Talking Vision 700 Week Beginning 30th of October 2023

Hello everyone. It's great to be with you for this first edition of Talking Vision. We've got a lot to talk about, so do stick around.

Hello everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half an hour, we talk matters of blindness and low vision.

Hello and welcome to this special 700th episode of Talking Vision. It's been a real honor to be able to join you for the past two and a half years, and to follow on the legacy that Steven and Stella have built up since the very first episode in 2011, and it's my great pleasure to look back over the past 12 years today with some favorite interviews from Steve and Stella and myself as we kick off the celebrations for this week's 700th episode. So, without further ado, I hope

Anyone? Anyone else? This is 6 p.m. Honolulu. Do you copy? Over.

Anyone at that company? Loud and clear. Over.

Once we've got you loud and clear. Go ahead. Australia. My name is Mia, and I question is, what do you do on a normal day in the space station over me?

And my name is Mike. We do a lot of the same things on space station. You do? We wake up in the morning, get some breakfast, kind of read some of our information. We actually check emails and then get started. We do a combination of just living and work and maintaining the space station, cleaning filters and things like that. And and science experiments have different sorts. That's kind of a different every day over.

Now, if you're looking for the instigator of this fantastic project, probably the person that everyone's looking at is Paul Paradigm. Paul is an adaptive technology consultant with Vision Australia. You look after the west region of Sydney, don't you, Paul?

That's right Stephen.

And one of your life interests is amateur radio.

It is. And that started from when I was a child, from twiddling the knobs on my Am radio and noticing that I could hear distant stations coming through the ether, as it were.

It's exciting now, isn't it? With the internet and all sorts of communication that one can can tune into.

It certainly is. And of course, I'm with the hobby of amateur radio. Often people comment that a that's a bit old fashioned, you know, we don't really need the radio anymore. And that's far from the truth, because, you know, the internet and mobile phones, particularly in times of trouble, do fail. And quite often we have to fall back

So how did this link up with the International Space Station all come about? What's that got to do with them in a radio?

In my hobby, I hold a position for an organisation called AMSA, which basically stands for Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation. That acronym is not quite right. The position I hold is of the National Coordinator for Australia, and I've been involved with the project called Eris, which is amateur radio on board the International Space Station, which was a project set up to encourage children and young adults to have an interest in science, mathematics and technology through a colleague

When it was all over. What was your reflection on it all, Paul?

Gee, we were all pretty much elated by the contact. It went pretty smoothly. The reaction from from the children, it was just it was really over the top. Exciting. It actually went off pretty much without a hitch. Everybody was receptive. Everybody really loved the lectures, and it was a really good feeling to know that these vision impaired and blind kids could, you know, do it as well as others that we've handled in the past with such contacts with space.

You amateur radio people do a lot of exciting things over a lifetime of involvement with radio. Where does this one stand?

It stands right at the top. For me, it's pretty close to the top, if not the most exciting thing that I've done in amateur amateur radio. I guess look, the first time I spoke with an astronaut on board the ISS might compete with it. But to put 12 kids in touch with them and have them ask quite interesting questions and getting a response, it's, you know, it's a once in a lifetime thing, really.

Michael Paul Paradigm, he's an adaptive technology consultant with Vision in Australia. And through his amateur radio links, he was able to, along with a whole lot of other people, link children who are blind and who have low vision with astronauts on the International Space Station. Fantastic. Thanks, Paul. Thank you. Now, one of the people who attended that amazing event at Virgin Australia Enfield on August 29th is

Thank you.

Have you had much of an interest in science up until now?

Not really.

Not really. I guess that changed a bit with this. This opportunity to speak with someone on the space station?

Yes, it definitely did.

My name is Jessica, and my question is, what can you say when you look at the window? Can you see any planets over.

The Jessica looking out of the window? We see the Earth below. We're about 240 miles or 400km in space. And so we have a good view of the world. And I will tell you that Australia is one of my favorite places to look at, because the land is so different. The amazing colors and textures and, and there's a surprising number of meteor craters that are visible on on in Australia. You can I also at night like to look down. You see the city lights sparkling. Really.

And how was that moment when you spoke to Mike Fossum in the space station?

It was absolutely brilliant.

It was a good question. You asked. Oh.

Really?

Yes, it was, and it was an interesting answer he gave, wasn't it, the way he talked about Australia?

It definitely was. I didn't think you'd actually be able to see Australia from the space station.

That is interesting because it's hard for us to sometimes realise what could be seen from a distance out there, but the earth being, well, 250 miles away is a fair way, but they seem to be able to see a fair bit of it, which I found very interesting.

