Ep 85 - Mariam Issa, The Wisdom of Elders, the Power of Storytelling and Turning Grief into Grace.

You can feel the power of Mariam's presence through this conversation, and it's a beautiful thing. 

Mariam arrived in Melbourne from her Somali homeland as a refugee in 1998 with her husband, four children and a fifth on the way. Her story begins well before this however and we explore some pivotal stories, memories and lessons learned from this time. 

Having settled in Brighton, Melbourne, Mariam cofounded RAW-Resilient Aspiring Women in 2012, a not-for-profit organisation focused on building community and social spaces for women to connect in.

She launched her autobiography, A Resilient Life, in 2012, and continued to share her experience and commitment to improving refugee's lives by sitting on the board of Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, serving as an ambassador for Refugee Council of Australia and a Director at Family Peace.

Mariam continues to share her experience and commitment to improving refugee’s lives by sitting on the board of Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, serving as an ambassador for Refugee Council of Australia and a Director at Family Peace. 

She is an International Women’s Forum member and co-founder of Space2b, an art and design based social enterprise established to support asylum seekers, refugees and newly arrived migrants. 

She was recently awarded the Ambassador of Peace award from the Universal Peace Federation – in recognition of her on-going work promoting social cohesion amongst Melbourne’s culturally diverse population. She is regularly invited to speak to different community groups and featured in national Australian TV, radio and press.

We conver so much ground in this conversation and we go deep early. We discuss:

• Growth, transformation and evolution through challenge
• Catalysing grief into grace
• Integrating stories and experience into wisdom
• Elderhood and the desperate need for the wisdom of elders
• A profound story her grandmother shared with Mariam, this metaphor was a highlight of the conversation for me

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, my heart was full and I hope you feel the warmth and presence this conversation generated.

For more information and to follow Mariam's work:

Website: www.mariamissa.com.au
Instagram: @mariamissaofficial

To subscribe to A Satisfied Mind Journal and read previous entries, check it out here. 

Thanks for listening,

Michael