The Picnic Podcast Sessions: Jerikye Williams

Galari Bila - Lusi Austin

Last August, I was feel burnt out and worn down. My body and soul were craving rest. I reached out to the beautiful Phoebe and Dylan at The Corridor Project [https://www.thecorridorproject.org/] and asked if they had any space for me - and they made a way. I was so grateful for that time. They fed and nurtured me and gave me space to sit and be still on Country. Phoebe walked me down to Gilari Bila (Lachlan River is its colonised name) and I sat, and sketched, and listened, and prayed, and breathed in deeply, and cried. I thought of all the times I had sat in the river that wound around the base of our koro (village) in Fiji - how often I’d seen our river swell and rise during the wet season and also how sad dad had been one year to see the spring had dried up. Villages don’t function well if the river isn’t well. And people often function in a better way once they’ve been down to the river. That’s at least what I’ve witnessed and experienced and it was no different that day sitting by the Gilari Bila - watching her flow - over rock, around bends, through fallen tree trunks, burgeoning life within her. Only days later at home, I would have one of the scariest experiences of my life thus far - passing out twice from severe cramping in the early hours of the morning, spasming pain throughout my body. It’s still an ongoing part of my journey right now and I’m still trying to understand (with the help now of a neurologist and my other specialists) the underlying cause…but what I know is this: that often before undergoing challenging times for my body, I’ve been led to a space where God has “made me lie down in green pastures” and “led me beside quiet waters” and “restored my soul” (Psalm 23). I had taken my guitar and my Tascam Portacapture with me on that visit to TCP and was able to write and record this song that afternoon, sitting by the fire. I laid down the guitar track and the lead vocals, and then some harmonies. I made a little video when I got home from photos I’d taken over the few days I was at TCP. Maybe one day I’ll edit it properly but for now, it’s just a little reel that I can’t even find other than on FB. I find myself singing this song over and over again months later. I thought it might be nice to have it here. I’ll always hold that time away so dearly. Thanks again to Phoebe and Dylan for your hospitality and for giving creatives a restful and inspiring home away from home. I hope you enjoy listening to my song Gilari Bila. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lusiaustin.substack.com [https://lusiaustin.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Picnic Podcast Sessions: Oumi Karenga-Hewitt

This episode of the Picnic Podcast Sessions was recorded online with Lusi & Oumi both residing on Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri Country (Lusi in Cowra and Oumi in Griffith). It was recorded a few months prior to this being published but life happened! Although belated in getting this out into the world, it is a joy to listen back to this conversation had with my friend Oumi - Lusi x ABOUT OUMI: Oumi Karenga-Hewitt is a Burundian-born, British writer, director, impact producer and community advocate based on Wiradyuri Country in Griffith NSW. With a background in marketing, digital content, and community engagement she has spent the last 10 years in regional Australia applying her practice to community arts. Oumi is vice-chair of Western Riverina Arts, a regional arts development organisation under Regional Arts NSW. She was selected for the 2024 Screenworks Regional Producer Elevator Program and more recently, Diversity Arts Australia’s Shifting the Balance Leadership Program. [https://diversityarts.org.au/project/shifting-the-balance-of-leadership-program/] In 2023, Oumi co-produced a regionally-shot film, Lords of the Soil [https://artsculture.griffith.nsw.gov.au/Griffith-Regional-Theatre/Single-Events/Lords-of-the-Soil], which premieres in Griffith this November. Also in 2023, Oumi coordinated the inaugural Griffith Screen Industry Forum which featured guest speakers from Screen Australia, Screenworks, Screen NSW, EndemolShine Australia, ABC, and Media Mentors Australia. Oumi was the Stage Manager for TEDxWagga Wagga 2023, and Curator of TEDxGriffith 2024. Oumi was selected as a teaching artist for NIDA Connect - delivering Acting and Writing for Performance workshops for regional young people. Oumi’s script, “When All Is Said and Done”, was selected as a finalist in the Voices of Women Short Film & Script Festival 2025 and she has also been published in print and online across fiction and non-fiction. A passionate performer, Oumi completed her directorial debut