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Wirilla

Wirilla

By: Coequal
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From the beginning of time to now, Matthew Priestley tells the story of his Country, his family, his mob for the sake of the generations to come.

This podcast was made with funding from Create NSW.Copyright Coequal Social Sciences
Episodes
  • The Bush

    The Bush
    28 May 2026
    HERBD1ZUrVSQr776iP4IIn The Bush, Matthew Priestley reflects on growing up at a time when incarceration was a new rite of passage for Aboriginal boys, a new way of taking kids away, and a yarn inspired by his own teenage years unfolds across the Dreamings of Gomeroi Country.To check out the film Hurt click here to go to Coequal's Patreon page.To check out Big Hart's website click hereDetailed Music Credits"Chrysalis" by Simon McCorry, "Another One" by Mirko Sosai, "Omen" by Richard Johnson, "Old Postcards" by The Last Days of our Past, "Quirky Play" by Marco Pesci, "Porch Blues" by Kevin MacLeod, "John as well" by Mirko Sosai, "Hurt Guitar Track 8" by Damian Mason, "Charmaine" by Philip Okerstrom, "Dof Dof" by Philip Okerstrom, "Didgeridoo Long Loop" by Tera Mangala, "Guitar bits and bobs" by Philip Okerstrom, "Sneaky" by Philip Okerstrom, "Guts and Bourbon" by Kevin MacLeod, "deranged-terrifying-modern-hor" by Matthew Creid, "Tranquility Base" by Chill Factor, "Wonder and Intrigue" by Erick McNerney, "Spirit Land" by Tristan Barton, "Didgeridoo Ambient 2" by Pascal Tatipata, "What Dreams May Come" by Tristan BartonThis podcast was made with funding from Create NSW.A podcast from Matthew Priestley supported by Third Space Ventures and Coequal.To contact Coequal and find out more, check out our Patreon page, click hereThis episode contains references to child removal, racism, incarceration, alcohol misuse and violence.🪶 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT BREAKDOWNOpening: The Dreamings We HoldSpeaker: Matthew PriestleyMatthew shares a story about Dreaming itself. Fire, wind, rain, water, animals and people all hold different dreams and responsibilities.Dreamings are not owned. They are held in trust.🌀 Themes: Dreaming as relationship · Responsibility · Interconnection · Knowledge held in trustGrowing Up Between Sydney and Moree Matthew reflects on being born into a generation shaped by migration, activism and changing government policies.His father works on the Sydney wharves. Family move between Balmain and Moree before eventually returning home.🏙️ Themes: Displacement and return · Family networks · Aboriginal migration · Survival and workRedfern,Relocation and AssimilationExamines government housing policies and the movement of Aboriginal families into Sydney suburbs.Contrasts official language of opportunity and integration with the experiences remembered by Aboriginal families.📜 Themes: Assimilation · Government policy · Urban Aboriginal history · Contradiction between policy and lived experienceGrandmothers, Missions and Stanley VillageMatthew describes growing up surrounded by grandmothers, aunties, uncles and Elders.Church, family visits, fishing trips and everyday life become vehicles for cultural learning.🏡 Themes:Kinship · Intergenerational knowledge · Everyday cultural education · CommunityLearning Outside the ClassroomMatthew reflects on school, wagging, and feeling disconnected from formal education while learning from family and community. Contrasts institutional learning with knowledge gained through lived experience.📚 Themes:Different ways of learning · School and culture · Informal education · IdentityAboriginal Youth and the Criminal Justice SystemExamines the growing overrepresentation of Aboriginal young people in policing, courts and detention during the 1970s and 1980s.Explores how incarceration increasingly becomes a common experience for Aboriginal youth.⚖️ Themes: Systemic discrimination · Criminalisation · Child removal by new means · Structural inequalityMatthew's Teenage YearsMatthew reflects on crime, peer pressure and the expectations placed on young people.Describes becoming caught between family knowledge and the pull of another world.🔥 Themes:Adolescence · Belonging · Peer influence · Risk and consequenceA Fictional StoryIntroduces Alfie and Cammo, two young boys from Moree. After a series of poor choices, Alfie is taken into the bush by his Uncles and left alone with Country.🌾 Themes:Rite of passage · Consequence · Country as teacher · StorytellingHurt: Story Becomes FilmReveals that Alfie's story formed the basis of the award-winning community film Hurt, created by young people in Moree. Explores how storytelling became a way of sharing cultural knowledge and lived experience.🎬 Themes: Community arts · Storytelling as cultural practice · Youth voice · Creative expressionMatthew's Real StoryMatthew explains that the story of Alfie was inspired by his own experience as a teenager.After getting into trouble, his father and uncles took him into the bush and left him alone. Matthew reflects on confusion, hunger, fear and the lessons that emerged from the experience.🌿 Themes:Rite of passage · Learning through experience · Family responsibility · Country as teacherStorytelling and ContinuationMatthew reflects on becoming a storyteller through the guidance of his father and Elders.He describes storytelling as a modern ...
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    35 mins
  • Top Camp

