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Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that

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Speaker 1: as I get older, I actually get nerdier, which is

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Speaker 1: I've always been pretty nerdy. At the moment, I am

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Speaker 1: particularly fascinated with the crossover between physics, the laws of

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Speaker 1: physics like the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of economics

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Speaker 1: and human behavior, and the parallels between them. In that space,

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Speaker 1: there is a term that I absolutely love. It's called

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Speaker 1: the positive externality. An example of this would be, say

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Speaker 1: you and me invest in some beehives. We decide we're

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Speaker 1: going to sell some bees. We're going to sell some

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Speaker 1: honey down at the farmer's market, and we get some hives.

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Speaker 1: We get the full space suit and the smoker, we

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Speaker 1: get the whole thing, and we start getting at it.

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Speaker 1: We get i don't know, like sixty thousand bees. We've

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Speaker 1: got a couple of hives, start getting the honey, we

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Speaker 1: start selling the jars. We're having a good time, We're

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Speaker 1: turning a profit. Things are going great. The positive externality, though,

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Speaker 1: is that our garden where we go, our chilies is

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Speaker 1: just spewing forth with fruit more than they've ever done

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Speaker 1: because our bees have been pollinating those plants like nobody's business.

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Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of plant sex happening and the

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Speaker 1: fruit has coming out. And now the chili sales because

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Speaker 1: now we've got too many chilies to eat and we

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Speaker 1: can't whatever. We're selling the chilies at the market and

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Speaker 1: they just eclipse the honey sales. That's an unintended value

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Speaker 1: that we didn't think about when we got the bees

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Speaker 1: and we got really into beekeeping, like with David Beckham

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Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, no, if you haven't watched the David

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Speaker 1: Beckham thing, he's into beekeeping. It's wonderful. Now this can

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Speaker 1: happen with people too. When Nick Marquessi launched Orange Sky

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Speaker 1: Laundry with his very best mate the Air, idea was

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Speaker 1: to help restore dignity to people experiencing homelessness by providing

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Speaker 1: a free laundry service. Makes sense. What they didn't plan on, though,

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Speaker 1: is that while the people were having their clothed washed,

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Speaker 1: there was a chance to have a bit of a

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Speaker 1: chat with them and connect with those people. And at

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Speaker 1: some points, as you'll hear Nick say today, as the

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Speaker 1: first conversation they've had in days, and in that moment,

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Speaker 1: not the laundry stuff, but in that moment when they're

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Speaker 1: speaking with these people and connecting with them, they are

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Speaker 1: providing something far, far more valuable than clean clothes. It's

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Speaker 1: a positive externality. It's delightful. Nick's a brilliant human being.

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Speaker 1: He taught me a lot just in our one conversation,

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Speaker 1: and not just that he and I happen to go

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Speaker 1: to the same school up in Rismond a long time ago. Now,

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Speaker 1: as we go through this chat, you'll hear one thing

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Speaker 1: really bloom of mine. He never refers to the people

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Speaker 1: that use Orange Sky as a client or a homeless person.

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Speaker 1: They're always one of our friends, and then he gives

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Speaker 1: them a name. He always refers to the people by name.

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Speaker 1: And I asked him about later on. You'll hear him

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Speaker 1: talk about it, and it's glorious. It's a deliberate and

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Speaker 1: beautiful humanizing move that really inside of me shifted for

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Speaker 1: me and held my eyes quite open to how much

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Speaker 1: we can often ignore the person and instead focus on

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Speaker 1: the problem, especially when it comes to those who were

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Speaker 1: sleeping in a cardboard box in our garage. That's happened

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Speaker 1: to me in my house. It turns out the second

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Speaker 1: night I learned his name, his name was Dave, but

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Speaker 1: this is a long time ago. But yeah, Initially you're like,

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Speaker 1: it's not a person, it's a problem, but it's a person.

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Speaker 1: And I love the way that Nick deals with that.

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Speaker 1: It's a great story. I know you're going to think

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Speaker 1: very differently about people who might be experiencing homelessness and

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Speaker 1: indeed how they got there by the time that we're through.

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Speaker 1: Before we get to the chat, though, I've got to

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Speaker 1: play some ads, so I'll be back after the break. Gooday,

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Speaker 1: welcome to the show. This is Better than Yesterday, helping

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Speaker 1: you make today better than yesterday since twenty thirteen. My

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Speaker 1: name is Osha Ginsburg. That's me. I am a podcast,

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Speaker 1: I am a best selling author. I am a husband,

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Speaker 1: a dad, a stepdad, a snap together shed assembler. We've

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Speaker 1: got a shed that you just snap together and it's

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Speaker 1: made a recycled plastic and really interesting. I'm a mold cleaner,

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Speaker 1: I'm a dead lifter, and I'm a massage ball squealer.

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Speaker 1: Those last two things go together. And I'm very glad

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Speaker 1: you're here. Thanks for being part of the show. Nick

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Speaker 1: Marquessi's here one of the co founders of The Orange

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Speaker 1: Sky Laundry you've probably seen him around. They're the ones

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Speaker 1: with the vans that wash the clothes out in the street.

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Speaker 1: It's such a good blow. Hope you enjoyed the chat.

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Speaker 1: How are you today, Nick?

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Speaker 2: I'm great.

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Speaker 1: We're on the planet. Do we find you today?

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Speaker 2: I'm in me engine in Brisbane.

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Speaker 1: Oh, beautiful Brio DEJANEI yeah, I'm a fellow Barisian. So

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Speaker 1: you and I. You and I actually went to the

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Speaker 1: same school twenty years apart, but you and I went

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Speaker 1: to the same How does a kid and I've spoken

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Speaker 1: about my school on the show before, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: a fairly upper middle upper class or boys private school

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Speaker 1: and the feet of schools for powder Finger District and

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Speaker 1: a lot of rugby, that kind of thing. How does

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Speaker 1: a kid with that kind of background rubbing shoulders with

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Speaker 1: the kids of those kind of parents end up working

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Speaker 1: with people who are sleeping rough What was the moment

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Speaker 1: that you noticed that things were different for you than

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Speaker 1: for others.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a couple lenses to that. Like

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Speaker 2: I think Orange Guy now is known as this idea

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Speaker 2: of bringing people from all walks of life together and connecting,

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Speaker 2: and this at school, I really didn't fit in like,

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Speaker 2: I wasn't at the top of the class, I wasn't

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Speaker 2: good at sport, I wasn't good at making friends outside

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Speaker 2: of school, and I definitely wasn't good at talking to girls.

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Speaker 2: So this idea of, you know, school was really interesting

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Speaker 2: for me, and a lot of times I wasn't too

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Speaker 2: sure where I fit into the piece of the puzzle.

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Speaker 2: But you know, with all of that not fitting in,

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Speaker 2: what school gave me was this sense of friendship and connection,

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Speaker 2: but also this sort of idea of giving back and

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Speaker 2: this sort of notion of service. So I can remember

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Speaker 2: being a young teenager in my own bubble, a very

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Speaker 2: safe and privileged bubble, and my dad was in Sydney

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Speaker 2: working and my brother was at swimming training, and my

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Speaker 2: mom sort of woke me up early one morning she said, Nick,

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Speaker 2: we have to go on Eddie's van. And I knew

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Speaker 2: that was our school's food van that fed people doing

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Speaker 2: it tough, and immediately I was like, I don't want

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Speaker 2: to be there. I don't want to go do that.

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Speaker 2: That's not me. And I reluctantly sort of put my

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Speaker 2: school uniform on and was absolutely terrified to what I

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Speaker 2: was about to experience. And I had all these sort

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Speaker 2: of stereotypes and judgments to what I was going to

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Speaker 2: experience and seconds.

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Speaker 1: So the school that I went to had a van

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Speaker 1: tell me about that.

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Speaker 2: So the van was called Eddie's van that had like

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Speaker 2: a barbecue on the back, and you know, the school

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Speaker 2: sort of worked with its providers to do a barbecue

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Speaker 2: every morning the week. So it's weird how these things

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Speaker 2: come about. But you know, when you volunteer in Eddie' van,

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Speaker 2: the teachers and parents used to say, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: not about the barbecue, it's about having a chat while

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Speaker 2: it was on. But it was very easy to hide

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Speaker 2: behind a barbecue and you know, cook, cook a meal.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, I can remember going out on that school

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Speaker 2: food van that morning and you know, like hiding behind

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Speaker 2: my mum, like I was absolutely terrified. I didn't want

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Speaker 2: to be there. It was just I couldn't think anything

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Speaker 2: that I more would not want to do.

