Speaker 1: Unapologetically Black would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of
Speaker 1: the lands where this podcast is being hurt or watched
Speaker 1: across this great island continent now known as Australia and
Speaker 1: across the world. We would also like to pay our
Speaker 1: respects to elders past and present and acknowledged that this
Speaker 1: always was and always will be Aberaginal Lands.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Unapologetically Black with Mara and Will.
Speaker 3: Welcome to another episode of Unapologetically Black. I'm your host,
Speaker 3: Ginny and I'm joined by my beautiful co hosts. Sometimes hilarious,
Speaker 3: just kidding, always hilarious.
Speaker 1: Bill was trying to keep a straight face like Sara.
Speaker 1: He was she talking about me or Maarah, I.
Speaker 3: Know a funny one, Well, who is the non funny one?
Speaker 1: I reckon, I'm not funny at all.
Speaker 2: I'm not even you're a little bit funny funny because
Speaker 2: you're like proper naive in something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm way too serious, but I thought I was
Speaker 1: kind of you know, let my hair down.
Speaker 2: Today? Which way? Tell me how you let your hair down?
Speaker 2: Come on you hair down?
Speaker 1: Well, just I do like to have a couple of champagnes.
Speaker 1: That's it, on my own, on my deck and I
Speaker 1: feel like I let my hair down.
Speaker 2: Wow, PG, isn't it super?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: So we're going to get into it. It is Marti
Speaker 3: Gras is coming up, so we thought season it is
Speaker 3: and I've never been. Well that's a lie. I said
Speaker 3: that before. I think I have been.
Speaker 2: How do you think you've been?
Speaker 1: It's like the you we're not going to?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Is there like a leader? Is there like a bunch
Speaker 3: of events?
Speaker 2: It's like a week long celebration.
Speaker 3: I remember going to this event. I'm pretty sure it
Speaker 3: was during Mardi Gras and was like in a warehouse
Speaker 3: and there was like a rave and prob and it
Speaker 3: was like seven Deadly Sins themed and people dressed up.
Speaker 2: There's heaps of events, so like there's lots of creatives
Speaker 2: which host events that are both official, MIGHTI rab parties
Speaker 2: and non official as heaps happens?
Speaker 3: Okay, So I think I've been to like a party our.
Speaker 2: Partial parade though, No, I've never been to the You
Speaker 2: need to come in March one year? Would you March?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: It's fucking life changing?
Speaker 3: Am I allowed to not put in the queer community
Speaker 3: March last year?
Speaker 1: Were you there? Well? We had to, we had we
Speaker 1: had an outfit given to us.
Speaker 3: What was the outfit?
Speaker 1: So I was in a float where it was a
Speaker 1: memorial float and.
Speaker 2: It actually won best float of the parade. I did, yeah,
Speaker 2: did wow? Yeah, it won the best flow.
Speaker 1: Well there you go. I was on the one that
Speaker 1: won the best float.
Speaker 3: People's so put it on the resume.
Speaker 2: So we had participants.
Speaker 1: Literally I had two you know, half naked black men
Speaker 1: beside me, literally both the all four of them were
Speaker 1: in g street, that's it, and they had white, beautiful
Speaker 1: body paint on their bodies and they were marching beside
Speaker 1: me and all of us. You could either wear leather,
Speaker 1: black leather, or we had these rainbow things. So it
Speaker 1: was black leather and rainbow colors. So you got given
Speaker 1: an outfit or an option of either. Or I had
Speaker 1: a black corsette and I had black fishnet stockings, and
Speaker 1: I got these black leather kind of synthetic vinyly boots
Speaker 1: that I've never worn again from Windsor Smith and a
Speaker 1: little black miniskirt, but black mini skirt, and I had
Speaker 1: a nice big, you know, hair weave thing on with
Speaker 1: glitter and I actually had the time of my life.
Speaker 1: So yes, I want to see a picture.
Speaker 3: You need to show me a picture. Actually, let's post.
Speaker 1: It on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Let's post that I just posted on a link LinkedIn
Speaker 2: post much last year because last.
Speaker 1: Year was it opened it well, I it wasn't.
Speaker 2: Just what Marti gras. It was World Pride. It's the
Speaker 2: first time that World Prides coming to the Southern Hemisphere
Speaker 2: and it was nothing short or phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I was pretty much fucked up for a whole week
Speaker 2: and I had that much work on I'll tell you
Speaker 2: quick yarn. I went and seen Kelly Rowland on the
Speaker 2: Sunday and I had a huge client on the Monday.