It is quite interesting.

Yeah. Do you listen to the radio at all?

I'm a little, not much man.

What stations do you listen to?

Anything, really.

There's so much choice. All the different music stations these days, isn't there?

Yes, there really is. So it doesn't really matter which one you're listening to. You'll normally get something decent.

Well, Jessica, it's been great talking to you. And congratulations on being in that situation where you're talking to those people in space. It's something that very few people get to do. So I hope you enjoyed the moment and it will be a very treasured memory for you for the rest of your life.

It will be.

Jessica McKinnon from Carlingford in Sydney, one of the people who spoke to the International Space Station just a few weeks ago.

Our second interview today sees us. Fast forward about eight years to 2019 with one of our most popular topics ever, the Bryan Music Camp, presented by Stellar Glory as she caught up with long time Brown Music Camp attendee and now staff member Mikayla Schmidt.

I've got a change of scenery. This time around. I am joined by Braille Music Camp participant and now staff member junior staff member, Mikayla Schmidt. Thank you so much for your time today, Mikaela. Thanks for having.

Me, Stella. It's great to be here.

Now. Before people complain about where Jordy is, she is in. She's fully knowledgeable that you are.

Jordy knows that I am here. She invited me. No, I am being Jordy now.

So before we talk about you, I just want to have a quick chat about putting on the Ritz because it's one of my all time favorite songs. And I'm so excited that the camp choir did this. What did the kids think of doing this?

I think the kids thought that this song was great fun. We also sang a couple of things from like, you know, for a requiem and lots of traditional sacred music. And so this was a nice, upbeat song for them to have fun with. But also, most of the kids haven't heard music like this before. It's old, sort of 1920s jazz, and that's experience for the kids and a style of music they haven't explored before, and so it's great to see them really enjoying it.

Oh, it's really fantastic. Do you like it? I love it Irving Berlin yeah.

We actually sung this on my second camp when I was 12. So to come back and do it, sing it again as a staff member and remember how I felt learning it as a kid is, you know, it's really interesting.

So let's talk about you. You attended your first Braille music camp when you were 11.

That's right.

What sort of child were you?

Oh.

Very dramatic child.

Oh, really?

I love acting and telling stories. And so I think I had my victory to stream and was recording a lot of things at camp and, um.

But Brown Music Camp uncut, maybe.

Yes, yes. Um, tune in next week for the next episode. But yeah. And but I had never experienced classical music before. I'd never experienced singing or playing in an orchestra. And, you know, I'd heard these things sort of in movies or on the radio. But, you know, to me it was just mind blowing that I was actually there and I was a part of all this and that one day I could I could do this if I wanted. And, you know, after that, I went on to sing in

I forgot to mention that you are actually a music and drama teacher, and you're a singer and you're a classical singer. That's right. And you love acting and performance and writing, and you also do some consultancy work with Arts Access Australia.

And.

Yeah, not actually associated with Arts Access Australia, but I do consultant making art spaces accessible.

Yeah that's.

Fantastic. And the beauty of the Braille music camp is that it's totally accessible, totally accessible.

Most of the teachers and all of the students are blind. Everything is provided in Braille. In fact, it's a bit of a joke sometimes, because occasionally our few sighted stuff that we have singing in our main choir are the ones that don't have. We say, oh really? Sorry we didn't have a chance to get this music into print, which is, you know, normally when kids are at school or something, it's the other way around. And we, you know, they teachers will say, I'm so sorry, but we didn't

And the one of the mottos or one of the sayings that Jordi learnt from Jordi is that the Brown music camp is the place where Braille is the norm and blindness the majority.

That's right. Yeah, yeah.

So is this your second year going to Brown Music Camp as a teacher?

Yes, yes it is.

I'm joined by Michaela Schmidt, who is now a junior teacher. She's been going to the camp since she was 11.

That's right. Yeah.

So what are the benefits for a singer? In singing in a choir. What are the greatest benefits about being in a choir?

I think that you get to listen and, you know, sing with other people. I think it bro music camp. It's great because another thing that we did a lot in junior choir was they had to sing the song without accompaniment to learn to listen to each other and sort of count the beats in their head and keep in time, because sighted musicians can look at a conductor

And are there conductors?

There are, yes. Or blind choir directors this year out. Yeah. Our musical director, Ben Clarke, was over in New Zealand, but we had three of our other blind staff members, Rhea and Ryan Schmidt, and Nelson Rifat, lead the choir and they all sing professionally. They're professional choristers and studying music at tertiary level, so it's great for the kids to be able to work with other professional musicians who are also blind.