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Speaker 1: And what are you like fourteen thirteen?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I met this guy they nama Harry.

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Speaker 2: And you know, Harry was just like my uncle or

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Speaker 2: my granddad. He had stories that rambled on for ages.

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Speaker 2: He had the same shit jokes. But then I realized

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Speaker 2: that Harry was like living in that park, and I

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Speaker 2: can remember like Harry just treating me like, you know,

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Speaker 2: he was genuinely interested in my life, like he knew

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Speaker 2: about my brother's swimming, and he knew about my dad's work,

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Speaker 2: and he engaged in conversation with my mum. And I

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Speaker 2: remember going back to school that day and just thinking

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Speaker 2: about this guy that i'd met that morning, who was

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Speaker 2: just like another person much older than me that i'd met,

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Speaker 2: but he didn't have the things that I'd taken for

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Speaker 2: granted in my life. And you know, that's a big

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Speaker 2: thing that school gave, gave Lucas and I, the other

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Speaker 2: co founder of Orange Sky, was this realization that giving

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Speaker 2: back and an opportunity to serve others was important.

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Speaker 1: I just want to hold you there for a sec

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Speaker 1: like to hear that, because you know, you and I

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Speaker 1: went to the same school, and off air we were

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Speaker 1: kind of talking about our experiences. Like to hear that

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Speaker 1: my old school did that is extraordinary because that certainly

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Speaker 1: sort of that sort of things did not happen when

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Speaker 1: I went there. So I'm grateful to hear that whoever

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Speaker 1: put that in place was working on that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think, you know, it's incredibly thankful for it.

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Speaker 2: I'm also incredibly thankful that the school gave me a

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Speaker 2: group of some close friends and my best friend Lucas,

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Speaker 2: who I started Orange Sky with. But I think also,

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Speaker 2: like anythink, you know, there's a lot of gaps in

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Speaker 2: what it could have been. And I think that, you know,

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Speaker 2: looking back now the notion of going to an all

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Speaker 2: boys school in a very privileged position and now the

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Speaker 2: position I'm in with with Orange Sky, realizing that there's

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Speaker 2: so much more light and shade to the world that

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Speaker 2: I wasn't exposed to growing up. And you know, I

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Speaker 2: think that's a hard thing for say, my parents, like

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Speaker 2: they did everything they could to you know, support me

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Speaker 2: and what was, you know, on paper and in the

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Speaker 2: paper a good education, but you know, we definitely struggle

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Speaker 2: with you know, keeping me at school and keeping me

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Speaker 2: entertained and keeping me out of trouble. But I think,

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Speaker 2: you know, that's a an interesting season of my life.

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Speaker 2: But I'm very very thankful that one.

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Speaker 1: Did you ever keep in touch with Harry, did you

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Speaker 1: you know, follow his pathway?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so Harry still goes out on an Orange Skuy shifts.

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Speaker 2: He's now got a roof over his head and you know,

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Speaker 2: Harry is getting getting on, but you know he still

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Speaker 2: rocks up and asks me about my parents, and you know,

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Speaker 2: he says the same goofy jokes and has this like

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Speaker 2: you know, old like Kodak digital camera that's maybe got

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Speaker 2: the storage of like two hundred images and he always

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Speaker 2: is rolling through like deleting one image to take a

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Speaker 2: new one and that sort of thing. And you know,

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Speaker 2: he grew up as an orphan in Ballarat and you know,

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Speaker 2: went in and out of incarceration and you know, found

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Speaker 2: himself up in Queensland with no family or no community

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Speaker 2: and has now sort of formed his own family and

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Speaker 2: community around. You know, this community in Brisbane has got

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Speaker 2: his own daughters and grandchildren now, but still a big

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Speaker 2: part of his life, even though he's got a stable

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Speaker 2: accommodation through housing, is to still rock up and yarn

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Speaker 2: to people in Fortitude Valley on a Tuesday morning.

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Speaker 1: That's fantastic. So the you know, the back end of school.

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Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but for me it was

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Speaker 1: like I couldn't wait to see the back of the place.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to just literally just I just want

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Speaker 1: to grab my hair out and listen to weird records

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Speaker 1: and smoke weed and not do this, which is what

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Speaker 1: I did because I didn't get into any Was there

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Speaker 1: a pathway to something like university? Was that a thing

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Speaker 1: you felt pressure from for your folks. No.

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Speaker 2: One of the biggest gifts my parents ever gave me

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Speaker 2: was saying yes to the crazy things that would come

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Speaker 2: out of my mouth. Like I wanted to become a tilist,

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Speaker 2: and my parents would take me to a tiling shop

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Speaker 2: and I beg them for some mistakes, and then I

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Speaker 2: want to become a carpenter. So my parents bought me

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Speaker 2: drills and got called into the principal's office for buying

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Speaker 2: a kid grade one a black and deck a drill,

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Speaker 2: and you know that I want to I got into

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Speaker 2: the media industry and was obsessed with cameras and production

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Speaker 2: and that sort of thing, and my parents like, cool,

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Speaker 2: drop you up at Channel seven and you can hang

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Speaker 2: out there on the holidays. So I had a really interesting,

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Speaker 2: diverse sort of upbringing, and I think that I'm very

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Speaker 2: thankful for my parents sort of saying yes to everything.

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Speaker 1: But Brisbane's an interesting place when it comes to television,

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Speaker 1: right because in other parts of the country of Australia released.

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Speaker 1: The television stations are in and around the city, they're

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Speaker 1: the actual studios among everything. But in Brisbane they're up

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Speaker 1: this far away place with only one road in and

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Speaker 1: one road out, and they're all there if nothing else

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Speaker 1: is up there because it's now National Park so nothing

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Speaker 1: else can go there. And it's this mystical windy road.

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Speaker 1: The only hill that's worth climbing on a bicycle in Brisbane, unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: that's a La magavat. And I remember as a kid

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Speaker 1: going up there. There was something fucking magical about those places.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember the first time you went under the

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Speaker 1: huge towers, the biggest things you've ever seen when you're

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Speaker 1: a kid, Do you remember what it was like the

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Speaker 1: first time you went up there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think very similar to what you described. I

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Speaker 2: think this level of or I think probably a similar

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Speaker 2: age like thirteen or fourteen, my parents somehow helped me

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Speaker 2: arrange to spend a school holidays up there with the

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Speaker 2: news cruise. And one of the things that fascinates me

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Speaker 2: about live production is this sense of teamwork. And I

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Speaker 2: love teams and I love people. Being aligned to a

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Speaker 2: bunch of people coming together to make something is I'm

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Speaker 2: fascinated by. So yeah, I was just absolutely fascinated with

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Speaker 2: like one, like what all you people do? Like this

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Speaker 2: is a lot of people. It's like another whole school

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Speaker 2: up there. But then this sense of like where everyone's

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Speaker 2: role fits into, you know what is a really interesting

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Speaker 2: form of role or work. The sort of cadence and

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Speaker 2: rhythm that a place like that has in you know,

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Speaker 2: you wake up each morning and your product starts at zero,

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Speaker 2: and at six o'clock at night, you're at seven o'clock

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Speaker 2: at night, your product's done, and you sort of start

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Speaker 2: again the next day. And I think that that's sort

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Speaker 2: of a really interesting way of working.

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Speaker 1: And the pressure, the pressure's on because you don't have

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Speaker 1: time to go back and do it again. You have

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Speaker 1: to be in a team. You have to there's a

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Speaker 1: chain of command. If anything goes wrong, you have to

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Speaker 1: sort it out straight away. Any dealing with sometimes chaotic situations,

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Speaker 1: were you I'm guessing what were you like data wrangling?

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Speaker 1: Were you just lugging stuff?