Speaker 2: And sorry, client, if you're listening and you hear this,
Speaker 2: I rock up. I got home at like four am.
Speaker 2: I have to be at the office by eight am
Speaker 2: to go out to Lapa to meet more about at Lapa.
Speaker 2: I rock up thinking I've shouted, I've got myscar still
Speaker 2: on my face with this client meeting race, Like, what
Speaker 2: the fuck have you done? I'm like, I told you,
Speaker 2: it's gave Christmas bub I'm partying for the next week
Speaker 2: because it's World Pride. And I got through the day,
Speaker 2: but I look like a half suck mango.
Speaker 1: I was miscar.
Speaker 2: I had much way out of like you know how
Speaker 2: much I loved like Beyonce and seeing Kelly Roland live
Speaker 2: at World Pride was iconic. So my big hole, thinking
Speaker 2: I'm twenty one again goes to better at four am.
Speaker 2: No good had to be I meaned it up. Well,
Speaker 2: I went to every single fucking session that I had
Speaker 2: to go other week and I committed. But it was
Speaker 2: the hardest recovery I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 1: Well, tell us about your outfit because the hogm you're outfit.
Speaker 2: For last year? Yes, so it was. It was all
Speaker 2: black and we spent like I don't know, hey, if
Speaker 2: you know how the parade works, but you spend like
Speaker 2: six eight twelve weeks planning pre Mardi Grass. So every
Speaker 2: October mob will start coming together to plan what the
Speaker 2: float looks like. And there's a theme because the first
Speaker 2: Nations flop opens it. So where after the dikes on
Speaker 2: bikes who they're like the what do you call it? Like?
Speaker 2: The fucking hype people. They hype it all up.
Speaker 1: And then the dykes on bikes, I didn't even know
Speaker 1: that that's what they were called. Well, what do you reckon?
Speaker 2: They're called? I didn't know on pushies or something, dikes
Speaker 2: on bikes, that's what they callt dikes on bikes, so
Speaker 2: that they come around, they do the rev up and
Speaker 2: then once they go the first nation opens it. So
Speaker 2: we knew last year because it was World Pride. It
Speaker 2: was like three weeks worth of festival, the first time
Speaker 2: in Southern Hemisphes. We thought, we've got to fucking go
Speaker 2: big with this, so we built a thirty foot long
Speaker 2: inflatable rainbow serpent for it. Have you not seen I'll
Speaker 2: show you. It's huge. It was, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: being biased, but we didn't even get a recognition of
Speaker 2: the best flow. And the float was this thirty foot
Speaker 2: long snake that was inflatable that had lights lit up
Speaker 2: that we were dancing next to. And then me that
Speaker 2: you've just created. We created, and so we are the
Speaker 2: fundraised and then it gets funded by Acon, so they're
Speaker 2: like a partner in it.
Speaker 1: Okay, but every other float's not funded.
Speaker 2: Well no, some of them are like.
Speaker 1: American Express, Google. Yeah, there are.
Speaker 2: Some community floats are like they self fund themselves, like
Speaker 2: it's a community events, but it's turned into a bit
Speaker 2: of a which is another yarm with itself but back
Speaker 2: to this parade that the the was so we let
Speaker 2: it and we did the thirty foot flow and then
Speaker 2: we had a ti one her name, I can't remember
Speaker 2: her name now, sister girl. And then I led the
Speaker 2: first Nation the Aboriginal site, and we had these big
Speaker 2: fucking flag cape things around our waist, this big bead.
Speaker 1: Like it was this big but a fly, but there's
Speaker 1: a massive span.
Speaker 2: It was like like a ban that was sick.
Speaker 1: It was a flag. I literally I was so jealous.
Speaker 2: I told you to come much of us, and but look,
Speaker 2: and I thought I was.
Speaker 1: I thought I was in Will's flow because he's like,
Speaker 1: you come. I'm like, yeah, I've got some'm coming. Did
Speaker 1: you get the routine? I'm like, no, routine was learn
Speaker 1: the routine planning.
Speaker 2: It's a fucking it's it's it's like a big thing.
Speaker 1: I turned up to the to rehearsals and honestly said
Speaker 1: to Will, I'm here. Where are you? We was like,
Speaker 1: we're over here because you're with the other first Nations.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know. There was two.