with Griffith Regional Theatre’s 2025 production of Mamma Mia! in September 2025. SHOW MENTIONS & SHOUT OUTS: * Learn more about Diversity Arts HERE. [https://diversityarts.org.au/about/] * To learn more about the Frontier Wars, as mentioned in this episode by Oumi, you can read THIS SBS ARTICLE HERE [https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-frontier-wars/9m3uvkcmq] about it (distressing content warning is given on the page). * Dhuluny Project [Bathurst] 2024 was a series of events and works commemorating 200 years since martial law was declared on Aboriginal people in Bathurst. Learn more HERE. [https://bathurstart.com.au/exhibitions-events/dhuluny-the-war-that-never-ended/] * Although we didn’t write this, I found this article online listing things NOT to say to a person of colour. You can read it HERE. [https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2021/10/22/50-things-not-to-say-to-black-people/] * Go HERE [https://www.momkoumba.com/isombe/] to try making Oumi’s delicious sombe recipe. Thanks again Oumi for sharing your time with me, for opening up your heart and discussing your vibrant lived experience with us all. Thank you for your patience in me getting this episode to air. Logo: Lusi Austin Intro/Outro Music: Lusi Austin Mentoring: Kris Schubert Audio Sound-boarding Assistance: Shane Kerr & Nigel Christensen Funding and Project Support: Diversity Arts Australia [https://diversityarts.org.au/] - Shifting the Balance Stage 2 Leadership Program [https://diversityarts.org.au/project/shifting-the-balance-of-leadership-program/] A full transcript PDF of this episode can be found on our Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lusiaustin.substack.com [https://lusiaustin.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Picnic Podcast Sessions: Jerikye Williams

This podcast episode was recorded remotely with Jerikye Williams (in Queanbeyan on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country, NSW) and Lusi Austin [http://www.lusiaustin.com] (in Cowra, on Wiradjuri Country). The recording took place in June 2025. Here we chat about Jerikye’s music career, living off Country, about cultural representation and the importance of truth-telling. Jerikye Williams is an incredible entertainer and the front-man of Jerikye and the Crawdads. [https://www.facebook.com/jerikye.and.the.crawdads] He describes himself as a tribute-artist rather than an impersonator and has made his living entertaining crowds - large and small - in a variety of venues across the country. Last year, Jerikye was a lead actor in the musical I wrote, Intertwined [https://www.lusiaustin.com/lemonteatheatre], for which he earned a CAT Award [https://cat-awards.com.au/nominations/nominations-2024/] nomination. Most recently, Jerikye opened on tour for Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows. Images: Top L: The Black Sorrows [https://www.theblacksorrows.com.au/] Tour PosterTop C: Jerikye Williams as Aboriginal Man in Intertwined (photo by Zenio Lapka - courtesy of Arts OutWest [https://artsoutwest.org.au/])Top R: At the Intertwined cast album recording (photo by Kristy White Photography [https://www.facebook.com/p/Kristy-White-Photography-Australia-100063649809135/]) Bottom L: Stage 88 Invasion/Survival Day 2022 (photographer unknown)Bottom C: Screenshot of podcast recording day Bottom R: Jerikye in his Erambie 32 shirt - by Kalare Enterprise [https://kalareenterprise.com/] - on stage in Intertwined [https://www.lusiaustin.com/lemonteatheatre]at the Cowra Civic Centre [https://www.facebook.com/cowraciviccentre/] (photo by Kristy White Photography [https://www.facebook.com/p/Kristy-White-Photography-Australia-100063649809135/]) SHOW MENTIONS AND SHOUT-OUTS: * Find out where Jerikye and the Crawdads will perform next by checking out their FB HERE. [https://www.facebook.com/jerikye.and.the.crawdads]* Jerikye loves to buy pre-crumbed lamb cutlets but you could have a go at this easy recipe HERE. [https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/crumbed-lamb-cutlets/519cd72f-eb2a-4c44-b17f-a36f63ead52f] * Read about Cowra Lamb HERE. [https://www.breakoutriver.com.au/cowra-lamb.html] * Jerikye shouted out Complete Entertainment HERE. [https://www.completeentertainment.com.au/]* You may like to read about the use of the term ‘Blak’ HERE. [https://www.clothingthegaps.com.au/blogs/blogs/blak#:~:text=Destiny%20Deacon%20coined%20the%20term,and%20re%2Dcontexualising%20the%20word.