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Speaker 2: When I was fourteen, I was probably just trying to

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Speaker 2: not be bright red and open my mouth and form

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Speaker 2: some conversations. But yeah, I sort of you know, spent

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Speaker 2: actually was able to convince the school to go to

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Speaker 2: school four days a week and work in the media

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Speaker 2: industry one day a week, which started at Channel seven

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Speaker 2: and then went across to the ABC. And the difference

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Speaker 2: with the ABC is that they had a tower, but

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Speaker 2: they didn't have their office up in the mountain, and

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Speaker 2: it was sort of like at the time, I thought

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Speaker 2: it was like a bit of a rejection because Channel

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Speaker 2: seven sort of couldn't follow through with the internship and

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Speaker 2: the ABC offered to pick it up, and I was like,

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Speaker 2: I don't want to go to the ABC. But it

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Speaker 2: was like the best thing ever. Like I went from

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Speaker 2: just doing news production to more long form production. And

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Speaker 2: some of my closest mentors and role models growing up

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Speaker 2: were in that media industry, and in particular you know

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Speaker 2: at ABC and Brisbane. They were so generous in sharing

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Speaker 2: their craft and they probably had about four thousand times

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Speaker 2: more time than the people at Channel seven and care

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Speaker 2: in there in their work.

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Speaker 1: There's really I've got to say that, there's really something

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Speaker 1: about I did a workshop the other day for young

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Speaker 1: presenters at the ABC actually, and there's something about if

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Speaker 1: you meet a young person who's like fourteen fifteen and

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Speaker 1: they are hungry and they're keen. I will always be

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Speaker 1: apart because that was what was given to me, right,

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Speaker 1: And I would say that most of those people had

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Speaker 1: a similar kind of experience. When you're in those things,

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Speaker 1: like when you're working with adults and then you back

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Speaker 1: around your mates on the weekend, did you notice a

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Speaker 1: bit of a difference.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And I think the people that I worked

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Speaker 2: with did as well. Like, you know, I still run

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Speaker 2: into former colleagues who remember, like a Channel seven satellite

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Speaker 2: truck with a red peeplate on it, and they're like,

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Speaker 2: that's the you know, the only time that a peaplate

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Speaker 2: has been on a half a million dollar satellite truck.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I can remember, you know, flying in

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Speaker 2: helicopters and rocking up to out back pubs doing a

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Speaker 2: story and not being eighteen yet and you know, people

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Speaker 2: being like, what do you mean, Like, what's what's going

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Speaker 2: on here? So I think it went both ways, where

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Speaker 2: you know, I was in this community of people that

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Speaker 2: were so passionate about their work and at the top

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Speaker 2: of their game and doing some stuff that I idolized so much,

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Speaker 2: and then you know, going back and my mates were

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Speaker 2: trying to work out how to get a taxi driver,

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Speaker 2: buy a bottle of alcohol, forum to go to a

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Speaker 2: party that we were invited to. And I think that's

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Speaker 2: still a little bit of life now, which is is fun.

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Speaker 1: Well, people like Harry far from your thoughts with that

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Speaker 1: on the back boner for a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like we always talk about when we left high school,

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Speaker 2: Lukes and I missed this opportunity selfishly to simply give

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Speaker 2: back to our community. The fascinating thing about you know,

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Speaker 2: working in the news news cycle or in the I

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Speaker 2: guess the television space is that you're sort of seeing

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Speaker 2: people at potentially the worst and best times their life.

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Speaker 2: And I found that really fascinating. The responsibility and privilege

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Speaker 2: that you had with the camera. And I look back

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Speaker 2: at it now and you know, I was so and

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Speaker 2: I'm still so young and naive. But you know, having

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Speaker 2: a camera and having a logo on your shirt, I

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Speaker 2: think does give you this permit to do things that

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Speaker 2: normally wouldn't be acceptable and under the role of it

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Speaker 2: being a job or being a craft. And I think

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Speaker 2: that's how I justified it, is that it was my

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Speaker 2: role or responsibility to capture something. But looking back at

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Speaker 2: it now that there is a much more human way

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Speaker 2: to do that in some of the things that I

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Speaker 2: that I did back when I was at those places.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we definitely did stories around homelessness and hardship,

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Speaker 2: or we did stories about people giving back in the community,

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Speaker 2: or you'd rock up to someone's house had just been

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Speaker 2: destroyed by fire and you know, they'd suddenly become homeless,

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Speaker 2: but the story was around, you know, someone's house being

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Speaker 2: on fire and red and blue lights sort of flashing.

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Speaker 2: So there were definitely in our community. And then you know,

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Speaker 2: when we started Orange Sky in twenty fourteen, I was

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Speaker 2: working back at Channel seven in a full time role,

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Speaker 2: and I can remember Lucas like driving the van to

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Speaker 2: a park and I would rock up in a Channel

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Speaker 2: seven car and park like around the corner because I

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Speaker 2: wouldn't want to be sort of seen, and I have

359
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Speaker 2: like a different shirt on, and I'd be on call

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Speaker 2: and then halfway through a shift, I get a text

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Speaker 2: and it's like, you need to go to this spot,

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Speaker 2: and I'd sort of have to quickly run to the

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Speaker 2: car and pretend that, you know, I'd been working all morning.

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Speaker 2: And I guess that's probably when the world started to

365
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Speaker 2: transition from you know, what I thought was my dream

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Speaker 2: career and the rest of my life working in this

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Speaker 2: sort of production industry to spending my life in what

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Speaker 2: I do now, which is Orange Sky.

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Speaker 1: What changed in your lives that this became an idea

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Speaker 1: that was worth pursuing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it wasn't one specific moment as a

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Speaker 2: series of moments. And I always talk about Orange Sky

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Speaker 2: being this tree now which has got some really nice

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Speaker 2: branches and leaves, which we can talk about later. But

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Speaker 2: you know, it was just this seed of an idea

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Speaker 2: that was sitting there. And you know, Lucas went overseas

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Speaker 2: with his partner from from high school to do an

378
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,840
Speaker 2: immersion of a break skiing and got dumped over there

379
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Speaker 2: and came back and you know, found himself with some

380
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Speaker 2: free time before he started UNI, and you know, had

381
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,040
Speaker 2: a great time traveling around Mexico and whatnot. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I had some free time and Channel seven was ten

383
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,760
Speaker 2: days on, four days off, and I found myself being

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Speaker 2: a glorified taxi driver that pressed a lot of buttons

385
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Speaker 2: for maybe a minute a day and then sat in

386
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Speaker 2: the car waiting for people to come outside of court.

387
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Speaker 2: So there was this sort of curiosity around like is

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Speaker 2: there a way to give back to the community. And

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Speaker 2: that's sort of where the idea of you know, building

390
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Speaker 2: a mobile laundry van came from. And we'd fired off

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Speaker 2: some emails to some companies that were selling washing machines

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Speaker 2: and it hadn't got much traction because the energy just

393
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Speaker 2: wasn't behind it. And you know, Lucas got back one

394
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Speaker 2: day we caught up in a cafe and you know,

395
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Speaker 2: he was like, Wow, why don't we just give us

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Speaker 2: a go? So, you know, we reached back out to

397
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Speaker 2: those people that had sort of told us know, and

398
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Speaker 2: locked in some meetings and rocked up to these meetings

399
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Speaker 2: in like boardies and late do these big boardrooms. And

400
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Speaker 2: you know, we told these companies, or this one company

401
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Speaker 2: in particular, our little dream of building a free mobile laundry.

402
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Speaker 2: And I can remember very clearly the managing director of

403
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Speaker 2: this family owned washing machine company said, you know, washing

404
00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,000
Speaker 2: machines will never work in a van, and you'll never

405
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Speaker 2: get anyone to wash and dry their clothes in a park.

406
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Speaker 2: And unfortunately she was right. You know, we convinced them

407
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Speaker 2: to give us some washing machines. We broke the first set.

408
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 2: We begged them for some more we broke the second set,

409
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Speaker 2: but then on that sort of third day of taking

410
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Speaker 2: this van out Sudz, the van worked perfectly and we

411
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:37,919
Speaker 2: realized that what we thought were out there to do

412
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 2: at Orange Sky was actually completely wrong And the biggest

413
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Speaker 2: impact of Orange Sky happened on that third morning.

414
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Speaker 1: How did two people realize what's missing in their lives

415
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Speaker 1: is giving back.

