Welcome to the final episode of season 2 of Being Biracial! Today we are chatting to each other about:

• Our reflections on this season

• How age impacts our conversations about being mixed-race

• Processing identity through the creation of art

• Maria’s experience at the Matariki wānanga

• Threads at the Immigration Museum

• The difficulty of creating work about deeply personal things

• Family secrets

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Kate Robinson

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations.

You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

Steph Tisdell is Aboriginal (Yindiji) and white Australian. She is an actor, tv writer, former comedian and author of the YA novel The Skin I’m In.

We chat about:

• Her white Dad’s surprising DNA results
• Hearts mown into lawns
• The responsibility we feel in our family units
• Diversity within diversity
• Well intended white teachers
• Bringing The Skin I’m In to life
• How the characters relate (and don’t relate) to Steph’s life
• The self indulgent joy of writing young adult fiction
• Reactions to her book
• Kinship adoption

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Guest: Steph Tisdell

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Maria Birch-Morunga

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations, and our guest joined us from land of the Turrbal and Jagera people.

You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

Faustina Agolley (Fuzzy) is Ghanaian and Chinese Malaysian. She hosted Video Hits, was a DJ for Oprah and is a writer, producer and presenter.

We chat about:

• A london love story ft The Temptations
• Growing up in a multi-generational Chinese household
• Having too much on her plate to study Chinese
• Learning about her dad through his music
• Going to Ghana
• Blackness being a celebration of the self
• DJing for Oprah
• Hosting Video Hits
• Learning from Alicia Keys

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Guest: Faustina Agolley

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Kate Robinson

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations, and our guest joined us from land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

Olana Janfa is an Ethiopian-Norwegian, Naarm-based artist. We interviewed Olana at The Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre in Dandenong where his exhibition Too Much Drama is showing till September 2024.

We chat about:

• How Olana began creating
• The works in his current exhibit Too Much Drama
• Olana’s iconic font and art style
• What home means to him
• Being black in Australia and Norway
• What’s next for his art career

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Guest: Olana Janfa

Special thanks to: The City of Greater Dandenong & The Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Maria Birch-Morunga

This podcast was recorded live on the lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the eastern Kulin Nations.
You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

Kitiya Palaskas is a Greek/Thai multi-disciplinary designer living in Naarm.

We chat about:

• Discovering her mix through DNA testing
• Her art sabbatical in Thailand
• Turning 40 and entering a new phase of life
• Having an identity crisis
• Can you appropriate your own culture?
• Feeling seen in colours, plants and precarious piles
• Growing up moving around the world
• Your bedroom as home
• Being ethnically ambiguous
• Family as a complicated site for cultural connection
• Greek statues were colourful!

Links:

https://kitiyapalaskas.com

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/color-chromophobia-and-colonialism-some-historical-thoughts-185710

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/the-myth-of-whiteness-in-classical-sculpture

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1109995973/we-know-greek-statues-werent-white-now-you-can-see-them-in-color

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Guest: Kitiya Palaskas

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Kate Robinson

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nations.

You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

Milo Hartill is Botswana/Australian, and a model, performer & fat queer content creator living in Naarm.

We chat about:

• Musical theatre school
• Growing up in Perth
• Always being the only black person in the room
• “I’m not racist but…”
• Capitalism catching on to race
• Triple bi - bisexual, biracial, between fat and skinny
• Being asked to be ‘sassy’ in auditions
• Their show, Black fat and fa**y
• Using your trauma for good
• Black hair being seen as ‘unprofessional’ in casting
• DMs from her dad
• Surviving the arts industry as a black person
• How Milo was scouted to be a model
• Being credited as a hair stylist

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Guest: Milo Hartill

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Kate Robinson

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations.

You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

This weeks episode is just us gals.

We chat about:

• Maria started going to a queer Maori singing group
• Maria does her pepeha (introduces herself in te reo maori)
• The line between private and public when creating art and content
• Feeling pigeonholed to only talking about race in projects
• Visible diversity vs white decision makers
• POC artists carving opportunities in order to have a seat at the table
• We are tired lol
• Diversity is not a threat to white people

Links:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-ve-never-seen-so-many-white-people-being-really-anxious-about-being-racist-20231102-p5eh16.html

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Kate Robinson

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations.

You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com

Jason Om is Cambodian/Eurasian Malaysian, an ABC journalist and the author of All Mixed Up.

We chat about:

Language around being ‘multiracial’

Being Eurasian in Malaysia v Australia

Rebellious women in his family

His parent’s newspaper personals ad meet cute

Cultural exemptions

Being the traditional Cambodian son

Going to Cambodia with his dad

Rediscovering his mum while writing this memoir

Connecting with his half-sister Sarah

Emailing his dad about the marriage equality plebiscite

His dad’s coming to, his coming out

“No fats, no femmes, no Asians”

Diversifying your dating pool

How journalism has changed in the last 20 years

Visible diversity

Links:

All Mixed Up

Hosted by: Maria Birch-Morunga and Kate Robinson

Guest: Jason Om

Music by: the Green Twins

Edited by: Kate Robinson

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations.

You can find us on Instagram @beingbiracialpodcast or send us an email at beingbiracialpodcast@gmail.com