Season 2 Episode 6: Helen Ngo on bilingualism, the habits of racism and embodied experiences of parenting Artwork

Birthing and Justice with Dr Ruth De Souza

Childbirth is supposed to be empowering, but for many birthing people it is not. For Indigenous women, immigrant women and women of colour, birthing within the western healthcare system can be anything but affirming. It can feel unsafe. In this raw and challenging talks series, health researcher, clinician and nursing educator Dr Ruth De Souza (RMIT University) hosts conversations about birth, racism and cultural safety with change makers working within the maternal health-care sector to break down the structures built on colonisation. This is a series that will give birthing people hope and power when they’re at their most vulnerable.

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Birthing and Justice with Dr Ruth De Souza

Season 2 Episode 6: Helen Ngo on bilingualism, the habits of racism and embodied experiences of parenting

January 31, 2022 • Dr Ruth De Souza • Season 2 • Episode 6

Episode Synopsis: To Helen Ngo, birthing matters because it’s transformative – for new parents and communities as well as newborns themselves – and provides new ways to experience and relate to personal and cultural histories. In this episode, Dr Ngo discusses language and its potential to open us to the world; her experiences as a new parent of reclaiming her ‘mother-tongue’ in order to facilitate inter-generational connections between her children and her parents; the process of developing a new sense of pride in her cultural heritage; as well as embodied experiences of race, white privilege and more.

Episode notes:

https://deakin.academia.edu/HelenNgo
https://theconversation.com/housing-a-sense-of-self-for-migrant-communities-bilingual-school-programs-are-about-more-than-learning-148099

Music in this episode includes ‘Snake’ by M.W.D. and ‘Webbed’ by REW<<, used under a Creative Commons license from Free Music Archive.

Birthing and Justice is written and produced by Dr Ruth De Souza on the traditional and unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations. Sound editing by Olivia Smith.