416
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Speaker 2: I think it's perspective that you know, I think, on one,

417
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Speaker 2: on a very selfish lenses, something that's be grounding. Like,

418
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Speaker 2: like I said, the first morning that I went out

419
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Speaker 2: on a shift with my mum on Eddie's van, I

420
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Speaker 2: was completely naive to people in my own backyard sleeping there,

421
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Speaker 2: Like it was just something that I'd never sort of

422
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:16,920
Speaker 2: maybe i'd heard of or thought about, but it wasn't

423
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Speaker 2: something that actually looked in the eye and being like, fuck,

424
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:23,639
Speaker 2: that person's living there, Like that's ten minutes from my

425
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Speaker 2: house and they're living on that bench. So I think

426
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Speaker 2: that wasn't something that brought me pleasure. It was something

427
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:35,959
Speaker 2: that brought me this curiosity to like, what's going on

428
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Speaker 2: here and why are we not showing up? And then

429
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Speaker 2: then I think there was this urgent desire and I

430
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 2: think shame in being in a privileged spot and being like, fuck,

431
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,639
Speaker 2: at least we can do is give back, you know,

432
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 2: time or money or resource. And you know, then the

433
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,119
Speaker 2: bit for Orange Sky was like, we didn't want to

434
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,360
Speaker 2: reinvent the wheel, and we just spoke to a few

435
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 2: people and we're like, you know what, what's something that

436
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 2: would actually be helpful and they were like laundry. And

437
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 2: then you know, so then I was like, oh, that's

438
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:08,120
Speaker 2: that's interesting. And then I think, you know, when people

439
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:10,239
Speaker 2: told us it was impossible, like for Lucus, and I

440
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,160
Speaker 2: was like, fuck, this is this is a project here,

441
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 2: you know, like this is this is.

442
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 1: I know, a grade five kid that's got a black

443
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 1: and deca drill. I'm going to be all right, I'm

444
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:20,120
Speaker 1: going to build this ship.

445
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then you know, then you speak to the

446
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,680
Speaker 2: washing machine company and they're like, not possible, and you're

447
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 2: like cool, like and so, you know, I think that

448
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 2: there's a level of naivety in it. There's a level

449
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 2: of determination and persistence and you know, I know I've

450
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 2: driven my parents crazy and trying to to, you know,

451
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,159
Speaker 2: do things in the past that I should have just

452
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:43,440
Speaker 2: stopped at. But I think that all of those things

453
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 2: sort of came together, and then we thought were solving

454
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,040
Speaker 2: a hardware problem. Like what we were trying to solve

455
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 2: an Orange Sky was getting washing machines to work in

456
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 2: a van. And once we'd finally got the van to work,

457
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,640
Speaker 2: we realized that that was like such a small part

458
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,159
Speaker 2: of what Orange Guy could do because while the wish

459
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 2: was on, people were captive. You know, we were stealing

460
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 2: water from the council. Our friends who were washing clothes

461
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: with their only possessions in their life were in the machine,

462
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 2: and so it was like, what do we do now?

463
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 2: And we just had a chat and you know, the

464
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 2: first guy we ever helped a guy Byam and Jordan.

465
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 2: You know, he'd gone to a similar school to us.

466
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:25,160
Speaker 2: He'd worked at a Macquarie bank in it hardware and support,

467
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:29,639
Speaker 2: and he found himself making one or two wrong decisions

468
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 2: and his father passing away, and he found himself waking

469
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,680
Speaker 2: up living on the streets and being our first ever

470
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 2: wash And then we realized that, like, wow, you know,

471
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 2: we have this opportunity to really connect with people in

472
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 2: a captive audience, and you know, that was the weird thing.

473
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 2: Back to the school vent is at the school vents,

474
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 2: and you make sure we talk to people and connect

475
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 2: with people while you're giving the food out and sort

476
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,959
Speaker 2: of like, oh, I was called con sausages, and at

477
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 2: Orange Guy, we're like just wash clothes. And then now

478
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,320
Speaker 2: the biggest part of Orange Guy has very little to

479
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,359
Speaker 2: do with washing clothes. It has everything to do with

480
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 2: having a yarn and connecting communities.

481
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:05,920
Speaker 1: When you talk about being I don't know, thirteen fourteen

482
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: in a school uniform going out to feed a stranger

483
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,120
Speaker 1: who's living who's so desperate they're living in a park,

484
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 1: it is terrifying. There's a terrifying thing to think about.

485
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 1: Because we're taught from kids, watch out for the guy

486
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: who lives in the park. It's a scary monster, right,

487
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:29,399
Speaker 1: That's what we're taught. Like Wolf Game. My youngest he's five,

488
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,400
Speaker 1: and he comes home from daycare and they're talking about, oh,

489
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,160
Speaker 1: we practiced this thing today. If a stranger comes, Okay,

490
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: all right, fair enough. I get that that is important.

491
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 1: But we're kind of taught from so little to be

492
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,119
Speaker 1: wary of strangers, particularly the ones who will smelly and

493
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 1: the ones that live in the cardboard box. Right, don't

494
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 1: look at them, walk over and pretend like they're not there.

495
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 1: Where's the misconceptions in that? Because some of those things

496
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,000
Speaker 1: are valid, all right, but where are the misconceptions in

497
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: that kind of idea?

498
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 2: I think that these stereotype and misconceptions are taught, and

499
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:04,240
Speaker 2: so I think a big part of it is actually

500
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,240
Speaker 2: relearning and looking at how we're taught these things, because

501
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 2: absolutely I was taught that, but absolutely, over the last

502
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 2: ten years of being part of Orange Sky, that couldn't

503
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 2: be any more wrong. And you know, as an introvert myself,

504
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 2: I don't actively look at it connecting with randoms in

505
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 2: the street like I couldn't think of anything worse, but

506
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 2: I'm really comfortable and bringing an Orange van out to

507
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,120
Speaker 2: a park stealing water and saying, hey, does anyone want

508
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 2: to wash their clothes? And then someone introducing themselves and saying, hey,

509
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 2: I'm living in my car with my kids and realizing

510
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,959
Speaker 2: that I'm washing school uniforms to go to school and

511
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 2: they'll go into a food service that afternoon and then

512
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:47,399
Speaker 2: tuck into the car in a park and hopefully the

513
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 2: three of them can get into good night's sleep. So,

514
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 2: you know, I think a big part of it is

515
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:58,399
Speaker 2: us really making sure that we are representing appropriately the

516
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 2: communities of people that that are facing hardship and acknowledging

517
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 2: that that is a stereotype that has changed significantly. And

518
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 2: the people that access Orange Skuys come from all walks

519
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,360
Speaker 2: of life. And I think also realizing that there's there's

520
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,880
Speaker 2: scary people in the world every day and you know, I'm.

521
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:19,959
Speaker 1: Probably scary people who own houses.

522
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:24,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I'm more scared of Maybe my accounting

523
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 2: teacher was very nice, but you know, like a scary teacher.

524
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 2: Then my accounting teacher was terrified. So it must have

525
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 2: changed in the twenty years of difference. But there are

526
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 2: people out there in the community that cause hurt. And

527
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 2: that isn't to say that that Orange Sky is full

528
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 2: of happy people that are patting each other on the back,

529
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,679
Speaker 2: like it's a section of life where there's light and shade.

530
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 2: And you know, we're working with people potentially the toughest

531
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 2: times of their life and we're trying to do the

532
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,640
Speaker 2: best we can, and we make mistakes and they make mistakes.

533
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 2: But the stereotypes and stigmas of homelessness in Australia and

534
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 2: globally are completely incorrect.

535
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,919
Speaker 1: Language is everything right. Language can mean the way we

536
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 1: speak about things changes the way we treat things. You say,

537
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: steal the water for a council, but I'm pretty sure

538
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: you're making a joke there, Like I dare say, you've

539
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: put permission. However, during this conversation, every person you have

540
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:23,240
Speaker 1: mentioned you have used a proper noun. Why is it

541
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 1: important to use proper nouns, actual human names of people

542
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: who are living this way?

543
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we started Orange Sky were like, fuck,

544
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 2: what do we call the people we help? They're not

545
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 2: our clients. We're not selling anything or doing any therapy.