Speaker 2: I think there was a four or something.
Speaker 1: Yes, so you know there's a lot of people. How
Speaker 1: many floats. I was like, literally number one hundred.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was number one. I think there was like
Speaker 2: one hundred and ninety or something, thing like they usually
Speaker 2: cap it at some point. But that's how it goes
Speaker 2: for fucking hour.
Speaker 3: How how long does it go for?
Speaker 2: Like four hours?
Speaker 1: Two kilometer walk?
Speaker 2: Seven kilometers?
Speaker 1: Seven kilometer walk in whatever. Stiletto's father was rare and.
Speaker 2: Stillattos rocked it.
Speaker 1: Oh hell, all the way down seven kilometers of road.
Speaker 2: But that's that's the PG part about Mardi Gras. The
Speaker 2: rest of it's quite debaucherous.
Speaker 1: Oh debaucherous, that can I just say quickly though. I
Speaker 1: was marching with these two four lads on each side
Speaker 1: of me and the rest of the flow. But one
Speaker 1: of the lads that I was next to, his name
Speaker 1: is Jas from the Pilgrim mob w A mob, So
Speaker 1: he's come all the way over here first Marti Gras,
Speaker 1: and it's electrifying. There's like a million people lining up
Speaker 1: on the sides and screaming, and you full on like
Speaker 1: get called up in all the hype right like you're
Speaker 1: famous and everyone wants That's how I felt. I was like,
Speaker 1: you're waving to people, you're blowing kisses, you're dancing. Everyone's
Speaker 1: loving you, you're loving them.
Speaker 2: It is the alt and.
Speaker 1: It's a feeling i've never felt. I loved it, even
Speaker 1: as a non queer woman. I loved every bit of it.
Speaker 1: But in this moment, I saw the guy next to
Speaker 1: me jas see he must have spotted his partner, and
Speaker 1: he goes straight over to him, and I'm like, caught
Speaker 1: up in all this, but I caught this moment where
Speaker 1: they both started crying in terms of tears of joy
Speaker 1: they had each other gave each other because he went
Speaker 1: back in and we kept marching, and in my I
Speaker 1: was like, well, no one else would have seen that,
Speaker 1: but I saw that moment, and afterwards I said, that
Speaker 1: was so beautiful. That was at your partner's Like yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know, this is just a big thing for me,
Speaker 1: being a boy from the bush to come all the
Speaker 1: way over here for this and so to me, you know,
Speaker 1: it was amazing, but I couldn't imagine what it means
Speaker 1: for actually, mob.
Speaker 2: That's what I love about. Its seriously the best time.
Speaker 2: And we call it Gay Christmas because or the Gay Olympics,
Speaker 2: one of the two, because it's like it's a marathon.
Speaker 2: And mate, black fellows were shady as fuck without being gay.
Speaker 2: Imagine being gay and black. Like the claws come out,
Speaker 2: the cats comes out, and I live for all of it.
Speaker 1: I love like that's my man.
Speaker 2: Like that that is, but that's my cousin. I'm kissing
Speaker 2: him later. That's the time. That's how it goes. No,
Speaker 2: but it's such a good time because it's it's the
Speaker 2: one time that every year we know that when mob
Speaker 2: come together, it's like pure love and joy and the
Speaker 2: shadiness comes from a place of love and kindness. It's
Speaker 2: the best because that's how black fellows go. Like it
Speaker 2: goes about black humor, you know how we go.
Speaker 3: On follows and geez you look real fat?
Speaker 2: Yeah, always a double chinne work done that tummy tug?
Speaker 1: What about the ball? Is there miss pearl, black pearl?
Speaker 2: What is that sissy ball?
Speaker 1: Yes, there is something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is sypo. So that's the introduction of like
Speaker 2: the voguing and carol room scene, which is like part
Speaker 2: of that black culture out of the US and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. Like they've done a good job I think
Speaker 2: over the years to try and be more inclusive. But
Speaker 2: whilst the love MANI gras it also is really fucking
Speaker 2: white really well. Yeah, I tried to get on the board.
Speaker 2: Do you hear about that? No? I failed miserably.
Speaker 1: How come?
Speaker 2: Well, it's like any other board. You run, just run
Speaker 2: to a board and stuff like that. But it's with
Speaker 2: the gay community. It's not very inclusive.