&text=Blak%20is%20like%20saying%2C%20%22We,campaigns%20like%20Shades%20of%20Deadly.] * A great write-up about Jerikye can be found HERE [https://region.com.au/with-his-love-for-50s-and-60s-rock-and-a-lot-hairspray-jerikye-williams-wants-to-be-bigger-than-elvis/699873/] in Region Canberra. Image: Aspire PhotographyThank you for yarning with me Jerikye. I always enjoy catching up with you and connecting over some conversation and laughs. Appreciate you brutha! Lusi x www.lusiaustin.com [http://www.lusiaustin.com]Logo: Lusi AustinIntro/Outro Music: Lusi AustinMentoring: Kris SchubertAudio Sound-boarding Assistance: Shane Kerr & Nigel ChristensenFunding and Project Support: Diversity Arts Australia [https://diversityarts.org.au/project/shifting-the-balance-of-leadership-program/] - Shifting the Balance Stage 2 Leadership Program [https://diversityarts.org.au/project/shifting-the-balance-of-leadership-program/]A full transcript PDF of this episode can be found below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lusiaustin.substack.com [https://lusiaustin.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Picnic Podcast Sessions: Lian Wong

This podcast episode was recorded in Bathurst, NSW on Wiradyuri Country in June 2025. Here we chat about the people and places that made her, the key components of her identity, where Lian’s art practice is right now, her sources of inspiration, her dream-nothing-day, and if she’s encountered any controversies in the country. Lian Wong is an accomplished architect [http://www.schubertwong.com.au/about.php] who specialises in heritage architecture whilst also playing bass in Safety of Life at Sea [https://safetyoflifeatsea.bandcamp.com/], in addition to her graphic design creations. SHOW MENTIONS AND SHOUT-OUTS:* Lian’s internet congee recipe (just like the one her mum and grandma used to make) can be found HERE. [https://www.simplyrecipes.com/chicken-congee-jook-recipe-6944771] * The accompaniment salsa to my family-secret curry is similar to this recipe HERE [https://www.shelikesfood.com/chunky-cucumber-salsa/] but replace the jalapenos and lime juice with balsamic vinegar. * New single by Safety of Life at Sea - called Holy Potato [https://safetyoflifeatsea.bandcamp.com/track/baby-its-you-holy-potato] : out July 11, 2025* Read more about Lian’s Old Bega Hospital Project (and NSW Heritage Awards) HERE. [https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/news/2025-national-trust-nsw-heritage-awards-winners-revealed/] * Read about the theatre production Lian spoke of, Highway of Lost Hearts (performed by the amazing Kate Smith [https://kateofthesmiths.com.au/] with music by Smith and Jones [https://www.smithandjones.net/]) HERE [https://artsoutwest.org.au/touring-highway-of-lost-hearts/], and see the album cover Lian designed HERE [https://www.instagram.com/p/C6inpYRSbuj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==]. * A video about Artlands - the Regional Arts Australia [https://regionalarts.com.au/about/about-regional-arts-australia] conference I mention in this episode can be found HERE [https://regionalarts.com.au/artlands23]. * Mentoring provided to me by Lian’s partner, the incredible musician and producer Kris Schubert [https://www.instagram.com/kris.schubert/](who also produced my album Intertwined [https://intertwinedtheplay.bandcamp.com/album/intertwined-the-cast-album] mentioned in this ep too). Thank you Lian for all you shared with me. It was such a beautiful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Lusi x www.lusiaustin.com [http://www.lusiaustin.com]Logo: Lusi AustinIntro/Outro Music: Lusi AustinMentoring: Kris SchubertAudio Sound-boarding Assistance: Shane Kerr & Nigel ChristensenFunding and Project Support: Diversity Arts Australia [https://diversityarts.org.au/] - Shifting the Balance Stage 2 Leadership Program [https://diversityarts.org.au/project/shifting-the-balance-of-leadership-program/] A full transcript PDF of this episode can be found here: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lusiaustin.substack.com [https://lusiaustin.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Welcome to The Picnic Podcast Sessions

I am many things. I am a wife to my best friend (and have been for nearly a quarter of a century). I am mum to our 5 kiddos. Some of the things I am, I have been for a long time - daughter, sister, friend. I am a Creative. Musician. Playwright. Artist. Dreamer of dreams. And I have always been a person of colour. I am bi-racial: I have Fijian and Australian parents. I love both countries and cultures very much and for different reasons. Living in this brown skin has at times been beautiful and tricky, challenging and messy. I’ve experienced racism, exclusion and bias first-hand. People may say these are things of the past but they still happen. As do good things! And things worthy of celebration. They happen every day too. It’s a little like living in a regional Australian town: it can also be beautiful and challenging at times. Don’t get me wrong - I love my