546
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 2: They're not our customers. They're definitely not our patrons. And

547
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 2: we landed on this F word, which was friends. And

548
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 2: you know, there's probably been a few things at Orange

549
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 2: Sky that have just been bits of magic, and that

550
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 2: has to be one of the earliest bits of magic.

551
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 2: I think not calling it Brisbane laundry van was a good,

552
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,240
Speaker 2: good call. Glad we didn't do that with age quickly.

553
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 2: And then the second one was this this F word.

554
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 2: So we believe that, you know, Orange Sky isn't trying

555
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 2: to preach, teach, or fix anything. We're there to provide friendship,

556
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 2: and friendship has all sorts of forms and you know,

557
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 2: I use that word multiple times a day, and it's

558
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 2: really interesting. Some people absolutely hate being called friend because

559
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 2: like I'm not your friend, like what the fuck? Like

560
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 2: what's going on on here? And some people just love

561
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 2: it because it's super disarming. But I do think that

562
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 2: language is super important. And I think also acknowledgment is

563
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 2: really important. And you know, we talk about the power

564
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 2: of a conversation an orange sky, and we talk about

565
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 2: conversation staters, and you know, in Hobart and Camber and

566
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 2: has in Melbourne right now, the important conversations around how

567
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 2: cold is it? You know, what's the weather? Like? You know,

568
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 2: if you're in Queensland, it's probably about the footy on

569
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 2: the weekend. But this idea of remembering a previous conversation

570
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 2: or remembering something about someone is the best conversation starters.

571
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, looking someone in the eye

572
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 2: and calling them their name, or acknowledging them as a

573
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,240
Speaker 2: fellow human and calling them a friend, I think is

574
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 2: the least we can do to start reconnecting with our

575
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 2: fellow human beings.

576
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 1: Just a moment away from Nick to say that if

577
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 1: this conversation is valuable to you, please do share this

578
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: chat that. Actually, what it does is it makes us

579
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: money here at the show, and considering this podcast is

580
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 1: now my sole source of income. Boy, howdy do I

581
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: appreciate it When you tell a friend about this show

582
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,760
Speaker 1: or text them or send them a link or whatever

583
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: it is that you do. It doesn't cost you anything

584
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: at all, and it helps us make the show. It

585
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: really does help us out a huge amount. We'll be

586
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 1: back after the break in your stories, and I don't

587
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 1: even care if you're making these stories up. But it's

588
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 1: not a guy. It's Jordan, it's not this old dude,

589
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: it's Harry. And immediately that instantly humanizes the experience and

590
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: allows us I guess away into empathy for who that

591
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: who that person is, and I can absolutely understand you

592
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: talk about looking people in the eye. I lived in

593
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: Venice Beach in California. I live in Californish abound ten years.

594
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 1: I lived in Venice Beach the last three or four years.

595
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 1: The homelessness there is terrifying because the outpatient facilities for

596
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 1: proper like serious mental illness is woefully there's very very

597
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: little of it. So there's raw, heavy duty unmedicated mental

598
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,959
Speaker 1: illness on the streets, which really hard, and for the

599
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: most part these people, I can only imagine they would

600
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: feel invisible. They would feel invisible. They have encampments, you know,

601
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 1: like a four person tent on the side of the

602
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: pathway with just a horde of stuff, literally just piles

603
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 1: of shit, and nobody looks at them, nobody speaks to them.

604
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 1: And it must be terrifying, terrifying when you do look

605
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 1: people in the eye. When people do have that experience

606
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: of being validated, do they talk about what it feels.

607
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 2: Like absolutely and even thinking about it. Then I think

608
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 2: there's two ends of the spectrum where you know, we've

609
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 2: had conversations in the past where you know, friends said

610
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to anyone in three days, and you

611
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 2: know this is the first chat. But then on the

612
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 2: other end, you know, you've got people that are getting

613
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 2: constantly moved on and seen because their living room is

614
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 2: on the on the side of the road and they

615
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 2: feel like they don't have a safe place. And I

616
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,479
Speaker 2: can remember one of our first ever showers in Brisbane

617
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 2: wet these vans of showers on board, similar to the

618
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 2: naivety of laundry. You know, we didn't do too much testing.

619
00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 2: We took the shower van out and we set the

620
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,760
Speaker 2: shower van up and the first ever shower it's like

621
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes, twenty minutes. Fuck, we didn't really say how

622
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 2: long you could have a shower or like you know,

623
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 2: like there's a person alive in there, like what whatnot?

624
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 2: And then realizing that that person didn't have a safe

625
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 2: place to connect with themselves and be clean, and you know,

626
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 2: we had to put doorbells on our vans and some

627
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 2: emergency procedures and a bit of a policy because I

628
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 2: was like anxious for the next week about like, but

629
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 2: how do you know if someone's okay in the van?

630
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 2: And I think that that's sort of a sobering reminder

631
00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 2: is you know you might be you're definitely isolated and

632
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 2: ignored and othered, but you're also under a microscope of

633
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 2: every action in that way, when it.

634
00:33:55,600 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: Comes to homelessness. In Australia, we are incredibly to have

635
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 1: it's like no systems perfect, but we have a social

636
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:08,200
Speaker 1: support network, we have healthcare, we have social services. We

637
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:15,879
Speaker 1: sometimes there's financial assistance. Depending on your situation, there can

638
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 1: be a narrative like what are they doing out there?

639
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 1: Can't they just apply to get a I pay my taxes.

640
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:24,799
Speaker 1: You know, why don't they just get some of that,

641
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,959
Speaker 1: you know, doll money. You know, how do you find

642
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:32,399
Speaker 1: how can people sometimes get themselves in this situation when

643
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,280
Speaker 1: there is this sort of support in our country.

644
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a couple of things come to mind.

645
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,239
Speaker 2: One is, and it's really scary to think about it,

646
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 2: and I sometimes get super overwhelmed with it. But there's

647
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 2: been a part of life where we've accepted that homelessness

648
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 2: is okay, and like I was born into that, and

649
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 2: I accept that now each and every day when I

650
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 2: know that there's people, you know, one and two hundred

651
00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 2: people on paper are homeless in Australia. And I went

652
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 2: for a run in the city yesterday, I probably passed

653
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,640
Speaker 2: twenty five people, and by me passing them, like I

654
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:10,359
Speaker 2: accepted that that is socially acceptable. That you know, a

655
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 2: young family can be living in a tent along the

656
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 2: Brisbane River, Like that is pretty scary that we've you know,

657
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 2: if that was someone getting actively injured or you know,

658
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 2: like we accept that our fellow human beings are assaulted

659
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 2: and killed. Like it's pretty pretty scary that that is

660
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,800
Speaker 2: something that is even comprehendible and has somewhat been you know, accepted.

661
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 2: The other thing I think is realizing this idea of

662
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 2: hardship or homelessness how quickly it can happen, so we

663
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 2: don't used to see word at Orange Sky too much,

664
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 2: but you know, the coronavirus pandemic. I remember being out

665
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 2: on shift in Sydney and there was this young couple

666
00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 2: who looked very uncomfortable but were and we're very somewhat

667
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 2: out of place. And they both were working in the

668
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 2: airline industry. They were both living paycheck to paycheck and

669
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 2: they were both experiencing their first night without having a

670
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 2: home because you know, they lost their incomes. They couldn't

671
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:21,520
Speaker 2: afford the rent. That was not an issue to them

672
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 2: prior when they both had two salaries and they didn't

673
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:28,640
Speaker 2: have any savings, and it's like, you know, they're being like,

674
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 2: you know, fuck, what do we do? Who do we

675
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 2: go to talk to? How do we get a job?

676
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:35,879
Speaker 2: Like their whole world had been completely flipped upside down

677
00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 2: and in probably a month if that didn't And I

678
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 2: think that, you know, again it comes back to that

679
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:45,240
Speaker 2: stereotype where we think that you know, this one type

680
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 2: of homelessness or hardship is this X person, but my

681
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 2: whole education narrative on that's been completely changed. And I

682
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 2: think we need to realize that we're all made of

683
00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 2: the same stuff and we all need these things to live,

684
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:05,040
Speaker 2: and very quickly that can change, sometimes not at the

685
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:06,320
Speaker 2: fault of our line.

686
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: And engaging with these services that are country gratefully provised.

