Three high school students from the North West Coast of Tasmania take listeners to their special places. Broadcast  on 15 July 2019, Life Matters.

Take Me To Your Special Place - Life Matters

Tasmanian artist Deborah Wace has always had a deep and intimate connection to plants and the natural environment. Her way of seeing and being in the world is acutely informed by this relationship. As a botanical artist, print maker, fabric designer, amateur botanist, lover of natural history, teacher, musician and an ecological activist Deborah Wace sees herself as a plant advocate. She says a theme that deeply runs through her life and work is how to advocate for plant species and ecosystems that need a voice. "I'm more than happy to be that voice, it feels like the least I can do to give back for the immense pleasure that I derive from being out in nature."

I'm Helene Thomas, founder and creator of The Wayfinder Mobile Story Studio. I was lucky to have Deborah in my studio recently. We drove to a beautiful place, halfway up kunanyi/Mount Wellington. Spending time with Deborah is like being transported into a magical and wondrous world where plants and flowers come alive. 

In our Going Deep session Deborah speaks about the ways her childhood inspired her love of nature and her art, the challenges of being an artist, activism, her Churchill Fellowship, and her latest collaborative project, The Sartorial Naturalist, which is being launched tonight and exhibited over the next few days.

Join me as I deep dive into the magnificent world of Deborah Wace.

Music credit - Claire Anne Taylor
Photo credit - Owen Fielding

Going Deep with Deborah Wace

Our Birthing Story - Chelsea and Ash

Cassie and Jay have been living in their car for over 12 months. Their story is part of the I Am Somebody art project. 

I Am Somebody is a multimedia art project that highlights the reality for people experiencing homelessness and housing stress in Tasmania, right now. Facilitated by the City of Hobart in close collaboration with the City's Housing with Dignity Reference Group, the project has involved the creative input of Tasmanian documentary audio artist Helene Thomas, photographers Andrew Wilson and Steve Alden and film maker Mick Lowenstein.

The 2022 iteration of the project has expanded to include the support and involvement of the Clarence City Council, Glenorchy City Council and Huon Valley Council. This regional collaboration highlights that homelessness impacts everyone in Tasmania, and requires all communities to pull together if it is to be eliminated. 

Learn more at https://www.hobartcity.com.au/Community/Action-on-homelessness/I-Am-Somebody

I Am Somebody: Cassie And Jay

There is a lot to be said for places that allow you to escape the everyday stresses of modern life. The question is how far do you need to go to completely unwind and get back in touch with nature?

I ventured deep into the southwest wilderness of Tasmania and I found a stunning landscape, a sense of stillness and calm, as well as other folk, all there for different reasons, but each in touch with the same kind of serenity.

Guests:
Felicity Ambroz, Hobart retiree
Cathy Campbell, Devonport retiree
David Moreno and Graeme Ewing, Marine Biologists with the University of Tasmania

This story was aired on Life Matters, ABC RN on 13 May 2022.

Pondering the meaning of remoteness in southwest Tasmania

Grief is a very personal experience, and everyone has their own way of processing the death of someone they love.

For three Tasmanian women, walking became a way to heal, as they each came to terms with the loss of their partners.

For Mary Dwyer, it was walking the Camino de Santiago. For Becca Lunnon, it was climbing mountains in Tasmania. For Gabrielle Gartrell, daily beach walks, and long overnight walks in Tasmania's wilderness enabled her to walk through her pain and find joy again.

This story was broadcast on ABC RN on 16 August 2022.

Helene Thomas, Reporter
Erica Vowles, Supervising Producer

One foot in front of the other: walking through grief

A three-part program about Hip Hop as a voice of resistance in the modern  Middle East and beyond.

The Arab Spring took the western world by surprise but political change has long been a strong message in the music of many Arabic Hip Hop musicians.

The musicians featured in the program come from Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Palestine. They all speak about the role Hip Hop plays in the region and throughout the world, and how it has become a revolutionary force in its own right.

