Adversities That Shape Us

In this episode with Gayle, we discuss:
- What it was like growing up with a disability in Australia.
- How she has turned daily racism and prejudice into stories for us to learn from and sometimes have a good laugh at.
- How COVID-19 has given people with disabilities so much more access to
- And so much more.
To watch this inspiring episode, click the video link below, or if you would prefer to read the full transcript click the blue button under the video.
#inspiringwoman #naidocweek
well hello
and welcome to the wine and wisdom show
if you are here for the very first time
thank you for putting aside your
wednesday night it’s great to have you
here
and cheers to you i’ve got a buttery
chardonnay
in my glass what about you i would love
to know uh what’s in your glass
but for those of you who are rejoining
and i know i get so many
wonderful familiar faces every time we
have the show on
hello thank you so much for coming back
now one would think that this show is
all about wine and you know
my opportunity to perhaps tax deduct it
so i can have this show
and some wisdom um but in fact what
if you unpack it a little bit more the
show’s
actually about connection and
i believe that if there is one thing
that we have learned over the last 12
months
more than ever is that we want to be
connected
with people who put a smile on our face
some warmth to our hearts and some
wisdom
to our brains and i think what we
can be assured tonight from my
incredible storytelling
guest is that is exactly what you’re
going to get hello julie from
melbourne lovely to see you here but
before
we actually get started and i introduce
you um
to my guest i would really love first of
all
to pay my respects to the traditional
owners and elders spread across
the many lands that we are all
located on today wherever we are i pay
my respects to all these traditional
owners who have
nurtured and protected this wonderful
country
that we all get to work live and play
in so before i go on
and introduce uh Gayle to you
uh when we talk about this wine and
wisdom show i like i feel so lucky
because i have been surrounded by some
amazing
humans in my life and apart from wanting
to just have this connection with you
who are here each time
i really wanted to share the wisdom that
they can bring to
our world because i believe it is these
resilient and courageous
leaders who are either in the limelight
or not who are sprinkling goodness
across our world and tonight’s guest is
no exception i’m going to bring her up
right away
hello gayle welcome to the wine and
wisdom show
hello thank you for having me it’s so
lovely
can anybody i would love to know what
what’s in your glass gayle have you got
something special in your glass
i have a um gin and tonic
um a a a lovely a lovely
uh bomba uh bombay
here’s to a great show together now gayle
i
know i know all about your story um but
what i’d love for you to do is to
introduce yourself
and i tell everybody who’s listening
either now
or who will be watching it later on
all the goodness that you are sprinkling
around
our country well actually around the
globe i know you’re doing it
internationally so
tell us all about that i i only sort of
kind of became aware that
that a lot of the things i was doing
were going
going out into the big wide world that
it actually was international
um i’m still not sort of really you know
okay with all this technology and you
just think you’re having
a chat on the computer to somebody and
the next thing you know you’re getting
you know like you’re getting emails or
comments or things from people
from the other side of the world but um
uh
oh gosh i i don’t think i even really
think about
that i’m sprinkling good myths really i
i just one of the things that
i really like to do is i just like to
encourage people
you know to to be be decent to each
other
you know it one of the things i was
talking to somebody
recently who’d lived for quite a while
um in america and we were and
we were talking about the difference um
between american people and
and australian people and how we find it
really difficult to
um celebrate the success of others
um it it it’s like you’re allowed to
only go so far but once you
get above that this sort of seems to be
like all these
these people sort of trying to drag down
and
and um i mean i’m i’m fairly resilient i
mean you know i grew up in the bush
i grew up out in the play school live
and how am i i’m a country girl
it’s pretty hard to drag us down um but
there’s a lot of really fragile people
out there and
um you know i would really like one of
the things i really like to do and what
i really believe in is
is to encourage people to do that to do
the best they can but and
but also to not you know to not battle
through sadness or
you know to to to give into it sometimes
and
and let it wash over you and and and
pretty soon you realize that you’re
bored with that
and you know i know i like it in the
past are you bored with that and
and you pull yourself up by the boots
or you know the the ends of your
leggings or whatever it is and
and and and find things to do that you
really love and i think
that’s one of the things that covert
those lockdowns have done
