This episode acknowledges childhood trauma, and workplace bullying and harassment. There are no graphic details. Please listen in a way that feels right for you: pause, step away or return another time.

Episode Overview

What does it mean to have a voice and to actually use it? Not the voice that says yes when you mean no, or shrinks to keep the peace, but the one that is yours. Toni grew up on the beaches of Kepa Kurl (Esperance) and has come home with a story about exactly that. Speaking with Mia Lindgren, she describes joining a community choir, feeling deeply self-conscious, and booking one-on-one singing lessons she could barely open her eyes through. What she did not expect was that learning to sing would lead her to speak: about her past, about injustice at work, and about herself. This is a conversation about self-compassion, discomfort, community and the quiet power of taking up space.

In This Episode

Toni shares her journey from silence to speaking up. We explore:

• How singing lessons, taken to improve in a choir, unexpectedly opened the way to speaking about a childhood trauma

• Choosing discomfort on purpose: shaking through her first karaoke, and two years later singing Midnight Oil and Kate Bush with joy

• A self-compassion program that helped her understand her shame and stop being so critical of herself

• Using her voice in a harmful workplace, supporting a colleague to make a complaint, and seeing lasting change made

• The women and communities who held her up, and the welcome of making music with others

• Why change does not always begin in a therapy room, and how following what you love can lead somewhere you never planned

Quotable Moments

“The more that I could sing, the more I could speak.” – Toni

“I also felt a real responsibility because I had the voice now to use it.” – Toni

“Do the things you love, but take the steps in the uncomfortable places to do that. It's not easy, but it's worth it.” – Toni

Support Services

• 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732): national counselling for people affected by sexual, domestic or family violence

• Lifeline (13 11 14): 24/7 crisis support

• Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636): mental health support, available 24/7

• If you are in immediate danger, call 000

Connect With Us

• Follow She Speaks on Instagram: @shespeakswellbeingstrategies

• Visit our website: www.shespeakswellbeing.com

A Note on Wellbeing

She Speaks is dedicated to amplifying women's voices on self-care and wellbeing. While we share personal experiences, this podcast is not a substitute for professional support. If you're struggling, please reach out to a qualified practitioner or one of the services above.

She Speaks on Tour was produced by Professor Narelle Lemon and Mia Lindgren. She Speaks is proudly supported by the Western Australian Government and Department of Communities Women's Grants for a Stronger Future Grants Program.

This episode discusses childhood sexual abuse. There are no graphic details, but the conversation acknowledges trauma, harm and their lasting effect on a woman's life. It contains the voices of Aboriginal women sharing lived experience. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the episode includes topics that may be distressing. Please listen in a way that feels right for you: pause, step away or return another time.

Episode Overview

Sitting on Country in Kepa Kurl (Esperance), with grass underfoot, sun overhead and children playing nearby, Ros shares a story she carried quietly for decades. She is joined by her longtime friend Candy, who opens the conversation with care and stays beside her throughout. Ros speaks about harm in her childhood, about the years of keeping it “tucked in at the back of your head”, and about what changed when she began to talk. This is a conversation about courage, protection and healing, and about how land, sea and the people who choose us become part of how we care for ourselves. Ros has one hope in sharing: that it might make a difference for one person.

In This Episode

Ros, a 54-year-old Yaegl woman, shares her journey from silence to speaking. We explore:

• How carrying an experience alone can build until it overflows, and why talking, over time, makes it lighter

• Counselling, forgiveness and the slow easing of anger and heaviness

• Becoming a fiercely protective mother, and watching over her daughters and their friends

• Self-care beyond the Western definition: darts in the back shed, planting natives, swimming in the ocean, and the deep rest of being back on Country

• Learning culture through adopted family and the rangers she works alongside

• Friendship as a form of care, and how Candy has witnessed Ros's healing through time out bush together

Quotable Moments

“The more you talk about it, the more you get off your chest… the weight lifts off your shoulders. It takes a lot of time, but it does get easier.” – Ros

“No matter where you go, you've got that one place where you're back on Country.” – Ros

“Forgiving is powerful.” – Ros

Support Services

• 13YARN (13 92 76): 24/7 crisis support by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

• 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732): national counselling for people affected by sexual, domestic or family violence

• Lifeline (13 11 14): 24/7 crisis support

• If you are in immediate danger, call 000

Connect With Us

• Follow She Speaks on Instagram: @shespeakswellbeingstrategies

• Visit our website: www.shespeakswellbeing.com

A Note on Wellbeing

She Speaks is dedicated to amplifying women's voices on self-care and wellbeing. While we share personal experiences, this podcast is not a substitute for professional support. If you're struggling, please reach out to a qualified practitioner or one of the services above.

She Speaks on Tour was produced by Professor Narelle Lemon and Mia Lindgren. She Speaks is proudly supported by the Western Australian Government and Department of Communities Women's Grants for a Stronger Future Grants Program.

What happens when women in a regional town are given a microphone and the space to speak? In Kepa Kurl (Esperance), on the south coast of Western Australia, three groups of women did just that. The result is three unpolished, honest conversations: midlife and the body's alarm system, the people behind a council email signature, and a frank call for safer needle disposal in a town that refuses to look away. Different subjects, one shared thread: women caring for themselves by caring for the place they call home.

This Episode
Recorded at a She Speaks storytelling workshop in Kepa Kurl, this episode brings together three conversations. We explore:

• Tracy, Lori and Megs on midlife, menopause and the urge to control, and what might sit underneath it

• Why an anxious body rarely responds to being told to calm down, and what it might mean to meet the breath where it is

• Carla and Ange, from the Shire of Esperance, on the care that sits behind regulation, paperwork and “kind regards”

• Nat and Emily, from Escare Esperance and Hope Community Services, on a public health gap in a remote town and a community that chose action over silence

• What voice looks like when someone has to say the thing, and chooses to be that person

Content note: this episode touches on anxiety, menopause, alcohol, and injecting drug use and needle disposal.

Quotable Moments

“We're working with the body rather than against it.” – Tracy

“We are more than just an email signature.” – Ange

“We just need people to listen to us here and respect that we are Esperance.” – Emily

Resources Mentioned

• Hope Community Services: alcohol and other drug support services

• Escare Esperance

• Keep Australia Beautiful WA, Adopt-a-Spot: community clean-up program

• Alcohol and Drug Support Line (WA)

• Lifeline

Connect With Us

• Follow She Speaks on Instagram: @shespeakswellbeingstrategies

• Visit our website: www.shespeakswellbeing.com

A Note on Wellbeing

She Speaks is dedicated to amplifying women's voices on self-care and wellbeing. While we share personal experiences, this podcast is not a substitute for professional mental health support. The breathwork described reflects one woman's practice; if you have a heart or respiratory condition, or are pregnant, please speak with a health professional before trying breath holds. If you are struggling, we encourage you to reach out to a qualified mental health practitioner.

This series was produced by Narelle Lemon and Mia Lindgren. She Speaks is proudly supported by the Western Australian Government and Department of Communities Women’s Grants for a Stronger