    Top Camp
    2 Apr 2026
    In Part 3 Top Camp we follow Matthew's river of story into lived memory, tracing segregation, survival and the struggle for rights.This podcast has been informed by the historical work of Aunty Noelene Briggs, and particularly her books Winanga-li and Burrul Wallaay. To find out more about Aunty Noelene's books click hereDetailed Music Credits"Dramatic Violin and Didgeridoo" by Studio FLG, "Another One" by Mirko Sosai, "Omen" by Richard Johnson, "Tranquility Base" by Chill Factor, "Quirky Play" by Marco Pesci, "Porch Blues" by Kevin MacLeod, "Running South" by Score Wizards, "Hurt Track 13" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Aytonn, "Slow Burn" by Kevin MacLeod, "Didgeridoo Night" by All Stars.This podcast was made with funding from Create NSW.A podcast from Matthew Priestley supported by Third Space Ventures and Coequal.To contact Coequal and find out more, check out our Patreon page, click hereContent Description: This episode contains references to forced child removal, segregation, racism, and violence against Aboriginal peopleSetting: Moves between river Country (Mehi and Gwydir), Dreaming story, lived memory of segregation in Moree, and the emergence of Stanley Village.🪶 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT BREAKDOWN Opening: Listening, Dreaming and Becoming Speaker: Matthew PriestleyMatthew opens with a reflection on listening (Gunnai Binna) — urging people to be still, to hear beyond themselves.Frames life as “magic” and existence as part of Dreaming — not past, but ongoing.Positions Stanley Village as a place that holds beginning, middle and end — a site of layered meaning.🌀 Themes introduced:Listening as knowledge · Dreaming as present · Story as lived reality · Place as continuum. Storytelling as Continuation of Culture Speaker: Matthew PriestleyReflects on becoming a storyteller through guidance of Elders.Frames storytelling as a modern continuation of song and dance — a vehicle for Dreaming in contemporary form.🎙️ Themes:Cultural continuity · Responsibility of storytelling · Old knowledge in new forms. At the Rivers: Mehi and Gwydir Speakers: Dante, MatthewMatthew and Kim travel to where the Mehi and Gwydir rivers meet.Matthew describes the density of stories connected to the Mehi — too many to hold at once.🌊 Themes:River as archive · Story embedded in landscape · Overlapping knowledge systems. Dreaming Story: The Dinewan and the Mehi River Narrator: DanteA drought forces animals to uncover how Dinewan (the emu) controls water.A small bird follows and discovers the hidden rock controlling water flow.When the bird attempts to replicate it, the water cannot be contained — forming the Mehi River.🌌 Themes:Creation through imbalance · Knowledge and consequence · Animal agency · Water as life force. Matthew: Water, Identity and Connection Speaker: MatthewDescribes being inseparable from the river — water as bloodline, identity, and living connection.Rejects ownership in favour of belonging within the system.💧 Themes:Relational identity · Water as kin · Embodied connection to Country. Water, Purity and Culture Speaker: MatthewExtends the metaphor: humans are like water — connected but often forgetting.Names Aboriginal culture as the “purest” surviving system of knowledge.✨ Themes:Purity as continuity · Cultural endurance · Philosophical ecology. The Great Artesian Basin and Hidden Systems Speakers: HostsExplains the underground water system sustaining inland Australia.Highlights how Gomeroi people relied on natural springs long before colonial extraction.Settler use transforms water into an economic resource.🌏 Themes:Hidden infrastructure of life · Indigenous knowledge vs extraction · Environmental change. Segregation at the Moree Baths Speakers: HostsAboriginal people were banned from accessing the artesian baths.Reinforces the contradiction: exclusion from resources on their own Country.🏚️ Themes:Segregation · Denial of access · Everyday racism. Bottom Camp Becomes a Reserve Speakers: HostsBottom Camp formalised as a reserve in the late 1920s.Stark inequality between white staff housing and Aboriginal living conditions.🏘️ Themes:Institutional inequality · Spatial segregation · Infrastructure as control. Stanley Family Movement and Fear of Removal Speakers: HostsAlexander and Rachel Stanley move to the mission.Some families follow; others remain in camps to avoid child removal.🪶 Themes:Family decision-making under threat · Protection vs safety · Survival strategies. Assimilation Policies Intensify Speakers: HostsShift from “protection” to assimilation in the 1930s.Continued control through new language and policy frameworks.⚖️ Themes:Policy evolution masking continuity · Cultural erasure · State control. William Stanley and “Little Boy Lost” Speakers: HostsWilliam Stanley works as a tracker in a high-profile search.Popular retellings erase Aboriginal contribution.Juxtaposed with simultaneous forced ...
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    35 mins
  • Reserve