687
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: Like I said, they're not perfect, but sometimes when I

688
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 1: came back to Australia, I had passed the point of

689
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 1: whatever it was. It was an amount of years that

690
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: you can be gone. I had to reapply, I had

691
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 1: to get back on the grid, and I'm someone who

692
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,799
Speaker 1: had access to all of my documents and all of

693
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: my stuff, and it was still a punished and it

694
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 1: took weeks before I could do things like get a

695
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,879
Speaker 1: power connection to the apartment that I was in because

696
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 1: I needed particular kinds of idea and stuff like this.

697
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,400
Speaker 1: But if you don't have your documents with you for

698
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,760
Speaker 1: whatever reason, you've had to get away from a situation,

699
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 1: and you don't have your Medicare card or your driver's

700
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 1: license or your passport whatever trying to get that stuff.

701
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,920
Speaker 1: And if you don't have that stuff and you have

702
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:58,600
Speaker 1: an interaction with law enforcement or something like that. It's

703
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: just such as even a slippery slope.

704
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,560
Speaker 2: It's a precipice, absolutely, And every week now around Australia

705
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,800
Speaker 2: a thousand hours of conversation take place, so it's always

706
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:12,279
Speaker 2: overwhelming to represent you know, one or two stories. But

707
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 2: you know, there was a friend Bill in Brisbane here

708
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 2: who was paying the rent and I think he was

709
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 2: working as a trade of some sort and paid the

710
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 2: rent for two years, you know, NonStop on the right

711
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 2: days and whatnot. And then you know, rocked up one

712
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 2: day and the police for his house. He's like, what's

713
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:31,920
Speaker 2: going on and they said, you know you've been illegally

714
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 2: squatting here for two years. He's like, oh that, like,

715
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 2: you know, I've been paying the rent. And he was

716
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,960
Speaker 2: caught up in a scam where he wasn't paying the rent.

717
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,160
Speaker 2: He was just paying someone who had told them that

718
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,879
Speaker 2: they were like the real estate agent or whatever. And

719
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 2: you know, he got then listed on the the RTA

720
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 2: side as you know, a bad person, even though they

721
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:58,240
Speaker 2: had proven that they paid the rent the whole time,

722
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 2: and was excluded from the rental market. Now you know

723
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:04,760
Speaker 2: a trades person who is included from the rental market

724
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 2: doesn't have too many options. They can either you know,

725
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,359
Speaker 2: maybe pay for a hotel and get stung their way,

726
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:12,000
Speaker 2: or try them if they could buy a place. But

727
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:14,719
Speaker 2: you know, I think that there's just so many examples

728
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 2: of where someone has, out of their no faults of

729
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 2: their own, been taken advantage of and found themselves, you know,

730
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,799
Speaker 2: not able to rent because they've been taken advantage of.

731
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: When people are engaging with you, when you're having these conversations,

732
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 1: I understand, Like it's like anything, you know, if people

733
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:36,319
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, do you go to the you know,

734
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,200
Speaker 1: the soup van thing is like, well, I'll get the suit,

735
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 1: but I don't like listening to the Bible stuff, but

736
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 1: I have to if I want to eat, you know,

737
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 1: And so people will sit there. And if there's a

738
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 1: church service or something like that're like, I don't like it,

739
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:53,040
Speaker 1: but I'd do that. How much agency does the friend

740
00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:56,279
Speaker 1: have in accepting any kind of direction towards some sort

741
00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: of service or engagement with a pathway to perhaps change

742
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: the situation.

743
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 2: That definitely happens. And we at Orange Sky talk about

744
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 2: Orange Sky being a free service, but it's definitely not free.

745
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 2: There's a level of pride and shame and choice and

746
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:22,680
Speaker 2: autonomy that is not free in our service. And I

747
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:26,600
Speaker 2: hope that we never take for granted having a safe

748
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 2: or providing a safe space where people can come, not

749
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:33,719
Speaker 2: be judged and get their service for economically free. But

750
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 2: we're not counting for their time that we're taking or

751
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 2: the privilege that it is to wash potentially their only possessions.

752
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 2: So at every location that Orange Sky now operates over

753
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 2: four hundred times a week, at every location, we're with

754
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,360
Speaker 2: another service provider, and you know, they might be a

755
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 2: food service provider or our old school food van, or

756
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:59,200
Speaker 2: a church or a drop in center, and we try

757
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 2: and compliment the work that they do by bringing out

758
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:06,000
Speaker 2: our laundry and showers and conversation. But you know, I've

759
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:11,359
Speaker 2: definitely experienced times where people have had to change their

760
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,319
Speaker 2: value set or be in an uncomfortable spot or been

761
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 2: an unsafe spot to get a basic necessity. And you know,

762
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 2: we're doing a project at the moment called Where's Wally

763
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 2: and Wilma really looking at where are the people that

764
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,920
Speaker 2: Orange Guys should be helping and why are they not

765
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:27,880
Speaker 2: coming to Orange Sky and what can we do to

766
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 2: help those people? And you know, a park in Whitmore

767
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 2: Square in Adelaide, or in Surrey Hills in Sydney is

768
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 2: a great spot for some people to be able to

769
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,719
Speaker 2: wash their clothes, and it's a service that you know,

770
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 2: maybe they've been going to for six years now and

771
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 2: they have great conversations. But it's also not a comfortable

772
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 2: place for a young lady who's escaping family violence and

773
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,520
Speaker 2: is finding a self sleeping on the streets. And how

774
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 2: can we actually make appropriate servers for someone like that

775
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:05,640
Speaker 2: to get supported. That's where you know, Orange Sky can

776
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 2: continually to do better.

777
00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 1: Even when you think about it. Wolfee, like I said,

778
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:13,360
Speaker 1: he's nearly five and he's just his big sister bless

779
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 1: her has just taught him how to cupcake, and so

780
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: he's aware that bad smells can be weaponized, you know.

781
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:24,279
Speaker 1: So he's cupcake fighting me.

782
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 2: I don't think they make its. I was like, oh

783
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 2: I love cupcakes.

784
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:32,239
Speaker 1: No no, no, no fighting. It was handed and got it.

785
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,720
Speaker 1: So when you haven't showered, I know, when I haven't showered,

786
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:41,880
Speaker 1: I know I'm repellent. Right. If you haven't had access

787
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 1: to be able to clean yourself, you're aware that you

788
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 1: have a pungence about you that is going to reduce

789
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: people's need for engagement, but you also ability to engage

790
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,800
Speaker 1: with it. But you also your your sense of dignity,

791
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 1: your sense of worth is so affected. It sounds to

792
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,840
Speaker 1: me like what you're by both helping people be clean,

793
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:06,799
Speaker 1: there's so much more than that, Like there's a lot

794
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: of dignity that's being provided here, isn't there? Nick?

795
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,640
Speaker 2: Absolutely? You know, we talk about it both being the

796
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 2: physical cleanliness, but then the mindset and the stereotypes and

797
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 2: stigmas that come and the shame that come from being dirty.

798
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 2: I think also, you know, for the last six six years,

799
00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 2: Orange Sky has been operating in some of the most

800
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 2: remote communities in Australia. And the genesis for that was

801
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 2: that Lucas and I were at a healthcare conference about

802
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,399
Speaker 2: to sort of share the Orange Sky story, and this

803
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:42,799
Speaker 2: public health expert got up and said that there was

804
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:47,640
Speaker 2: an epidemic of rheumatic heart disease happening in Australia and

805
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 2: no one was talking about it. And you know, like

806
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 2: I said, a failed school and failed science. I was like, fuck,

807
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 2: that sounds pretty serious. What's going on here? So you

808
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:56,959
Speaker 2: know what they talked about is, you know, a heart

809
00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:01,319
Speaker 2: disease and having heart value aromatic fever. A key contributor

810
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,879
Speaker 2: to that was around cleanliness in the home. And then

811
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 2: they were talking about a key contributor to being able

812
00:44:07,239 --> 00:44:11,920
Speaker 2: to stop what is completely preventable being romatic heart disease.

813
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 2: It isn't a cancer or anything like that, is around

814
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:21,200
Speaker 2: you know, basic hygiene, cleanliness and infection control. And to

815
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 2: think that someone doesn't have access to health hardware like

816
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,800
Speaker 2: a washing machine, who isn't able to keep themselves clean,

817
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:30,680
Speaker 2: who then gets a cut, but then that gets infected

818
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 2: and then a very short amount of time later they've got,

819
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,120
Speaker 2: you know, needing a heart transplant. Is pretty scary to

820
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:42,879
Speaker 2: think about how extreme cleanliness can be in our communities.