Speaker 3: I don't reckon are they bluck followers on the board?
Speaker 2: Uh? There has been?
Speaker 3: Is it currently?
Speaker 2: I don't know why not. I will say the board
Speaker 2: has made a very interesting decision recently by asking the
Speaker 2: cops not to march.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's interesting it on TV, you know, because some
Speaker 1: of these boards are quite conservative, so I was just
Speaker 1: thinking whether they would be supportive of the communities.
Speaker 2: Require getting into the reasons to why. I think everyone
Speaker 2: knows who listened to this and probably watch the news
Speaker 2: and understands it. What I will say, it's probably the
Speaker 2: right call in my view. I like, you look at
Speaker 2: this like Plice haven't really done. From the First Nation's
Speaker 2: float and stuff, there's been lots of yards supporting the
Speaker 2: idea of having the police not march, and everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 2: the police are there protect us. But the police are
Speaker 2: fucking there to protect us regardless of whether they're marching.
Speaker 2: That's their job. That's what they get paid for to
Speaker 2: protect civilization. So I'm not worried about fucking that nonsense,
Speaker 2: but I understand why it has been a topic of
Speaker 2: conversation for a little while. But I think it's the
Speaker 2: right thing they should.
Speaker 1: Have done back in the day. In terms of the
Speaker 1: history of Martin. He goes, how did this all start?
Speaker 2: It was a movement and what I know from some
Speaker 2: of the elders that were a part of it. Do
Speaker 2: you know there were a lot of mob marching with
Speaker 2: them just in solidarity. So when people say blackfellows a
Speaker 2: kind of homophobic, can you see communitys homophobic? There's heaps
Speaker 2: of evidence to say that fucking mob was supportive of
Speaker 2: queer movements back in the seventies when the seventy eighties
Speaker 2: got locked up, and there's a lot of black fellows
Speaker 2: got locked up with them because I'm marching in solidarity
Speaker 2: with them. Started it was a parade.
Speaker 1: In Sydney, well, always in Sydney, where else Oxford Street,
Speaker 1: not just for listening that don't know about Marty Grass.
Speaker 2: Started in King's Cross. Okay, it was march because they
Speaker 2: were discriminative and they used to target what happened.
Speaker 1: So it's like, it's like our protests on Jan. Twenty six,
Speaker 1: Marty Grass started out of it's a protest, that's now
Speaker 1: this big celebration. Yeah, similar to Jan twenty six, like
Speaker 1: we all come together, there's a big protest and then
Speaker 1: we go down to Survival dale Yarvin and it's a
Speaker 1: huge celebration kind of. But I'm just saying, like, I
Speaker 1: got you mean, was it a pro I didn't know
Speaker 1: that it started from a protest movement.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that it was a protest because from
Speaker 2: my understanding, there was a lot of queen mob being
Speaker 2: targeted by police. They would go to specific hotels and
Speaker 2: clubs and spaces where particularly men were cruising.
Speaker 1: Or andashing and bashing and locking them up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was in a march, and from there's
Speaker 2: a lot of queer women who also led that, which
Speaker 2: is kind of a common theme across queer rights is
Speaker 2: how women usually let it. We'll be back right after
Speaker 2: this break.
Speaker 1: So that's interesting how it's a protest movement. It's like
Speaker 1: coppers joining us on our protests on could you imagine?
Speaker 3: I was just thinking that that would be an interesting
Speaker 3: because Angeline has said they can march, but just not
Speaker 3: with uniform.
Speaker 2: I think that might have been which I'm sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the same thing with you know, black follows. I'm
Speaker 3: sure we know that there are black fellows who are.
Speaker 1: Proppers, but I would feel.
Speaker 3: Weird, Yeah if they came and marched with us in uniform.
Speaker 2: Look, yeah, I don't know, it's for me. You need
Speaker 2: to take away the human centric perspective and say, look
Speaker 2: at the institute. The institute inherently discriminates against average people
Speaker 2: and LGBTQ people, so that as an institute in you
Speaker 2: should not be marching. But I get if people are
Speaker 2: in those institutes who are gay or queer, then I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: I don't want to say no to them, because then
Speaker 2: we're just perpetually excluding people. It's a really fucking finite line, right.
Speaker 1: That need to that they belong and this is where
Speaker 1: they belong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but look to the back to the fun of
Speaker 2: Mardi Gras. Whilst all seriousness aside, it is a week
Speaker 2: long of pure debauchery.
