is
an incredibly strong woman that raised my brother and I
on her own, built her house as an owner builder
on her own, got us through everything on her own,
and like worked and taught us the value of work.
And she's this like pillar. I guess that my brother
(03:30):
and I have looked at our whole lives and gone
like we want to be like her. She's like the
strongest woman I know and has gone through so much crap,
and I take a lot of her. I take a
lot of her strength into everything I do because I'm like, well,
if she did it, I can do it. And with
that as well, I guess I take a lot of
like feminist values. I just hate it when women are
(03:52):
like I can't do.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
That, or you know, just they're just a little bit overwhelmed.
Is it the feeling of I mean, the worlds.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
The world is overwhelming for women at the moment. I
keep thinking about this and how like we take on
you know, I'm a single parent as well, and I
despite having an excellent co parent, I'm still constantly carrying
the mental load of raising our children. So it's always
the mum, you know, that's organizing the soccer practice and
(04:22):
paying the school fees and worrying about school photo day
and who's got money for the canteen and stuff. It's
always women and women are put into this position where
we're we're doing that and we're working and we're doing this,
and you know, like when I ran in the council
election in twenty twenty one, I guess that was why
that was one of the things I wanted to show people,
(04:43):
like we can do everything. We shouldn't have to do,
but we can. We're amazing. Look at us, and to
try and get rid of that defeatist like sort of
overwhelming attitude to us being able to think outside of
raising kids and doing the bare minimum. Women are amazing,
we can do everything.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
There's that term superwoman that gets thrown around so much.
I mean that comes with burdens as well.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, look, I don't know if I believe in the
term superwomen or superwomen. I think all women are amazing
and none are better than the other. And I take
this strength from my mother, but I had a horrible
childhood at the same.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Time for various traumatic reasons outside of my mum and
my father, and so, like all of us are at
different starting points, and all of us are superwomen.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I don't believe that there's like a better one. I
think we're all equal. I think that's the whole point. Like,
all women are equal. We all have different starting points
that we're running at, but you know, we're all equal.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So when people come into your resource center, when women
come into your resource center, do you feel that they're
at a point where they just can't cope. Hoping mechanisms
need to be looked at, or are they at the
exasperation point or are they what are they seeking from
you when they walk through your door.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's really a mix. So the Women's Resource Center works
as like sometimes as a first point of contact, it
might be you know, I had someone come in a
few weeks ago and she just wanted to know, like, Hey,
I've separated from my partner, but we're living in the
same house. How does that work? Can I go to
set a link and that's the first contact she's ever
had with a service, you know? And then obviously we
(06:34):
do have people coming in the door and they are
at crisis point or exasperation point and they need someone
to help them along that way. But we have people
coming in just because they want to have a cup
of tea with someone to talk to. We have people
coming in because they want to use the washing machine
or have a hot shower. It really just depends on
the individual person and the day.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
How do you log off from this kind of advocacy?
How do you separate yourself from getting too emotionally invested
in others?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Like having worked in some pretty complex community services roles.
I guess the one thing that I've learned over the
years is that it's not my story, it's their story,
which means at the end of them telling me their story,
I can like close that book and put it aside.
I really really big on self care. I have a
(07:30):
rule where no one's allowed to call me on my
way to work all my way home because that is
my time to listen to music and like put my
work hat on on the way to work and on
the way home. I'm putting everything aside for the day
so I can go home and be a good mum
and focus on my home life. And I think that's
a really important part of self care, is being able
to leave work at work, go home and embrace your life.
(07:52):
We were asked this in training the other day. We
had four days of domestic violence training that was paid
for by a grant, and they were asking, like, what
do you how do you focus on, like what sustains
you through your work? And I was like, concepts outside
of work, because having a wonderful social life and being
able to do things in my personal life is what
(08:14):
motivates me and keeps me sustained to do the work
I do during the work day.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Because you're no help to anyone if you're overloaded.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Absolutely, you can't do your work if you're burnt out.
And I think, you know, lots of us in the
community sector get to this point of burnout really quickly
because they're not recognizing the signs. Because it's not just burnout.
We also have you know, compassion fatigue like and that's
an early stage where you start, you know, you don't
want to answer the phone, and you start becoming cynical
(08:46):
at work. Those are things that you should be dealing
with as you see the symptoms so that you can
do the work properly. And if you need to take
time away from work, you take time away from work.