    Reserve
    30 Nov 2025
    In Part 2: Reserve we move from Dreaming and sky-knowledge to the ground-level realities of segregation, following the creation of reserves and camps while tracing the life of Matthew’s great grandfather Alexander Stanley.This podcast has been informed by the historical work of Aunty Noelene Briggs, and particularly her books Winanga-li and Burrul Wallaay. To find out more about Aunty Noelene's books click hereDetailed Music Credits"Just Did" by All Stars, "Soundscape" by Mirko Sosai, "Omen" by Richard Johnson, "Guitarline" by Philip Okerstrom, "John as well" by Mirko Sosai, "Fred" by Fred, "Awkward Comedy" by Luca Francini, "Hurt Track 4" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Aytonn, "Tranquility Base" by Chill Factor, "Hurt Track 13" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Hurt Guitar Track 8" by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton, "Proud Return" by See More Music, Blusy G'Tar by Mirco Sosai, "Hurt Track 5 by Philip Okerstrom, Damian Mason and Symon Ayton.This podcast was made with funding from Create NSW.A podcast from Matthew Priestley supported by Third Space Ventures and Coequal.To contact Coequal and find out more, check out our Patreon page, click hereContent DescriptionThis episode contains references to segregation, forced child removal, discriminatory laws, and the hardships faced by Aboriginal families living on reserves and in camps.Wirilla – Episode 2: “Reserve” Duration: 23 minutesSetting: Moves between star stories, family history, and the lived memories of the Terry Hie Hie reserve and Moree’s early camps.Narrators/Voices:Matthew Priestley – Mehi Murri man (Terry Hie Hie clan, Gomeroi Nation)Dante – Gomeroi young person narrator and learnerKhalani – Gomeroi young person narrator and learnerKim – Long-time friend of Matthew, researcher and collaboratorPhil – Co-creator, occasional narrator🪶 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT BREAKDOWN Opening: The Lyrebird — Sound and the Birth of LanguageMatthew opens by explaining that sound itself was created by the lyrebird, and that animals generated the first sounds — before wind had “sound.”He frames vibration as an original language, akin to mathematics — a structural, patterned intelligence that underpins how we communicate.🌀 Themes introduced:Sound as origin · Lyrebird as culture-keeper · Vibration as language · Science and story intertwined. Opening Story: The Emu in the Skyintroduces the Gomeroi sky story of the the Emu in the Sky, explaining how the dark spaces between stars form the celestial emu.The changing shape of the emu tracks the seasons — when it lies down, when it rises, and when the birds are nesting.teaches how the sky is a living calendar, a guide for movement, ceremony, and food gathering.🌀 Themes introduced:Celestial knowledge · Seasonal law · Country as teacher · Reading the sky. Terry Hie Hie: Bora and the Calm Before SegregationThe hosts discuss Terry Hie Hie as a major meeting and ceremonial site — one of the largest Bora grounds.They note the last recorded Bora at Terry Hie Hie in 1883, and how the cultural practices continued even as colonisation imposed new pressures.🌿 Themes:Ceremonial life · Continuity amid disruption · Record vs lived practice.After Myall Creek: Disease, Poison, and Disrupted SonglinesTraces the cascading impacts of massacres: disease, poisoning, food source depletion, and broken pathways/songlines that undermined traditional life.Explains how these pressures foreshadowed more formal systems of segregation and control.🔥 Themes:Cultural disruption · Environmental impacts of colonisation · Fragmentation of communal life. Creation of the Terry Hie Hie Reserve (1895)The Aboriginal Protection Board set aside 102 acres for a reserve at Terry Hie Hie in 1895.Hosts discuss the split among white settlers — some professed “protection” motives, others openly expressed racist aims (preventing intermarriage, “protecting” the white race).The reserve is framed both as an imposed protection and as a tool for segregation.🏚️ Themes:Protection as paternalism · Segregation policy · Control of bodies and movement.Naming, Registration, and Identity TheftThe episode explains how births were registered by farmers or reserve managers, Aboriginal names were ignored, and white names or property names were imposed (example: “Dave Combadello”).This bureaucratic renaming severed cultural ties and created false official identities that complicated family histories.🪞 Themes:Bureaucratic erasure · Identity control · Loss of language through paperwork.Family Story: Alexander Stanley (Matthew’s Great-Grandfather)The life of Alexander Stanley is traced: born 1896, worked on cattle stations, later enlisted in WWI using a falsified identity (a common tactic by Aboriginal enlistees).His experience illustrates the contradictions of Aboriginal service: fighting for a nation that denied rights at home.Alexander’s post-war life — ...
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    23 mins
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