821
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:47,759
Speaker 2: And my grandmother had rhumatic fever and she's eighty or

822
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 2: ninety now and she's still alive. But if she was

823
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:54,560
Speaker 2: an aboriginal lady growing up in a remote community, there's

824
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,320
Speaker 2: no chance that she would even have got to potentially

825
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,080
Speaker 2: a teenager. And I think that they're the scary thing

826
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,480
Speaker 2: is that now a third of Orange Sky services show

827
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 2: up in some of the most remote parts of Australia.

828
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 2: And that's what we're really passionate about, is how do

829
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,960
Speaker 2: we actually use what I've taken for granted in my life,

830
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 2: like a load of washing or jumping in the shower,

831
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 2: But also this community of a friendship and support where

832
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 2: we've all had shit days and our friends pick us

833
00:45:21,719 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 2: up or our friends put us down, but ultimately that

834
00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:26,359
Speaker 2: community gets us through.

835
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:29,400
Speaker 1: We may not go through our day to day helping

836
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 1: out a friend, as you say, who's sleeping rough, but

837
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:37,319
Speaker 1: there are friends that we know that we can, you know,

838
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,120
Speaker 1: we could help out. What would you say to people

839
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:45,879
Speaker 1: about what it means for themselves what they can get

840
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:51,440
Speaker 1: out of being of service to another person today.

841
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:53,240
Speaker 2: I think this idea of showing up is so important.

842
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 2: And one of our first friends, Dave Bushy, sort of

843
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:02,200
Speaker 2: talked about that someone cares and it's all about hope.

844
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:05,560
Speaker 2: And there's another quote out there which is like, we

845
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 2: know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

846
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:10,839
Speaker 2: And if life was easy, you'd be like, oh, if

847
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 2: you help someone, it equals this. But we've all helped

848
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 2: someone and nothing's changed or it's gotten worse, and we've

849
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 2: all helped someone and that's been a really great thing.

850
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:25,000
Speaker 2: But I think that if we look at us as

851
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:30,040
Speaker 2: a human species, we have a longing for connection and

852
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 2: the only reason we're here in our life is for

853
00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:36,399
Speaker 2: the people that being around us or haven't been around us.

854
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 2: So I think if we sort of try and overcomplicated

855
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:42,920
Speaker 2: and improve everything, we then start to rank our friends.

856
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,920
Speaker 2: And maybe that's why MySpace doesn't work anymore. But just

857
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 2: knowing that at some point in time, it's a pretty

858
00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 2: it's a pretty simple equation to know that showing up

859
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 2: or giving hope to someone will be a benefit. I

860
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:02,760
Speaker 2: don't know, maybe I'm oversimplify.

861
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:08,239
Speaker 1: It, No, not at all. I Mean we're wired for connection, right,

862
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:12,319
Speaker 1: and we're wired for cooperation, so being of service to

863
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:17,600
Speaker 1: another person is exactly one of the things that ticks

864
00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:20,400
Speaker 1: boxes inside our body and releases things that make us

865
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 1: feel good that nothing else can in a more permanent way.

866
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:26,439
Speaker 1: But they don't tell you that because you can't pay

867
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:31,200
Speaker 1: for it, you can't buy it, you can't sell it.

868
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: But it's there.

869
00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 2: You know, it's really really interesting, And I think that's

870
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:38,359
Speaker 2: the beauty and the simplicity of what Orange s Guy

871
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:41,320
Speaker 2: is all about. Is you know, we've got volunteer. Our volunteers,

872
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 2: like we've got over three thy five hundred that go

873
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:46,279
Speaker 2: out each week now and you know, those volunteers too

874
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 2: are lonely and isolated and disconnected, and they too have

875
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:52,719
Speaker 2: had their own story of hardship. And you know, one

876
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:56,359
Speaker 2: of the early moments, when we're launching the Sunshine Coast

877
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,640
Speaker 2: in Queensland, Lucas and I were driving the van up

878
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:01,600
Speaker 2: and you know, how to pretty good shift, but it

879
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:03,640
Speaker 2: was sort of maybe becoming a bit repetitive, and we

880
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 2: pulled into the petrol station, filled up and about to

881
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:12,640
Speaker 2: driving our home, and then the cashier said the diesels

882
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:14,040
Speaker 2: paid for and I was like, no, no, no, like we're

883
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 2: pump whatever, and she said no, the previous person wanted

884
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:21,520
Speaker 2: to say thank you, they used your service. And so

885
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:24,880
Speaker 2: then immediately I'm looking out at the petrol station being like,

886
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 2: who was it, you know, judgmental brain, you know, and

887
00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:29,879
Speaker 2: like there's three people about to jump in their car

888
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 2: and I'll never know who that person was, and maybe

889
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 2: that personal they'll never tell us. But that's the beauty

890
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 2: of what I think Orange Skuy's all about, is like

891
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:43,680
Speaker 2: this random collection of people that fund Orange Sky, that

892
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 2: volunteer with Orange Sky, that use Orange Sky services, and

893
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:51,400
Speaker 2: there is this sort of magic that there's sort of

894
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 2: this spoken and unspoken thing that happens where you know,

895
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:58,719
Speaker 2: some of our volunteers have probably spent nights under the stars,

896
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 2: or have had an experience of hardship, which is the

897
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 2: reason why they put their kids in childcare to go

898
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 2: and volunteer at Orange Sky when it's probably costing their

899
00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:12,360
Speaker 2: money to volunteer, Or it's why, you know, someone who's

900
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:16,800
Speaker 2: been continually let down trusts someone with an orange shirt

901
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,520
Speaker 2: on to put their washing and have a.

902
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:24,399
Speaker 1: Chat time and again. In my own life, whether it

903
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:28,600
Speaker 1: be my I hesitate to use the word journey, but

904
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 1: my experience of getting sober, my experience of getting mentally well,

905
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 1: has only been possible through connecting with another human being

906
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,600
Speaker 1: who has been able to see the situation that I'm

907
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:45,719
Speaker 1: in and for me to be able to see in them.

908
00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:50,680
Speaker 1: Or it could be different. This person is an example

909
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: that it could be different. What do you think that

910
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: in this time when we're literally we're just heaeds like

911
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:01,279
Speaker 1: this looking in a freaking led screen. Our thumbs are

912
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:04,399
Speaker 1: going on adventures around the world while we sit still, right,

913
00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:09,160
Speaker 1: what would you say about how powerful it is to

914
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:12,799
Speaker 1: feel connected to another person and what they can do

915
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:13,359
Speaker 1: for your day.

916
00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think there's anything more profound than we

917
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:22,120
Speaker 2: talk about the power of a conversation Orange Sky. I

918
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 2: think this idea of listening, understanding, connecting is some of

919
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 2: the fundamental things that we need for human existence. But

920
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:36,960
Speaker 2: we're just doing that in really poor ways or ways

921
00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 2: that are probably not doing what we need. So you know,

922
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:45,880
Speaker 2: I become obsessed with it. I also think though, realizing

923
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:50,240
Speaker 2: that we're not perfect and you must shared Jordan's story earlier,

924
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:52,919
Speaker 2: and you know, for ten years we've been talking about

925
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:57,239
Speaker 2: this guy Jordan who came for three days. We'd let

926
00:50:57,320 --> 00:51:00,680
Speaker 2: him down and he trusted us when no one else

927
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,440
Speaker 2: believed in Orange Sky. He was like, fuck it, I'll

928
00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 2: put my washing in. This is cool. I want my

929
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:08,759
Speaker 2: washing done. And you know, every so often people be like, oh,

930
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:10,920
Speaker 2: have you heard from Jordan? Have you checked in with Jordan?