I'm really really firm with employees about you know, if
you're not feeling good, please don't come to work.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
More soon of our conversation with suicide prevention advocate Karen Wright,
including why she thinks more housing is the only answer
to rebuilding shattered lives on the Far South.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Coast i art Far South Coast, i art Far South Coast.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Ali Dreuer back with you, and we didn't have to
look too far to find a fabulous example of a
far South Coast woman worthy of a little acknowledgment ahead
of International Women's Day. Karen Wright leads the team at
the Southern Women's Group. She is community focused, straight talking,
a doer, and a major advocate for those who have
lost loved ones to suicide and those seeking support to
(09:47):
find a safe haven from domestic violence. Karen Wright hates
the stigma attached to either of those subjects. She says
the region is still very much in recovery mode from
Black Summer, and can we have a chat about resilience
because that's the far South Coast community has had its
share of trauma, the twenty twenty twenty one bush fires,
(10:10):
et cetera. Are you still seeing the repercussions of that
PTSD that maybe went unchecked at the time.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Oh, look, I think the bigger valley community is still
dealing with the effects of those fires. I know I personally,
like if I smell smoke or I hear a fire engine,
I'm immediately on alert, Like, where is it is it
going to be big? Is this going to impact us?
Do we need to get our safety bag together and
with that so that people are already on edge. But
(10:40):
with that, we've still got the impacts from the fires.
You know, we lost over four hundred homes in the
Bigger Valley in the bushfires, which means there are still
people who are living in tents and chares who haven't
been able to rebuild yet. There's still like ongoing housing
effects that are coming in now that aren't just around
(11:01):
mental health like m PTSD from the fire itself. And
so we're seeing that as a women's service, dealing with
people who are escaping domestic violence, like where do we
put them?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Is enough being done to address domestic violence in the
Bigger Valley in your opinion, you're on the front line.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Not yet, I would say, I mean, we have changes
in the laws around coercive control, the government's announced funding
for police services. I would really love to see. You know,
our Southern Women's Group also runs the WDVCAS program, the
Women's Court Advocacy Service in Narah. We actually have a
(11:41):
staff member who sits in the police station during the
week to support women coming in. I would love to
see that in the Bigger Valley. I love to see
more education because there's a lot of people in this
area that don't really understand what DV is. We probably
need to work more closely with the multicultural community and
do some more education and advocacy around that. And we
(12:02):
need we need houses, we need That's one of the
biggest issues. Like one of the biggest barriers for women
is like where are they going to go?
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Did you always think that you're going to be a
bit of a trailblazer in your local community and you know,
be such a strong advocate for issues like domestic violence
and women's rights.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know what, Yes, Actually I've always been this ambitious.
I still remember being in year two at Humbler Primary
School and we had to do this play. It was
something it was about the democracy and everyone got as
signed a role so the citizens were allowed to vote
on community issues. And I was a farmer and I
wasn't allowed to vote in the play. And I just
(12:50):
remember being furious in year two. I mean like no,
but I want to say, like I want to lead here.
And I feel like that's just carried on into my
adult life, you know, Like I was the same, Like
when I ran in the election in twenty twenty one,
I wanted to say I wanted to see it at
the table. I wanted to make decisions.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, are you done a little bit with the leadership
aspirations or do you still see yourself potentially moving into
a higher level of politics.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Oh, look, I might run again for council one day.
I don't think I'm going to pursue any other level
of government. I just really like local government. It's you know,
it's the ones that deal with the playgrounds and the
bridges and the roads outside your house, and they pick
up the bins and it's the most local level that
you see everywhere. I really love that. I don't want
(13:41):
to get into politics. I don't really align with a party.
I don't want to be the one that cops it
from the whole community. I see people at Christy mcmah
and I'm like, I don't know how you do it.
I think you're amazing. I don't know how she does it.
I don't know where she gets her strength from, but
it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Who are the wonderful people around you, The wonderful women
around you, Karen, that you look to for inspiration.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh look, obviously my mother, and then I have incredible
friends and colleagues within the community services sector who I
look up to. Incredible women that just get it and
they just get on with it. And they help people
and they do a good job. And those are the
people I keep close to me.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I guess your wish for any fast South Coast woman
on International Women's Day.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, I guess. I mean like I wish all women
on International Women's Day wellness and good well being, and
I wish like purpose and motivation to seek out that
purpose and run with it. I think that's what we need,
is women. We need purpose and we need to come together.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Many thanks to Karen Wright for stopping down in her
busy day to have a chat, and you can find
out more about the impressive work her team does and
the services that they offer via Southernwomen's Group dot org
dot au. That's all for now. On iheartfas South Coast.
I'm Ali Drauer and I'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
iHeart far South Coast.