and is it’s enabled people to
reconnect with their family with their
friends with their dogs with their cats
yeah you know you know people are
actually cooking again
you know like cooking and eating
together
and being mindful of each other and
appreciating
appreciating each other which was a way
that a lot of us
grew up you know like um people who like
germination
you know we grew up eating together
every night
cooking cooking food together and
yeah and slowing down you know like just
slowing down
and realizing that it’s you know like
wasting time is not actually wasting
time
no you know that’s how we get movies and
books and
all the beautiful things in life it’s
just by you know
just freeing your mind and allowing
yourself to
allowing your mind to wander and and
yeah it’s amazing how creative you can
be if you just give yourself
a chance to slow down and i think it’s
been a wonderful opportunity for
for so many people you know i couldn’t
agree more and i think especially that
whole point you just made in regards to
i mean people i think people struggle
with
boredom now that people think boredom is
such a terrible thing but in fact
it does you know it’s it’s probably the
word’s wrong
when we don’t have something to do
people immediately think they’re bored
right and uh that’s not
the opportunity for just the mind to
wander and to have the space
and to relax and and and like all those
creative things that come when we create
a space for that
which means that we’re not scrolling
we’re not doing doing doing we’re just
being
and i think you’re exactly right with
just
being you know let’s just slow down so
we can
be the creative and like you’re a great
example gal i mean
how many books have you written um
oh gosh um 14
and um name in oh
lots of different anthologies there’s
three coming out this year
wow one’s a literary book with uh
published by magabala
yeah the other one growing up disabled
in australia it’s published by black ink
and there’s another one and i’m sorry
it’s just
it’s completely gone out of my mind but
it’s a it’s an
an anthology of um uh indigenous writers
uh that have been published by
university of queensland press so that’s
coming out this year um i think it’s
probably going to be released around
april
so there’s some good love going on in
the chat box from tara
and julie um gorgeous cousin you
inspired me to want to be a writer yeah
she i think she inspires all of us julie
definitely 14 books oh my gosh
by herself gayle i mean
seriously i mean when you think i mean i
know the book uh right now i’m growing
up disabled in australia i’d love
i’d love just to talk a little bit about
that book about
uh that you know unfolding like
what happened to you as you were growing
up i mean what
what how did it all work out that you
were going to be in this book growing up
in
disabled in australia how has that
affected your life
and you know what what is it meaning
right now
for you well right now it’s meaning lots
and lots of work
yeah yeah lots of various um
uh promotional things because um i’m one
of the people in sydney
um the the editor the the the beautiful
beautiful carly findlay
she lives in melbourne so um she
she’s doing a lot of the leg work down
there with a lot of the melbourne
authors
um but you know i mean i basically
um there was a call out um because
heidi heidi i mean carly had this idea
of um
because there were other um growing up
in australia you know it was growing up
aboriginal in australia growing up
uh african industrial you know various
yeah in the series and carly had the
idea of
doing one growing up disabled in
australia and there was a call out
um to send in stories so i just thought
well you know i’ll send one in
yeah and i think you’ve got something
like about 370
entries so it just goes to show that so
many people out there
dying to get their stories in there and
um but unfortunately she could only
um choose i think maybe 46 of us got in
okay but yeah each and every one of them
are just you know
i mean i i haven’t read it most of it
yet because i’m
in the middle of writing and i find i
can’t read
when i’m writing yeah right yes
yeah i just get distracted but um
there’s some fabulous people in there
and i think it gives a real
insight a real insight into into what
it’s actually like to have a disability
in this country you know it’s not made
really easily in terms of access and
equity
and also people you know like people are
really honest in this book
and i think that um you know that
there’s a motto
in the in the in the disabled community
the disabled and deaf community it’s um
um you know nothing with us without us
because um you know we’re all really
tired of other people
telling our stories and you know actors
portraying us and wandering off
um you know wandering off with their
their golden globes and their oscars and
you know here are these particularly
great um actors and
singers and musicians and artists out
there
with a disability perfectly capable of
portraying myself
of course perfectly capable of telling
our stories
you know like i i’ve just i’ve likened
it basically it’s like
it’s like it’s like a form of black face
for a lot of us
you know they’re they’re you know you’re