931
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:15,239
Speaker 2: Like no, Like Jordan came and went and we think

932
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:16,799
Speaker 2: we heard from him from when he was in the

933
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:20,319
Speaker 2: Gold Coast, but no, we haven't. And I think that

934
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 2: was something that bothered us. Was around like, if we're

935
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,440
Speaker 2: talking about this person was the first ever person we helped,

936
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:28,120
Speaker 2: is the guy that believed in us? Like were we

937
00:51:28,600 --> 00:51:31,520
Speaker 2: a shit friend to Jordan's So we just sort of

938
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,480
Speaker 2: had a crack at our own own podcast talking about

939
00:51:34,719 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 2: stereotypes and stigmas, and we tracked Jordan down and I

940
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:43,080
Speaker 2: had projected this vision of Jordan from maybe twenty minutes

941
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:47,360
Speaker 2: of conversation over three days with him, and to paint

942
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:50,040
Speaker 2: and fill in the blanks of you know, what those

943
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 2: interactions meant to him, what was his actual story and

944
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:57,640
Speaker 2: where is he now? And being reminded like, wow, this

945
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:02,080
Speaker 2: was so hectic, this conversation was so such an important

946
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:04,719
Speaker 2: reminder of why we do what we do and why

947
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 2: this stuff's important. But also realizing that that was ten

948
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:11,040
Speaker 2: years in the making and it's pretty simple in this

949
00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:14,319
Speaker 2: day and age to use technology to reach out and

950
00:52:14,320 --> 00:52:17,440
Speaker 2: connect with people. It's not as complicated as it used

951
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 2: to be. So if we actually understand, yes, there's a

952
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:24,239
Speaker 2: lot of things that technology is doing to make us

953
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:27,520
Speaker 2: more apart, but there's also some things that technology can

954
00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:31,120
Speaker 2: do to bring us more together. I think that's the

955
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:32,280
Speaker 2: conundrum of life.

956
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:35,720
Speaker 1: What would you say to people who have been listening

957
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 1: to this and they think, oh, man, I should really

958
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,520
Speaker 1: volunteer for something, but I don't have to. I've got

959
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:42,840
Speaker 1: no time for this, and I've got to do school

960
00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:44,759
Speaker 1: drop off, and I've got to spend time with my

961
00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:47,280
Speaker 1: husband and my wife and my kids and my girlfriend

962
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,120
Speaker 1: and my boyfriend. Ah be someone else do that? What

963
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:52,040
Speaker 1: would you say to people who might be like, I

964
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:53,960
Speaker 1: should probably do that, but I don't have time.

965
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 2: You know, I think we've all got the same amount

966
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:58,960
Speaker 2: of time. And we talk about this at Orange Sky

967
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:00,520
Speaker 2: all the time, is that we're all made of the

968
00:53:00,560 --> 00:53:04,880
Speaker 2: same stuff. But somewhere along the line we realize that

969
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 2: someone's different, or someone's got more or less than we do.

970
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 2: But you know, I think washing is a pretty good leveler.

971
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:14,759
Speaker 2: That we all wash our undies most if we're in

972
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:18,479
Speaker 2: a privileged position. We all, majority of us again, wear

973
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:22,200
Speaker 2: clothes that define who we are and give us comfort

974
00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:25,960
Speaker 2: and give us privilege and give us ability for employment.

975
00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:29,680
Speaker 2: But we also all have a sense of longing for

976
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 2: being heard, and we all have a story. And so yes,

977
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:36,080
Speaker 2: anyone can jump onto Orange Guys website and register volunteer,

978
00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:39,279
Speaker 2: and you know, hopefully you have an amazing opportunity to

979
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:41,560
Speaker 2: give back to your community. But you actually don't need

980
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 2: an Orange shirt or you don't need a van with

981
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 2: washing machines to have an impactful conversation and you know,

982
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 2: whether that be with your loved ones or whether it

983
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:54,080
Speaker 2: be you know, this little podcast project we did, we

984
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,120
Speaker 2: sort of talked about this idea of first friends, and

985
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,080
Speaker 2: fucker was fascinating just asking people like, what's your earliest

986
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 2: childhood memory of friendship? And then asking kids what friendship

987
00:54:02,400 --> 00:54:04,799
Speaker 2: means to them, and it's like along the way, we've

988
00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:08,880
Speaker 2: all had a journey of friendship. And I found it

989
00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:12,440
Speaker 2: really really cool just hearing you know whose people's first

990
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:14,840
Speaker 2: friend was and so have you have you connected with

991
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:17,520
Speaker 2: your first friends? Like, oh, no, I should reach out

992
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:19,879
Speaker 2: to that person, or we had a massive blue woman

993
00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:21,920
Speaker 2: on touch, or that person is still my best in

994
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:23,080
Speaker 2: I catch up with them.

995
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 1: Extraordinary, man, absolutely extraordinary. If people want to support you,

996
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:29,920
Speaker 1: what kind of things can they do? Yeah, I think

997
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,560
Speaker 1: you know they can besides following you around and paying

998
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:33,799
Speaker 1: for you.

999
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:38,200
Speaker 2: I'll be at this petrol station tomorrow. Now. I think

1000
00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 2: you know what we can all do is have a conversation.

1001
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 2: And like I said, that doesn't need to be with

1002
00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 2: an orange sky van or anything like that. Just connect

1003
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,160
Speaker 2: with someone and maybe tell them how much they mean

1004
00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:53,480
Speaker 2: to you or ask them how they're actually doing. You know,

1005
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:56,720
Speaker 2: for Orange Sky. You can jump onto our website orange

1006
00:54:56,719 --> 00:55:00,799
Speaker 2: sky dot org and you know, make a donation or register, volunteer,

1007
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 2: or importantly find out where we operate. And there might

1008
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:07,920
Speaker 2: be someone in your community that is needing a service

1009
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:09,680
Speaker 2: and you might be able to point them in that

1010
00:55:09,760 --> 00:55:12,920
Speaker 2: right direction, or you might be able to learn a

1011
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:14,920
Speaker 2: little bit more about the people that Orange Skuy help,

1012
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:19,360
Speaker 2: so that time, at the next opportunity to judge, you

1013
00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 2: can maybe be more informed to re educate the communities

1014
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 2: that we hang out in.

1015
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:27,239
Speaker 1: Nick, It's been so great to speak with you. I

1016
00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:29,359
Speaker 1: could speak to you for a long time. If there's

1017
00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:31,600
Speaker 1: anything that I can do for you, please don't hesitate

1018
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:33,520
Speaker 1: to ask me. I really appreciate you coming on the

1019
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:33,959
Speaker 1: show today.

1020
00:55:33,960 --> 00:55:35,280
Speaker 2: Man, thanks sharing our story.

1021
00:55:36,160 --> 00:55:39,560
Speaker 1: That was Nick mar Kesey pretty interesting. What a fesc

1022
00:55:39,640 --> 00:55:42,160
Speaker 1: thing guy. If you'd like to support Orange Sky Laundry

1023
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:43,719
Speaker 1: and the work that they do, you'll find a link

1024
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:45,279
Speaker 1: in the show notes. I hope that gave you something

1025
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:49,960
Speaker 1: to think about and perhaps you might explore some different

1026
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:52,880
Speaker 1: ways to consider the next homeless person that you see

1027
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,359
Speaker 1: in the street. I certainly did. After that conversation we

1028
00:55:56,360 --> 00:56:00,439
Speaker 1: were down a circular key just the other night and yep,

1029
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:02,399
Speaker 1: that was a bit going on. And let me say,

1030
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:05,000
Speaker 1: after speaking with Nick, it made me think very differently

1031
00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 1: about what's happening in my city of Sydney. Thank you

1032
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:09,719
Speaker 1: so much for being a part of the show. I'll

1033
00:56:09,719 --> 00:56:13,399
Speaker 1: see you Friday. This episode was brought to you by

1034
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:16,720
Speaker 1: Andy Maher on audio post production, mikey Ward on video

1035
00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:18,439
Speaker 1: post production, Toehider on music.

1036
00:56:18,520 --> 00:56:20,440
Speaker 2: My producer is bre Steal.

1037
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:25,320
Speaker 1: My executive function assistant and slack wrangler is Monica Chapman.

1038
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,000
Speaker 1: For every episode ever. To get on the mailing list

1039
00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:30,480
Speaker 1: or to get it touched through the contact form, just

1040
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:32,839
Speaker 1: go to Oshiginsburg dot com the links in the show

1041
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:35,080
Speaker 1: notes back here on Friday. Thanks for listening.