Speaker 1: Okay, tell us the best, tell us your best Martigra?
Speaker 1: Was it last year because of Kelly?
Speaker 2: Last year was sick because it was World Pride and
Speaker 2: we led them. We led the Harbor. We led the
Speaker 2: march and then the next that weekend or the weekend
Speaker 2: before I got to march over the Harbor Bridge and
Speaker 2: open the Harbor Bridge with my kids. The seven years
Speaker 2: old had had the cape and was marching with Tay.
Speaker 2: Her name is that's it? Tay the Torrest Island. One
Speaker 2: heard the Torreshound flag and is us leading these parade
Speaker 2: with his other two gay boys waving the big flat
Speaker 2: in the opening of the march over That.
Speaker 1: Was the opening of World Pride.
Speaker 2: It was unreal. It's fucking sick. So now my kids
Speaker 2: have an experience to say that they got to do it,
Speaker 2: which is pretty special in my view.
Speaker 3: I want to go next year that.
Speaker 2: We should march, but we should do it properly though.
Speaker 2: So it starts off with being quite civil and it
Speaker 2: ends up with being four am, finishes blow jobs in
Speaker 2: alleyways and okay, and is that.
Speaker 1: Where we're going?
Speaker 2: A week and a week long, a week long of
Speaker 2: STI checks after the sexual health clinic. Okay, so seriously,
Speaker 2: have you.
Speaker 1: Not heard listen? I would like to do part of that.
Speaker 3: But all definitely not the blow job.
Speaker 2: So I had a couple of friends that they in
Speaker 2: the lead up to it. They would then get on
Speaker 2: prep and they would go prepare to get cultural lips,
Speaker 2: and they call it Marti Grau lips because that'd end
Speaker 2: up with seriously because I tell you it's it's humble,
Speaker 2: it's like it's it's it's nice as in Marti grad.
Speaker 2: But it is a time for queer people to just
Speaker 2: let loose.
Speaker 1: Well, I thought, I let my hair out.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like our version of like Corey Knockout.
Speaker 2: But so that's what I'm saying. That's so so you know,
Speaker 2: in a couple of episodes ago, I was talking about
Speaker 2: kissing cousins. That's how almost kissed my cousin at Mardi Gras.
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm a ship. Well what do you what
Speaker 2: are you wrong that?
Speaker 3: I just thought, I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 1: Jenny's face?
Speaker 3: Will you kissing cousins?
Speaker 1: Oh, Jenny, do you want to know? You're mad?
Speaker 2: You want to?
Speaker 1: I want to kiss my cousin.
Speaker 2: I just think I haven't kissed my cousin, like I'm
Speaker 2: not saying I have, but that was the time because
Speaker 2: it's like the knockout. So when you get literally so
Speaker 2: there's one hundred and twenty black fellows at March, right,
Speaker 2: But there's not just there's like parties and stuff that
Speaker 2: they go, so like there's there's not that often you get.
Speaker 1: Is there exclusive like invitation only parties.
Speaker 2: I've never been, but I.
Speaker 1: Think americ amex or Facebook or someone they held an
Speaker 1: ex TikTok or a.
Speaker 2: TikTok, But I'm not sure that's the same exclusive. Are
Speaker 2: you thinking about like a sex party or Oh I
Speaker 2: don't know. I can't imagine TikTok's come get tick, come
Speaker 2: get ticked, where you get topped.
Speaker 1: No, I just said that there was obviously these exclusive
Speaker 1: invitation only parties. Yeah, that big corporate's put on with
Speaker 1: all these influences. I did see some photos on Instagram
Speaker 1: last year that I thought.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you said exclusives, like I thought you meant
Speaker 3: like sex parties.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know people who hosted sex bidies, Martygraph because
Speaker 2: people travel all over.
Speaker 1: We've been to a sex buddy. Yeah, yeah, years old
Speaker 1: and now don't do that to me.
Speaker 2: I'm thirty, Linda, Linda, we've had yarns about some of
Speaker 2: your escapades over dinner. Do you want to you ain't? No, Angel, honey, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly right. Mine might be a little bit more debaucherous
Speaker 2: than yours, but nevertheless, we've all been there.
Speaker 1: Can I just want a mob on on Instagram live.
