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Speaker 1: And Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 2: Maybe the last time I saw Gina Chick was when

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Speaker 2: I was hosting the Alone Australia Reunion.

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Speaker 1: She just won the first series.

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Speaker 2: She survived for sixty seven days in the remote worlds

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Speaker 2: of Tasmania, Australia. Saw an inspirational, daring, strong, emotionally available

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Speaker 2: woman and it blew our minds. She has a new

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Speaker 2: book out called We Are the Stars, and she joins

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Speaker 2: us now.

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Speaker 3: Hello Gina, Hello Amanda, and hello a Jensey.

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Speaker 4: Hello there, Gina. It's great to see you again.

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Speaker 1: I saw you on the show.

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Speaker 2: I mean you were stitching a possum coat and you

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Speaker 2: looked a little bit like, oh well no, she's one

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Speaker 2: of those unusual survivalists. And I think that you were

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Speaker 2: such a surprise package because you are so layered, you

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Speaker 2: come from a family of writers. You were very open

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Speaker 2: about things that have gone on in your life.

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Speaker 1: What do you think it was that blew us away?

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Speaker 3: I think what I get the feedback about when I'm

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Speaker 3: wandering around in the streets and people stop me, is

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Speaker 3: that I managed to survive in a situation where we

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Speaker 3: usually see suffering on survival shows.

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Speaker 1: We love watching people suffer.

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Speaker 3: We sit in our lounge rooms and we're fat and

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Speaker 3: we're eating our pizza and we're warm, and there's people

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Speaker 3: suffering and we can shout at the TV about their

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Speaker 3: choices and enjoy their suffering in a way. But I

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Speaker 3: didn't suffer. I thrived. I you know, lived in harmony

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Speaker 3: with nature. I listened to and connected with nature, and

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Speaker 3: I managed to get all my needs met by doing

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Speaker 3: that in a way that we usually really only see

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Speaker 3: with First nations and you know, hunter gatherer and indigenous people.

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Speaker 3: It's like that level of nature connection. And I sort

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Speaker 3: of like toddled out there with my bare feet and

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Speaker 3: danced in the moss and talked to the platypus and

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Speaker 3: sang to the lake and pulled out fish and eel.

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Speaker 1: And landed on top of a wallaby that you wait.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And you know, and I loved it.

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Speaker 4: I had a ball. But it was so therapeutic to

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Speaker 4: watch it.

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Speaker 5: The way you talked about your story with Blaze, your

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Speaker 5: daughter who passed away from cancer. You were pregnant, you

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Speaker 5: got cancer, and then you had that. I just remember

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Speaker 5: watching the story as it unfolded, I'm thinking, oh, thank

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Speaker 5: god it all worked out. Blaze survived and then you

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Speaker 5: tell her how she passed away. It was like I remember,

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Speaker 5: just like I didn't. I couldn't even express my emotion

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Speaker 5: watching it at that time.

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Speaker 1: Was we don't see that.

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Speaker 3: No, no, And this is when I wrote this book.

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Speaker 3: That was one of the things that I wanted to do,

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Speaker 3: was to talk about that kind of loss in a

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Speaker 3: way that doesn't break us as a reader, you know,

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Speaker 3: because we all go through loss, We all go through

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Speaker 3: things that you know that we love that leave us

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Speaker 3: in some way. And I feel like in our culture

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Speaker 3: we don't have a really healthy relationship with grief or

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Speaker 3: sort of like ways to be with grief and conversations

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Speaker 3: about grief. And so I want to share the way

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Speaker 3: I have moved through that loss where on the other

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Speaker 3: side of it I am actually bigger and brighter and

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Speaker 3: wiser and more compassionate and more kind. And to be

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Speaker 3: able to write it in a way that the reader

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Speaker 3: can come through something like that that and be more

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Speaker 3: on the other side rather than less.