not allowed you know
no matter what you do no matter how much
research you do you’ll
never know what it’s like to be inside
our skin you know and i think if that’s
that
giving people the opportunity to be in
the rooms and writing roles for us then
there’ll be another there’ll be an
altogether other level
bought you know brought to the screen or
bought to the book or
the television absolutely i can’t even
imagine
i can’t even imagine what that is like
to
know that all these capable people
i mean people faking the role really
they’re faking the role
right and when there’s all these capable
people who can
they’ve lived and breathed the role for
their entire lives right
so um you you have polio
is that correct yes that’s right yes
yeah so you got polio when you were what
age
two wow yeah
yeah and you know i so i mean that’s
just
one of the layers of prejudice and
racism even that you you have to deal
with
daily and i mean i i you know
which brings me to this next part of the
segment which is
all about the fact that i had the
amazing opportunity to be
in one of your audiences when you were
speaking on stage
and you had this brilliant way of
turning prejudice and racism
into humor because i suppose
that’s all you can do otherwise you’re
just going to call it crawling the ball
and start
sobbing i suppose i don’t know but
you have an amazing way and i i i hope
you are willing right now to share
the story that i heard you share which
is based on prejudice
prejudice and racism but yet so blind
who was you know doing this was
completely unaware
completely unaware so start from the
beginning you’re in the pub right you’re
in the pub in an area that we both live
in which is
on the bow main in the balmain area yeah
i live in melbourne
it’s a beautiful suburb
the local pub to have a couple of uh
gnts and and you know we ended with a
couple of my
um male friendship and i was just sort
of sitting there chilling um
while they they um they solved the
problems of the world um underneath the
tree of knowledge just up the road
can i just say because you know having
mutual friends in our area i i think
it’s really important to let them know
um it’s a big call out to michelle right
now you’re talking about the william
wallace you’re worth the wheeling
wallace right
yeah that’s right yeah yeah yeah
there was no one else in the pub except
me and and um jessie
um who works behind the bar and uh
and she was just you know cleaning
glasses and i’m sitting there you know
chilling out with you know when suddenly
the door just
bursts open you know and there’s a waft
of
lululemon and a tree of life and
god every you know comes
bursting in and sort of practically
throws herself on the bar
i would like a
very very chilled very very dry
white wine thank you i’ve had the most
ghastly day
and jessie jesse gets out a bottle of um
you know
that’s already been half drunk i don’t
know oh demand from mum you know
a dollar or somewhere and pause it to
her and
you know she gets it down you know she
gets it glass halfway down it’s open
and she’s looking around because she has
no audience you know and then
i’m going oh please don’t look at me
please don’t look at me because
i have my you know i had my um
wheelchair
right down low because it raised and she
looked at me
and she saw me and i thought oh my god
you know
so she comes over and she goes you know
oh
hello how are you
and i’m going oh i’m i’m okay i’m fine
thank you
you know um and uh she says
so how did you get here and i went well
i
came here in my in my wheelchair and oh
you’ve been about amazing you know
and i’m sort of muttering you know like
it’s
it’s just a few blocks up you know down
dark and dangling the bridge part of the
march of santa claus
and she’s
she’s there and she’s crackling onto me
and then she she says um
and i’m sort of you know i can sort of
feel the stain coming out of my ears
is really cliche under the sun you know
he is pouring out of this mouth and um
and finally she says can i get you
anything can i do anything
for you can i get you a drink you know
and
you know i very rarely knock back a
frederick i can tell
you but i did and then she said um
could i take you to the toilet and i’m
gonna no no
i couldn’t get myself like mine thank
you very much
and then she says is there anything i
can do for you
and i went well yes yes there is
something you could do for me
and she you know like she was beaming
you know
and she said well what is it anything
anything
and i said what i would really like you
to do is i would really like you to just
off and
you’re gonna beg your pardon i said i
would really like you to
off
and she first starts you know
running out the door just as my two
friends come
you know and she’s and she said i would
like you
all to know as she you know as she says
you know to my
friends who are well aware of this fact
that
disabled people can be too you
know
oh my god they’re just going oh for
god’s sake what have you done this time
that’s right
we just went out for a smoke and now
what’s happened
how was like the bar did the bar lady
here at all
oh yes but you know like she was she was
going thank
god she got rid of her you got her out
yeah
before she spied me but it was just you