Speaker 2: Debaucherous, the baucherous It's like that never heard a debaucherous Yeah.
Speaker 2: But all the time.
Speaker 3: Angeline is asked, who are the black quire mob that
Speaker 3: you admire?
Speaker 2: And oh, so many people? Oh go, where do I start?
Speaker 1: Who do you admire?
Speaker 2: There's so many? That's the thing, like you, when I
Speaker 2: do work in the man, I'm not doing it this
Speaker 2: year because I'm working and I've last year was so epical, iconic.
Speaker 2: I've just said, look, it's a huge my boots up
Speaker 2: for this year.
Speaker 1: So you're not marching.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not marching.
Speaker 1: Oh William, Okay, you're partying though, No I'm not. Are
Speaker 1: you not engaging in your Christmas festivities?
Speaker 2: Oh that's I don't think you understand. Last year off, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but you just.
Speaker 1: Sat here and spoke about how amazing this moment is
Speaker 1: and you're like, but I'm not going to do it
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: I did. I celebrated, I've done it. So this year
Speaker 2: quit everything. Now I've not quit. I've paid homage to
Speaker 2: the people have come before me. And I'm letting the
Speaker 2: new young ones carried because I'm a big note in country.
Speaker 2: I'll get in them, take control and persess the best
Speaker 2: flood ever.
Speaker 1: You just that turned you off.
Speaker 2: Now it hasn't turned me off. It just means I
Speaker 2: had to reprioritize its work life balance. I made commitments
Speaker 2: last year. I've got commitments this year. I prioritized last
Speaker 2: year's over my work. Came here and see show work.
Speaker 2: This is what you did, right, Okay? So think about
Speaker 2: people who I admire. There's so many elders. Annie Sue Pinkham,
Speaker 2: she's just an absolute champion. Annie Rusty, she's a trans
Speaker 2: woman from Wa who's just fucking incredible. And he Counch
Speaker 2: is also a trans woman. I hope that I don't
Speaker 2: mind me calling him out.
Speaker 1: But about sister girls and brother boys or Tea Weed,
Speaker 1: what's the tee wee mob on two wee Sister Girl?
Speaker 2: Yeah, to tell me Abouttina she's a Torris stray. Arnie Laura,
Speaker 2: who was a TI woman. Unfortunately she passed her. Sister Girl,
Speaker 2: she's got past. Unfortunately. There's so many mobs that have
Speaker 2: done so much amazing things. I think about Lawrence and
Speaker 2: Tim Bishop, who's done incredible things. More recently, Ginny Jane Smith,
Speaker 2: who's my good sister, who I love, love dearly. I've
Speaker 2: got so much time and respect for. Like, there's just
Speaker 2: so many people who have created the space for us
Speaker 2: to go on march and do the work. And it
Speaker 2: was only in nineteen though, so two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2: I think that mob were able to lead the parade
Speaker 2: because of what some of the mob did to open,
Speaker 2: like to fight for our position in it. So we're
Speaker 2: privileged to be able to say that we do it.
Speaker 2: So I don't take it lightly, and that's why I
Speaker 2: pay respects and I put a big LinkedIn post LinkedIn
Speaker 2: like a social influencer.
Speaker 1: Is there anyone in the float prepare for the float? Now?
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you could share with us?
Speaker 2: It's on this Saturday, So it's on this Saturday.
Speaker 1: You just got to go on ABC, SBS. Who does
Speaker 1: the live cover?
Speaker 3: Does the n I TV do it do something as well?
Speaker 2: And stuff like.
Speaker 3: That's a bunch of different mobs.
Speaker 1: Was the Realda Jacob's one of the hosts Now.
Speaker 2: She was one of the I think World Pride Ambassadors,
Speaker 2: okay ambassadors, Yeah for war pride.
Speaker 1: So it's an opportunity to celebrate the party. It's a
Speaker 1: whole week long and for all of you deadly mob
Speaker 1: that are going, please, you know, look after yourselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: get tested after yourselves. You know, party and you know,
Speaker 1: just make sure that you're around the right people to
Speaker 1: party and let you say down.
Speaker 2: So wait, wait back to Gina and a marsh next year.
Speaker 3: If I don't want to, yeah, hopefully that I was
Speaker 3: just going to say, maybe we could all go.
Speaker 1: Do you need an invitation? Let's just see the moment.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The thing is, if you want to, if you want
Speaker 2: to march, particularly the first Nation, you gotta involved. It's
Speaker 2: a community float, so you to go, you gotta show up.