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Speaker 2: Tell me about your grandmother. Is it charmian or charmain

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Speaker 2: charmian charming? It's a combination of all of us. Yes,

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Speaker 2: Charmian charmian clift. I remember reading her works when I

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Speaker 2: was younger. Tell me the extraordinary story about all of that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So, Charmian Clift was Australia's first female columnist and

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Speaker 3: she was this groundbreaking, amazing writer. She was writing about

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Speaker 3: multiculturalism in the early sixties when it was the wide

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Speaker 3: Australia policy. She was writing about basically about sexism and

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Speaker 3: about women's sort of the empowerment of women when it

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Speaker 3: was how to bake a cake for your man. And

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Speaker 3: she married a guy named George Johnston who wrote My

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Speaker 3: Brother Jack. And they went to the Greek Islands and

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Speaker 3: lived this wild bohemian lifestyle, you know, writing books and

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Speaker 3: you know, carousing. Leonard Cohen stayed with them for a

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Speaker 3: couple of years when he first arrived in Agro before

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Speaker 3: he bought his own house, and he was part of

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Speaker 3: their gang. And and my mother was her illegitimate first child.

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Speaker 4: My mother's adopted.

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Speaker 3: And so when I was twenty one, the adoption laws

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Speaker 3: changed and my mom found out who her birth mother was,

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Speaker 3: and we found out it was this incredible author, writer, columnist, thinker,

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Speaker 3: you know, Trailblazer. And this was my biological grandmother.

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Speaker 2: But also the emotion that's around how come I didn't

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Speaker 2: have access to those to those people. Yeah, those great

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Speaker 2: writer brains and the family that they went on.

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Speaker 1: To create good and bad. Yeah, yeah, of emotion around that,

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I.

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Speaker 3: Mean, I'm I'm so sad that, you know, I never

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Speaker 3: went and met Leonard Cohen and he credits Charmian and

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Speaker 3: George with teaching him how to write. And you know,

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Speaker 3: a friend of mine used to go to his concerts

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Speaker 3: all the time, and I always thought, oh, I should

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Speaker 3: go and say hi, and I never did. And it's

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Speaker 3: one of those great regrets I really kicked myself about.

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Speaker 4: That is Extraordinay. This is the stuff that you get

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Speaker 4: from you. When was the last time you lit a

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Speaker 4: fire with nothing?

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Speaker 3: Like?

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Speaker 4: You just lit a fire, no firelight, there's no matches.

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Speaker 3: Just just about ten days ago.

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Speaker 4: Ten days ago, Yeah, I did that.

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Speaker 1: Member. I robbed my two Amex cards together.

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Speaker 3: That's an extra extra special kind of spark, that one.

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Speaker 3: That one goes like silver when it goes.

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Speaker 4: I'd love to see a mandra alone.

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Speaker 2: Oh, every time I watch it, I just think it

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Speaker 2: hats off to everyone. I can barely get to the

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Speaker 2: car park without needing help.

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Speaker 3: I'd take you out camping there you go. I'm a

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Speaker 3: oh I reckon, I reckon. You could come out with

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Speaker 3: me and we, like just for a night and you

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Speaker 3: would love it.

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Speaker 1: About an hour.

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Speaker 3: Okay, let's go out for an hour and we'll light

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Speaker 3: a fire and have a yarn around a fire.

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Speaker 5: Out fishing one day, I packed sandwiches before we even

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Speaker 5: left the boat ramp amand had already eaten the sound

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Speaker 5: and was starting on the bait.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely well, no, no part of part of me in

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Speaker 3: the bush. When it's you know, when it's me, I

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Speaker 3: go primitive. But when there's other people, we have food.

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Speaker 3: I'm a massive foodie and so you know, my friends

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Speaker 3: make me laugh. I mean sorry, my friends laugh at

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Speaker 3: me because sometimes when we go out on a really

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Speaker 3: big adventure, like I packed super light, I've got my

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Speaker 3: you know, you know, my fire kid and no blankets

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Speaker 3: or anything. But I've just got the best food ever.

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Speaker 3: Because you know, if you're going to be out every night,

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Speaker 3: it was great. No, I'm not going to make you

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Speaker 3: eat meal, but I might bring some actual like some

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Speaker 3: crack and food.

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Speaker 4: And you won't be eating Gina's buttocks like you're alive.

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Speaker 5: Well, you wouldn't starve, that's for sure, Gina, It's always

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Speaker 5: great to talk to you.

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Speaker 4: You are so great. We Are Stars is out today.

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Speaker 4: You are a star, Gina Chick.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you very much for having me