know
you know you come in to quiet and down
and you know like
there was her opportunity to just chill
you know but she
had to be on show you had to be on show
and like and again exactly what you said
before you told that story
having no comprehension like
what her words were actually implying
and saying
and impacting i mean thankfully for you
you can just say oh off
like really get out because you are
whatever um but i mean seriously i i
yeah
god you know like we cop it all the time
there’s a
yeah it’s you know weird notion that
that we sit around longing to be
able-bodied but you know most of us are
perfectly happy
in the skin we’re in you know when we
look longingly at the lives of others
you know
this is what this is what we’ve got you
know this this is our life you know and
and and you know you know whether
whether we’re
achieving lots or achieving bugger or
what would matter you know
as long as we’re happy you know and
not patronizing us and you know there
needs to be
proper access you know people should be
able to go in
to any building they want you know i
mean i
you know like i’ve lost count of the
number of times i’ve rung up the
you public can i get into this pub to
you know because i like to go out and
see music
yeah and no no there’s no access and i’m
going why not you know well it’s a
heritage building and i’m going well you
know
i’ve been to europe on several occasions
you know ancient building you know you
know hundreds and hundreds of years
older than your motley or bloody pub
they managed to make that right that’s
right when you’re telling me you can’t
put a ramp somewhere
yeah crazy it’s absolutely crazy
and and i mean that i mean that’s been
the interesting thing for you writing
covert that this whole
access thing has changed completely for
you right
now what we had this whole conversation
the end of last year and
i’d love you to share that because it’s
something that i would never have
considered but for you it’s been a big
change
for you hasn’t it it has you know
for years and years a lot of us have
been been wanting to be able to work
from home for a start
i think had i been able to really access
that way back then properly
you know with all the support in place
then i would have been able to stay in
in my job um a lot longer but thankfully
maybe it’s good that it didn’t but um
you know like um
working from home like all this you know
like and and
and being able to present at festivals
uh around um
around the country and around the world
you know we were going why can’t you
film us
you know why can’t you know we can’t you
um
you know if you can’t afford to get us
there why can’t we do something where
there’s technology
there surely and there was always
excuses
and then suddenly you know covert comes
along
and i mean i’m talking like it was about
three weeks
because all the the able-bodied people
needed this technology
within three weeks everyone’s working
from home
all the festivals and plays and shows
that
that people um you know with
disabilities couldn’t attend
suddenly they’re online for people to
see
and participate in because it was what
able-bodied people
wanted and you know while we were you
know with our noses pressed up against
you know the window always looking in
you know um suddenly we were in
there and you can’t
push us back out again now you know and
and and
and because i mean because we were able
to
um be seen and heard you know
um at these you know like i did a number
of keynotes
last year that i was able to film you
know and and then they would show
or they would just video me live yeah
and um
you know and people were getting to
to know a lot a lot of people such as
myself
um you know people that you would never
get to hear never get to see
because like um you know like you know
we’re ghettoized you know
and um suddenly there we were and we
were you know
loud and proud yeah and and um
and and and and sick of um
being left out you know sick of being an
afterthought
you know like getting get into the
corner and just be quiet and
and don’t remind us of just how fragile
our bodies can be you know just just
just get over there and um yeah so it
was amazing
and uh another good thing about it too
of course was um
with with um with us having to actually
um do things online is that the money
that would have gone
um in flights and accommodation
and the dms they could um you know like
put
some of that aside for you know the next
conference
but also to sort of reality with the um
i was going to be at the sydney writers
festival with these
amazing writers and that was you know
and i was so excited
and then that all sort of fell apart and
i thought well there it goes you know
i’m going to be
you know i’m going to be down at the
front of um woolworths with my ukulele
you know
trying
you know like
and then you know next thing i know you
know like i’m just
you know job after job after job was
coming so
oh and you deserve it you really do
and you know gayle when i think about i
think a stat i read today is that
18 of australians identify
with having a disability i mean if we’re
talking about four million
people in australia identifying that way
um so whether their access you know
whether depending on what that