Artists include: Tamer from DAM/Palestine, Sphinx from Arabian Knightz and Abboud Hesham aka Stormtrap, as well as Omar Offendum and The Narcicyst—both rap in a combination of Arabic and English and their music has been described as 'a furiously political and cerebral brand of Hip Hop, marked by the currents of a post-9/11 world and the strangeness of their cross-cultural experiences.'


Conscious Hip Hop & Arab Resi

I met up with Aysanabee at Source Eco Hub in nipaluna / Hobart prior to his gig there with Australian musician Kim Churchill. We sat on a veranda shaded beneath a grapevine looking out to a flourishing vegetable garden chatting about the beautiful unfolding of his musical career. He tells a heartwarming and moving story about how his debut album, Watin, came to be. The album is named after his late grandfather and it includes interludes of his grandfather tellings stories. The interludes are spoken word recordings from phone conversations during the pandemic. In their conversations, Aysanabee's grandfather told stories about his time in residential school. The album was nominated for a Juno Award. 

Early 2025, immediately after Aysanbee's performance at Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, Kim Churchill invited Aysanabee to tour with him throughout Lutruwita / Tasmania trekking across the island in a lovely van. I’m still counting my lucky stars that I was at their Copping gig. I’ve fallen quite in love with Aysanabee’s deep rich soulful voice and am so thankful he said yes to catching up for a conversation before he headed back to Canada. 

From his bio:
"Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation a remote fly-in community in the far reaches of Northwestern Ontario. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening finger-picking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic which has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby, Don Ross, Kim Churchill, Kings of Leon and Sam Smith."

Interview with Aysanabee in lutruwita

This story is about how a person's dream combined with a supportive organisation created something truly special and valued by the wider community. Founder of the Okines Bike Shed Glenn Miller talks about how the bike shed began and the reason it is flourishing. The group's philosophy is to provide bike education, support, repairs, bikes and parts to the community. The bike shed is run completely by volunteers under the auspices of the Okines Community House. In this conversation we also hear from John Chapman, a dedicated volunteer of the bike shed, and local resident Llewellyn who spends two days a week at the bike shed as part of his home school program. This conversation was recorded as part of the celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of Okines Community House in April 2025.

Recorded, produced, mixed & mastered by Helene Thomas
Soundscapes: Helene Thomas' birds in backyard.
Building site calm 130105_00.flac by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/174878/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Atmosphere in Front of the Supermarket with Shopping Carts by Garuda1982 -- https://freesound.org/s/757688/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

More than a bike repair shed: Generosity of spirit goes a long way

Crow in Todd Mall ~ Mparntwe/Alice Springs

Sitting in Rob's Park in Kalkarindji

Walking to stage from donga in Kalkarindji

Lajamanu early morning

Sunday market in Todd Mall Mparntwe

Reflections of time spent in Mparntwe

First time sleeping in a swag

The beginning of this soundscape is the faint sounds of music coming from a nearby church and then enters from a distance an Aboriginal man singing in language taking over the sounds of the church.

A Sunday in Todd Mall Mparntwe

Kwarta Tuma budgies part one

Kwarta Tuma budgies part two

Kwarta Tuma birds in the gorge

Kwarta Tuma birds in the gorge + reflections

Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir practicing in the gorge at Kwarta Tuma

Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir performing at the Kwarta Tuma Festival 2025

A bunch of frogs right after a thunderstorm 

Really loud frogs in Todd River

Grace Williams is a Tasmanian filmmaker who is passionate about human rights issues. She talks here about navigating her sense of belonging as a Sierra Leonean and an Australian woman.
Image by Andrew Wilson.
Music credits: drotzruhn - female humming; Dayamallah; digisfishmusic - accapela katytheodossiou; klankbeeld - horrorprayerromancatholic; ellary - soundscape last 31 cinematic piano

Belonging

Australian architect Ross Langdon and his partner Elif Yavuz were eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child when they were both killed in the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi in 2013. The tragic news sent shock-waves across the world as family, friends and colleagues learned of their untimely deaths. 