Rhea is quite astounding, and she also credited the Braille music camp. She said that it was an overwhelming and marvelous experience and she'd never experienced anything like that. And she remembers, they sang a Benjamin Britten song and she was overwhelmed by it and said she probably knew every second word or something like that. So it's quite, quite a powerful place for many people.

It is. And it's one of the only places where, you know, as you said before, blind is is the majority and all the students are Braille readers and they're all blind. And so they have that in common. And it really helps them to connect.

And do you.

Have to be a Braille reader to attend? If you were a young person listening to this program now, maybe you were seven years old and was singing or playing an instrument or had that desire. How do you get involved?

Yeah, so you do have to. Most of our students are literary Braille readers, and a lot of them know grade two Braille, which is good because you can read the, you know, the words in our choir books. But occasionally we've had Braille readers who are still learning. It just depends and sort of what stage you're at and but yeah, if you if, you know, literary braille, that's very helpful because then you can just focus on the music code.

I'm Sam Culley, and you're listening to this special 700th episode of Talking Vision on Vision Australia. Radio associated stations of. And the Community Radio Network. I hope you're enjoying this special episode. As we look back over the past 12 years of talking vision with Steve and Stella and myself behind the mic. And now, finally this week, it's time for an interview that's close to my heart as I

Thank you.

Now, what made you decide to move to Australia, and why did you think Australia would be the place to come to?

I ran away from Iraq because I have a lot of problem in my job with the government in the time of Saddam regime that led me to fly and run away from Iraq in 2000, arrived in Greece about 2001, stay in that country about five years. 2006 in Monday morning, 4th of March 2006. Know maybe a lot of people. Maybe a surprise. When did I assist to come to Australia? Injuries. I find a lot of opportunity to go to a lot of country in Europe. I have a lot of

Being an immigrant who is totally blind must have been difficult for you when you did arrive in Australia.

My last class in English I have in 1975. So imagine 1975 until 2006. I speak Arabic and Chaldean language. Christian language from Iraq. Yes. How much information I have, I will have in my brain during 31 years and no practice in that. When first arriving, I fill up what they are talking, whether I have basic English. I thought of myself enough. I haven't signed blank. I don't want it to be blind in community. I decided to learn this language.

So you've been living in Western Sydney for the past 15 years. How did you become part of the community? What's the things that you really got excited about when you did arrive here?

I was mentioned I live in a Smithfield suburb, belong to Fairfield. I try to work here in Fairfield. I connect a lot. A lot of people they give, they didn't give me that opportunity because I will tell this in general opinion, you are obliged to sit at the home. You cannot do it. How you will teach mathematics. You are blind. So I connect with Liverpool, a suburb near from me. They give me that opportunity first start in 2011, once a week teaching mathematic in Migrant Resource Center. This

But very.

Different.

Yeah, yeah there's there's English, there is history there. But my job was to teach mathematic also my Labor Day Liverpool. So here I feel myself. I am one who live in Liverpool because before attending uni nearly every week I am in Liverpool. I get from them a lot because here I use English language and also translate. All my

As a result of your dedication to community service Aachen, you were recently a finalist for Blind Australian of the year, so how did it feel to have that recognition?

Since 2011 until 2020, before corona time. Every day I meet about 4 to 5 people speak with them about my journey. I speak with them about just a three word how to challenge, how to inspire, and how to be trust in yourself.

You mentioned previously that you had completed two masters. I believe it was. And now you've recently started your PhD in mathematics at the University of Technology in Sydney. So that's a tremendous achievement. What made you decide to go back and do a PhD?

Since I tried since 2012 to continue my education. Why? Because I find special in mathematics that people, they don't like it. I don't know why. Maybe a lot of reason. Or maybe there is a book, maybe teacher, maybe environment, maybe family. Maybe they are growing, maybe their education. For that reason, I decided to challenge that. Added to that, I try to find because 2 hour or 3 hour volunteer job during the week is not enough. I put

I've been speaking today with Archon Yusuf, teacher, volunteer and contributor to the community in Western Sydney over the past 16 years and now just recently started your PhD as well. So all the best with that I can thank you so much for your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the program.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you for you and all the people they are listening.

And that's all the time we have for today in this special 700th anniversary episode of Talking Vision. I hope you've enjoyed having a look back over the past 12 years of the show, and here's to many more episodes to come. Talking vision is a production of Vision Australia Radio. Thanks to all involved with putting the show together and remember we love your feedback and comments, so please do get in touch on Talking Vision at Vision australia.org. That's

You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 308 4746. That's one 380 474 W6 or by visiting Vision australia.org. That's Vision Australia call.