disability is but
i mean that’s a lot of people who all of
a sudden
can have an equal
amount of access like everybody else
and yeah
to kind of reiterate what you said how
bloody ridiculous
that it’s taken covert to allow for that
access to happen
just because for us able-bodied people
who get to have it all
really at any time um that we have been
impeded by covert that all of a sudden
things
can happen for everybody i mean i you
know
geez
and you know there should be hearing
loops there there should be sur titles
there
there should be braille programs you
know
you know people should be describing
what they’re wearing which i don’t dare
describe what i’m wearing at the moment
it’s only from the neck up but um
that’s all i’m hoping for just in case
the camera changes it’s uh zoom in and
zoom out kind of position
limiting zoom out on um on some um olive
oil stains for
stars
yeah oh yantara is saying one in five
australians absolutely one in five
australians
identify to have a disability like
that’s a lot of people
who for how many years have not had
access
um within 12 months so yeah so yeah we
can get shitty about it but
let’s let’s actually celebrate it great
we’ve now sorted it
so yeah we have a lot more people
allowing for it
i’m not trying to dampen it down because
it’s a bloody shame that it has not been
out of
happened before now but thankfully uh
the way that wilder
has adapted for so many things uh that
is
one of the great silver linings as they
talk about that has come out of it
and and yeah and and and we can’t you
know they can’t just stop it now you
know
and have to improve you know like i
don’t want to and i don’t want any of my
friends to ring up and find out that we
can’t go and
see a show or go to a restaurant because
there’s no way
because there’s no excuse there’s no
not now we know that we know now that
that it’s possible
i mean we we all always knew it was
possible but you know it all
on deaf ears you know but people you
know like
it’s a one in five you know like there’s
a hell of a lot of people out there
there’s a hell of a lot of money to be
made out of bugs
you know what you know a lot of us have
have have you know
fairly decent spending power to you know
i mean
start coming into us you know start you
know like if if there’s an ounce of
greed in any of you out there we’ll
start you know
looking at us
now gayle i’ve got two i’ve got two last
questions for you the first one is
when you are feeling wobbly and you know
you talked about being a bit wobbly last
year at times
um what is it that you know is your
fallback thing
that you do for yourself to ensure that
you’re kind of really building that
resilience muscle
or the self-care i mean what is it that
you do that you can share with all of us
that works for you
it might not work for us but we you know
that it works for you to make you feel
better
well one of the things i’ve really had
to learn
is to say no and to let people you know
like
if an invitation is extended i maybe
i may be fine when i’ve accepted the
invitation
but post-polio syndrome one of the major
things
about it is is um intense fatigue
and sometimes you just you know like
going out is just
not possible so i’ve learned to actually
say
no and and to stay in bed you know and
and flick through facebook or you know
daddy dream or you know
be quiet and you know
have a nice thermos of tea in my room
with um
you know maybe some chocolate cake or
something you know but
to be quiet and and rest
and not and not feel like i have to be
somewhere
i mean i i think one of the the things
that um
i think maybe covert taught people
um and which is something that i had to
learn was to
to rid yourself of the you know the fear
of missing out
yeah because you’re not missing out if
you’re you know like i just thought
i came you know i i came to the
conclusion that
i’m not missing out because if i go i’m
not going to enjoy it
you know no amount of um you know
false humor and bravado or or top shelf
gin is going to change that
just learning to say no has been a
really really good thing for me and
and i and i find if i’m just quiet for a
while and i rest
and sleep a lot sleep to me
that that um you know but
by the time i’ve done the things that i
need in order to feel better
um then i do feel better you know like i
feel
like i can give give back you know and
do the work
that i do um yeah so yeah
i think you know people just need to be
a little kinder to themselves
you know allow themselves to you know
fall into a heap if that’s what they
need to you know it’s
exactly you know you know the the best
foot forward the the
the smile you know turn your smile to
the camera or whatever you know that’s
not always the best thing
and also if people offer to help
i mean you know like one of my pet hates
is when
when people reach out you know like
particularly people who are
suffering with um cancer
um when they reach out and people go
oh you got this or you know you’re
staying
strong and you know you’re a strong
person
yeah you know it’s not up to them or
us to stay strong or get visits
to you to be strong for them
you know when i was growing up the thing
is if someone was sick
women would go around or men you know