In just three years Ross had gained a reputation in East Africa for designing beautiful, ecological buildings, using innovative materials. He believed architects should be like chameleons, adapting their ideas to the surrounding landscape and the people and culture who lived in it. He formed close ties with the local communities he worked with and as a result he left behind a legacy as a dedicated architect and a loyal friend to all who were fortunate enough to know him. Elif had been doing research on malaria and working for the Clinton Foundation in Uganda and Tanzania. 

This documentary was first broadcast on ABC RN Earshot. Producer: Helene Thomas. Sound Engineer: Russell Stapleton. Supervising Producer: Claudia Taranto 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/the-chameleon-architect/8889788

The Chameleon Architect

Songs from a community of Rwandan Batwa, all recorded live in their village.

Songs of a Loved People

This radio documentary features Rev. Emmanuel Kolini, Pastor Paul Gitwaza, Martin Kimani, Deputy Director of the Ansari Africa Centre at the Atlantic Council in Washington, and a scholar of the role of religion and race in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Timothy Longman, the Director of the African Studies Centre at Boston University and author of Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda and Father Bernardin Muzungu, a senior clergy member of the Roman Catholic Church of Rwanda, as well as Tutsi survivors of the 1994 Genocide.

Role of Catholic Church in the Genocide in Rwanda

My client for this project was 'Nature. Be In It.'
Owner and creator, Kara Spence, commissioned me to tell the story of her award winning school based program.

"Climbing Trees makes you stronger than watching an iPad"

I Am Somebody is a multimedia art project facilitated by the City of Hobart's Housing with Dignity Reference Group, in collaboration with Tasmanian documentary audio artist Helene Thomas and photographer Andrew Wilson. It honours the unique stories of five community members and tells of the impacts living without a home has had on all aspects of their lives.

Dave's Story

I wrote this when my daughter was two-years-old. I think when we know we are truly loved it shows in our whole being.

Music credit:
Thinking of driving by Kjartan Abel
Contact info at: https://kjartan-abel.com
Free download: https://freesound.org/people/kjartan_abel/sounds/532774/
Creative Commons Attribution license

She Does Not Know Yet

I remember like it was yesterday being on the cusp of adulthood. The taste of absolute freedom just a hair’s breadth away. And then, eight years later cradling in my hands, her face, this face. And now it’s nearing her turn, and I live all over again the anticipation. Feeling with every molecule of my being the expansiveness of her, of me, and all that lies ahead for both of us.

Music credit:
Thinking of driving by Kjartan Abel
Contact info at: kjartan-abel.com
Free download: freesound.org/people/kjartan_abel/sounds/532774/
Creative Commons Attribution license

I Remember Like It Was Yesterday

This is a story about a unique friendship and dealing with the loss of independence as we age. Athol Delaney was nearing 80 when his wife died. To fill the space she left behind, he put all his energy into writing poetry. He had written poetry as a child and he decided that his last wish was to have his poems published. It was a chance encounter with a younger woman that not only made it possible for him realise his dream, but would help him navigate the challenges that lay ahead as he entered life’s final chapter.

This story was broadcast on Life Matters, ABC RN, 3rd November 2020.

Credits

Producer - Helene Thomas
Supervising Producer - Erica Vowles
Sound Engineer - Selwyn Cozens

Music by - Hiatus, Susan Legg and Peter Vorländer. From freesound.org - tyballer 92_light piano noodling in b; tired ghosts piano; messy love piano in g major, magmi soundtracks_emotional original soundtrack home.
Sounds from freesounds.org - bastardwrio_cinematic heart machine beep, nixen_ hospital room ambience with clock heart beeb and paging.

My Last Wish

Ray and Liz met when they were both nine-years-old. Love at first sight it was. They dreamt about each other a lot and wrote love letters. But when they met again at 17, Liz had news for Ray 💔 
This is part one of their love story.

A True Love Story - Part One

My client for this project was 'Nature. Be In It.'
Owner and creator, Kara Spence, commissioned me to tell the story of her award winning school based program. This is an excerpt from the full programme which you can listen to here https://soundcloud.com/thewayfinder/nature-play

I'm Charlotte and I'm Six

The Wayfinder is a custom-built intimate story sharing and deep listening space.

www.thewayfinder.com.au

The Wayfinder Mobile Story Studio

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