Speaker 2: You gotta be engaged. Like we used to go every
Speaker 2: Saturday and plan and go into workshop. Like the float
Speaker 2: didn't build itself, we built it. Like it's massive. So
Speaker 2: it's a community gathering where we get twenty thirty mobs
Speaker 2: coming in at various times. We're on a Saturday in
Speaker 2: the lead up to build the flow and it's just
Speaker 2: the best laugh and yeah and like you think I'm shady, Wait,
Speaker 2: you get a bunch of black fellows sit in the room,
Speaker 2: we're all gay or lesbian or queer or how they're
Speaker 2: fucking shady and it's the best time.
Speaker 1: Can I act you about this? Someone said to me, Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're part of the alphabet community.
Speaker 2: Recent that's meena? Is there anything that it's the thing?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: So look, I'm going to say it, and if I
Speaker 2: offend people, then so be it. Sometimes we're a bit
Speaker 2: sensitive in this space. We have to take it with
Speaker 2: a grain of soul. The alphabet mafia is taking a
Speaker 2: bit of it. Again, we're shady bitches. Don't take things
Speaker 2: too seriously, and I think if you come from a
Speaker 2: place of genuine curiosity and kindness, you can ask these
Speaker 2: questions and not be offensive. I wouldn't say go around
Speaker 2: to coliness the alphbet mafia. But the reality is that
Speaker 2: it's hard. It's not as easy as to kind of
Speaker 2: understand it, because I, as a queen man, don't even
Speaker 2: understand the full pronouns and all the rest of it
Speaker 2: because it's very Western. Though it's very Western to box
Speaker 2: and put labels on stuff and try and defind it
Speaker 2: like you think about First Nations people internationally, two spirited people.
Speaker 2: Transgenderism already existed from a pre colonial context. It wasn't
Speaker 2: until religion was introduced that we had to define it
Speaker 2: like sister girls and brother boys Fuffayini's two spirited peoples
Speaker 2: from North America, like it already exists. It wasn't until
Speaker 2: the Western world come and said, oh, here's all these
Speaker 2: fucking problems and have them more. And I'm like, bub,
Speaker 2: you're the problem. So I don't necessarily subscribe to the
Speaker 2: whole ideology from a Western approach, but I understand gender
Speaker 2: and sexually sorry, sexually and gender diverse people, which is
Speaker 2: how I referred to it. Gender's diverse. When you think
Speaker 2: about a First nation's perspective, the so you know about
Speaker 2: mimis right, the mimis they're the depiction of spirits with both.
Speaker 1: Stuff.
Speaker 2: So they existed in our culture. It's just not documented.
Speaker 2: So it's already there, but it's very much Western kind
Speaker 2: of us to label it. And Martie Rusty Blesser, who
Speaker 2: I love and respect immensely, is I refer to as
Speaker 2: Artie because she's a respected elder in my opinion. She
Speaker 2: said she never had to justify her transit until she
Speaker 2: came to Sydney. In her community over in Western Australia,
Speaker 2: her elders and her community just accepted her based on
Speaker 2: her spiritual gender, which is female, even though she was
Speaker 2: born male. And she shows this story it wasn't until
Speaker 2: she came to New South Wales that she goes, oh,
Speaker 2: that's what I had to really identify that I had.
Speaker 2: I was actually born a male and I was transgender.
Speaker 2: So that speaks to like I think community and mob
Speaker 2: that if one is spiritually a gender, there is evidence
Speaker 2: to suggest that they just we just accepted it. But
Speaker 2: that's not the case now because the Alphabet Mafia took over.
Speaker 1: No, okay, So that's good to know though, because here
Speaker 1: here I am learned so much. Have you well come
Speaker 1: learn more?
Speaker 2: Come March next year.
Speaker 1: I want to march if we can go, Hey, Ginny,
Speaker 1: just quickly right? If you had to wear something because
Speaker 1: there was black leather stuff and I kept thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: I cannot have I can't wear that. I'm married, I've
Speaker 1: got children. So would you still wear something that you
Speaker 1: know that you're not going to feel comfortable in it
Speaker 1: and you're going to do it anyways because it's the
Speaker 1: spirit of the whole festival?
Speaker 2: Yes, can I say?