would go around people would go around
with with
food they take the kids for the night
they
clean up the house while the person was
having
you know having treatment the person
would come home they’d be able to get to
get into clean sheets
and you know a quiet house and and the
partners
need to be taken care of too you know
like
partners with people that are real are
often forgotten
they are nice and maybe take them out
and you know give them a night out and
let
the person just be still and
you know like these are the things that
people used to do
and it’s not helping people by you know
writing something on facebook
about staying strong you know be strong
for them
yeah without doubt and i’d love to hear
from those of
who are watching right now what is it
that you do for yourself when you are
feeling a bit wobbly
share it with all of us because i’m sure
we can all learn from each other
about what can work and sometimes you
know we
we get into our habits of what is good
for us but sometimes just by
hearing somebody else’s story and i
shall go you know
part of everything that you do every
sharing stories
and and being open and honest about
those wobbly times
uh allows other people to
say actually i’m a bit wobbly right now
too
and so rather than following it up and
thinking i’m all alone and no one
no one’s experiencing what i’m
experiencing instead if we share our
stories
so we can take away the stigma of the
fact that we don’t all
have to be sparkly the whole time
then it’s all okay so let’s hear what
what have
what are what are you doing at home to
get you through
tough times we we’d love to hear that
when we go
yes i would yeah and and and also
um i’d like to know
some of the little things that you do
for your friends that are
now sometimes it just means being
a sounding board someone on the end of
the phone that’s not going to say
things like oh yes i know i totally
empathize please
let them go you know let them have their
have their time just let them in because
sister
we go through isn’t it sometimes it’s
good and sometimes it’s not
and tara said she gets to her favorite
music and gardens
uh julie’s saying favorite music and
resting
music is a happy place so yeah i think
music for a lot of people
uh can really help tara say facebook is
often
only about being sparky you are so right
tara everyone’s showing their show reels
right how perfect
their life is and not no one’s seeing
what’s really going on behind the scene
uh donna uh donna says a little like i
like to give myself permission to feel a
certain way instead of trying to just
put on a face
or smiling always get told to smile yes
they do donna yeah we just like come on
pep up we’ll be fine but you know we
don’t have to be fine all the time and
it doesn’t make us bad humans
for not being fine all the time
that’s right it’s exactly right you know
like
just just give yourself permission to
you know feel if you like
yeah yeah absolutely absolutely
uh lynette saying just listen get out in
nature yeah nature is so perfect for the
soul thank you
lynette and i’d like to i’d like you to
continue to tell us what you’re doing
while i ask gayle
my final question for the night which is
gayle i’d love for you to share with us
the most impactful piece of wisdom that
has been handed down to you
and how it has actually made an impact a
positive impact
on your life look
i think the most
powerful impact on my life
was my mother who
didn’t wrap me in cotton wool
you know like she when it was my turn to
go to the shop i had to go to the shop
i did the chores at night
with with all the other kids i was i was
never
wrapped in cotton wool and and um
and she and my father
believed that i could be anything i
wanted to be you know and
we lived in a small country town so the
pinnacle of achievement was
um for my father was that i would would
become a secretary
you know
it was really sweet you know and but my
dream for myself was to work in
in in the chemist shop in wall
campus because it was like a it was like
a
um you know like a fairy land full of
you know all these beautiful
sparkly things and it smells lovely and
the girls always look so
glamorous in the farm i believe they’re
all still working there
but that was my dream when i grow up i’m
going to work in the campus
but um you know like they they’re you
know like
i think that the biggest piece of wisdom
is really quite simple
is my mother said to me you’ll be right
and it was as simple as that you know
and
there was no great soliloquies or
anything it was just
you’ll be right and and she was
like you know and she she loved me
enough
to let me go you know and um
i think that’s um a really important
thing
for parents is to to be able to let go
you know
and
to let their kids um live their life you
know i
i find um the the helicopter system of
parenting now
i just wonder you know like
everybody’s expected to entertain their
children all the time you know
i mean if any of us had ever told my
mother that we were bored
you know we’d be handed a hose and told
to go and you know
clean out the toilet you know yeah
you got up in the mud
and you came back for lunch and then you
came back when the street lights went
off you know like
