‘The first person you encounter as a human being is generally your mother. That’s the first source of knowing that you have. How valuable is that? And how painful is it to lose that in circumstances outside of your control?’

In this Broadly Speaking podcast, Amani Haydar, Alice Pung and host Susan Carland discuss the extraordinary resilience mothers and children demonstrate in the face of trauma.

In her memoir The Mother Wound, artist, lawyer and advocate Amani Haydar tells the heartbreaking story of her mother’s death through a brutal act of violence perpetrated by her father. Award-winning writer Alice Pung’s latest novel, One Hundred Days, examines the faultlines of love and control in a complex mother-daughter relationship.

Both women are mothers themselves and write with nuance and compassion about the intersections and complexities of culture, class and family.

What happens when trauma intersects with motherhood – and how do mothers and children find the strength to endure, survive and thrive?

Content warning: This podcast includes discussion of family violence and other topics listeners may find confronting.

The Broadly Speaking series bookseller is Neighbourhood Books

The Broadly Speaking series is proudly supported by Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family and the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund

This conversation was originally scheduled to take place live on Monday 2 August 2021 and was cancelled in response to Victorian Government COVID-19 health advice. We are now presenting this discussion exclusively in podcast form.

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