Speaker 3: They're posting first stripes and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Plan There are people up there with the biggest frames
Speaker 2: and the biggest shapes wearing the most minimalist clothing. So
Speaker 2: I promise you could wear the most skimpiest thing and
Speaker 2: there'll be someone less dressed than you.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: It's the one time in the year that you will
Speaker 2: see every frame and shape march and no one gives
Speaker 2: an absolute fuck, because that's the spirit of what Mardigo
Speaker 2: is with you.
Speaker 1: You know, my kids said that. My kids said, please
Speaker 1: do not embarrass us. That's what they said to me
Speaker 1: before I got on the plane to come to sid
Speaker 1: Do not embarrass us, Mum, Like, are we going to
Speaker 1: see you on TV? They were so I'm not joking.
Speaker 1: They were. They were. They were horrified. They were and
Speaker 1: they listen. They just did not know what they were
Speaker 1: going to see me in that they'd never seen that
Speaker 1: side of me, and I, honestly, Ginny, I had to
Speaker 1: just go, you know what, this is not about me, really.
Speaker 1: I was there as part of a as a memorial
Speaker 1: flow and his name aarn Aaron Iran. I think his
Speaker 1: name was not Arran, but anyway, yes, so great.
Speaker 2: Big, he's a big advocate. He did a lot of
Speaker 2: work in the queer space well respected a lot of
Speaker 2: work in HIV prevention and so.
Speaker 1: Forth, and that's so for me, I was like, no,
Speaker 1: this is about paying tribute to him and many of
Speaker 1: our mind that have gone before us and those that
Speaker 1: are still alive today that are still supporting the whole
Speaker 1: kind of fight celebration. So my kids said first last
Speaker 1: words and says, don't embarrass me, mum. Then they saw
Speaker 1: the float and the camera was on the other side,
Speaker 1: so they did not get to see me, which was
Speaker 1: you know, for me, I was like, I wanted them
Speaker 1: to see me.
Speaker 2: I was so much airtime you did, I.
Speaker 1: Must say that I was. I felt so proud too, March.
Speaker 1: I felt this immense sense of pride to support the
Speaker 1: queer community, to support blackfellows, and the tribute to memorial
Speaker 1: float was really deadly as well. But yeah, I just
Speaker 1: want to say to people, it's an experience. It should
Speaker 1: be on your bucket list, but you do need you know,
Speaker 1: you can't invite yourself. You've got to try and find
Speaker 1: the right people to be part of their float.
Speaker 3: Well, hopefully we all get to go next year. We should.
Speaker 2: I would love we'll do it. We've got to do
Speaker 2: the work there be right. So I just want to
Speaker 2: say big shout out to my queer mob this week
Speaker 2: and the best.
Speaker 3: Alone, be safe, look after you on each other.
Speaker 1: And party for us. We'll be thinking of yours and
Speaker 1: we'll be watching on TV tuned to stop it all right. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, Will for sharing enlightning. It was
Speaker 1: a really good session. I feel like we're in like
Speaker 1: an education session, but it's a podcast.
Speaker 2: Let's make next person. That's so fucking seriously, no.
Speaker 1: But it was really good and I'm pretty sure people
Speaker 1: on our INSU Live also just learnt so much, and
Speaker 1: our listeners. So thank you Will for just opening up
Speaker 1: and sharing with us, because we need more people like
Speaker 1: you that have that insight. That's your community and you're
Speaker 1: the best person to talk on that topic.
Speaker 2: I love them and.
Speaker 1: Thank you for bringing me into this little world of yours.
Speaker 1: See it.
Speaker 2: But you know what what I will say when you
Speaker 2: start engaging with black fellows who are queer. You know
Speaker 2: they fuck with you when they read you the fields right,
Speaker 2: when they're nasty to here, call you all the names
Speaker 2: under sun, it means I like you. If they're too
Speaker 2: friendly to you, it's meant that I fucked you, Jena.
Speaker 2: So people are mean to you when you're black and
Speaker 2: queens they like it. I know.
Speaker 1: I went to the Marrity, she went to the Murray.
Speaker 1: Every Yes I did.
Speaker 2: I Love you, Mom, out.
Speaker 3: By Thanks for listening to Unapologetically Black, brought to you
Speaker 3: by Black Cast Unite Our Voices and produced by Cliff Curtis.
Speaker 2: Hello, We're a fucking airplace. Over and out, Roger, Roger