yeah that was the way we grow up and
then um
so differently you know so
yeah well i i need you to know that i s
all i aspired to do was to be a waitress
at the black stump
restaurant that’s all i thought was like
the
pinnacle of my life if i could be a
waitress at the black stump
oh look at where we used to go then my
friend shirley and i used to go
there with we’d get dressed up in girls
and go to the black stuff
it was a funny thing it’s so glamorous
you know and the waitress is we’re all
really clever
yeah well i was gonna be that girl don’t
you worry uh pauline
thank you forest so that’s really nice
for the soul too
i know i’ve only asked one piece of
wisdom tonight from you but you did
share another piece of wisdom with me
before we came live
uh which i would like you to share with
everyone um if everyone would like to
know we were talking about being girls
and hormones and everything and
gayle had an amazing piece of wisdom to
share with you
about menopause gayle would you like to
share that with everybody what
your piece is about menopause well i i
just stayed drunk through the whole
thing
and and uh
by the time i i saved up it was all over
so yeah i was saying that my mom had
menopause for 12 years so that’s a
that’s a
long hangover isn’t it hangover but it
works
i mean between of course you have to go
to work in that but
you know you know like uh
you know there’s you know i i thought
this i i i had only one hot flush the
whole time
you know you know i i may i might run a
full environment
no yeah i mean i couldn’t feel the
difference between
menopause or a hangover you know
probably really bad advice
well look thank you so much gayle for
being on the wine and wisdom show
tonight
it has been wonderful to hear your
wonderful
take on the world i mean very wise take
on the world for one
but also your your ability to flip
the the the crappy stuff you know the
racism and the prejudice that is
so still instilled in our society that
i mean i don’t know what we need to do
now to
get it out but far out i i mean i just
i just encourage you and
other wonderful storytellers to tell
their stories to talk out loud
to share with us experiences because
it’s
it’s not until i mean even just this
access whole thing i mean i
it never even occurred to me gayle so
i feel so stupid about that that i would
not even have thought
that that was such a big thing but of
course it is
of course it is um but it’s only because
you’ve shared that with me so please
just
if you continue to share then all of us
can start to step up a bit
and also speak out and try to get the
equality across so many areas of our
society that we need better equality
so yeah yes definitely
gayle cheers to you yeah cheers
cheers to everybody who’s been listening
uh we’ve loved your interaction tonight
thank you
so much uh all of you i’m going to
oh what i want to do before we go in
fact is
this is one of the amazing
books that you should definitely get
your hands on
and i really recommend you quickly
taking a screen
shot of that picture so you can
go wherever you need to go glee books i
think you said uh gayle
sell it online booktopia or any bookshop
will order it
for you but she has got 14 other ones as
well so you can just put in a name and
they’ll all come up so
this have have a read of this amazing
book and
if you would like to um to know who are
going to be the amazing guests coming up
on the show because there is always
amazing guests on this show as you can
see
tonight uh please uh just
contact me but in the meantime gayle
thank you again it’s been amazing
thank you everybody else have a great
wednesday night
and we will see you soon okay
About Gayle Kennedy:
Gayle Kennedy is a gifted storyteller, prolific author, indigenous researcher and has spoken internationally on the issues of disability and culture.
She believes that laughter is so important and has a gift for extracting humour out of her day-to-day experiences and sharing them with her audiences. I was lucky enough to be in one of her audiences recently where she told one of the funniest stories I had ever heard…even though it was based on the type of racism and prejudice that Gayle has to endure every day. I promise you that she will share this classic of a story with you too.
Gayle is from the NSW Ngiyaampa Nation and her poetry collection, ‘Koori Girl Goes Shoppin’ was shortlisted in 2005 for the David Unaipon Award. Gayle then won the award in 2006 with her warm and deliciously funny book called ‘Me, Antman & Fleabag’. She has now published 11 children’s books and written articles and poems in national & international publications.
In addition to writing, she is a campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities. She had polio as a child and spent long periods in hospital. As a wheelchair-user she understands the physical barriers and obstacles that face people with disabilities but too often everyone else gets up to talk for them, which she finds very frustrating.
Gayle says, “We’ve all got voices! I speak out a lot to bring about change because you can’t effect change by staying silent.”
Gayle’s Books:
Can be purchased from Gleebooks.com.au.
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