town. It is a very special place. My town is the Country of the Wiradjuri, where there are undulating hills, spectacularly open skies and enormous, ancient rocks that look like they have been stacked to reach the stars. My town has a rich history of Aboriginal people communing together, sharing stories and culture with each other, fishing in the Gilari Bila (Lachlan River) and dancing with the dust rising from their feet. It also has a history of segregation - when Aboriginal people were separated from the rest of the town and kept on an Aboriginal Reserve, often under the strict rule of a succession of managers - even into the late 1960’s, just before the 1967 National Referendum. My town was chosen as a site to establish a Prisoner of War Camp during World War II. It housed civilians and military personnel from Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Italy. One fateful night early August 1944, Japanese prisoners infamously staged a breakout (the largest POW Breakout in modern military history anywhere in the world). Much blood was shed on that site. Today, all the lives lost in that event, are remembered. All Japanese people (civilian or military personnel) who died during WWII, are buried in my town in a special war cemetery. My town became home to 17,000 new Australians after the end of the same war. Displaced, foreign, men, women and children from war-torn Europe came to live in the Migrant Camp. They came with hope and they came to build a new home. My town has a rich history of diversity - in all its beautiful and challenging parts of its past. I wrote a musical called Intertwined about my town last year. It touched on many of these things and pointed towards the power of community, hope and peace as tangible things we can hold onto today. I have always been interested in stories. Storytelling is one of the main ways I have learned about Fijian culture and heritage from my parents. Regional towns are full of stories about people who have come from places near and far. Australia's post-colonised history is made of this same tapestry of nations - from ‘Non-English First Fleet Migrants’ [https://firstfleetfellowship.org.au/convicts/they-came-from-many-lands/], to Afghan Cameleers [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-02/descendents-remember-australias-cameleers/11890622], to Chinese Gold Miners [https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/chinese-goldfields/], through to Australia’s Blackbirding history [https://www.sea.museum/en/first-nations/blackbirding-australias-slave-trade] and Displaced Persons and Migration Assistance programs [https://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/newaustralia/displaced-persons-assisted-immigration/index.html#:~:text=Between%201947%20and%201953%2C%20the,jobs%20the%20government%20gave%20them.]- there are layers of stories to unearth and listen to if we are willing to make time and space. Regional Australian towns have also borne witness to the persecution of, and advocacy for, First Nations people such as through the Freedom Rides [https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/1965-freedom-ride] and the establishment and continuation of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. [https://youtu.be/2ISAROn9Er4] The Picnic Podcast Sessions is a show about regional artists from Culturally & Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, where, over a picnic, we discuss what it’s like to live, work and play in places and spaces in rural, regional and remote areas. This show exists because it’s important to discuss the unique challenges and complexities that artists of diverse backgrounds often navigate in regional communities. I’m going to introduce you to some amazingly talented and inspiring artists. We’ll hear their stories, learn about the people and places that made them and share a recipe or two as well. My hope is that sharing these stories might help us move beyond the often stereotyped-mono-culture of regional Australia and might instead give insight into the rich, nuanced and colourful people and perspectives that exist in our country towns. These yarns are about truth-telling, empathy-building and sharing differences and finding common ground. I hope you enjoy the Picnic Podcast Sessions. This project has been made possible thanks to the amazing work of Diversity Arts Australia and the Shifting the Balance Leadership Program (Stage 2). I am grateful to all who’ve helped me to get this off the ground and out to you and in particular to my podcast guests who shared their time, hearts and food with me. Lusi x This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lusiaustin.substack.com [https://lusiaustin.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]