In the second SYNC Leadership online program 22 session, the cohort were asked to find a metaphor for their leadership. Choosing the metaphor of a sock, Jodee Mundy thought about how a sock can mean many things. A lost sock, to find your pair, pull your socks up, to shed your skin and so forth.
Prelude
Created inside my mother
Growing within her peaceful womb
Movements stir, shake and vibrate
my all-Deaf family signing
S-kin
Born into two worlds
I’m different from my kin,
Even though I’m one of them
I have hearing skin
Alternate Realities
Growing up coda
Navigating
Sight and sound,
Deaf culture
Hearing culture
Auslan
English
Ability
Disability
Exclusion
Inclusion
Ignorance
Privilege
So binary
yet profound
Symbiotic Reckoning
My family and I share the same goal, “That we are equal.”
I interpret for my mother,
Side-by-side advocating for social justice
For the human rights of others
Professionalism
My role evolved from family
Into a professional ally
I interpreted and advocated with many
For decades did we try,
did we try!
Forty years
Interpreting, advocacy, bilingualism,
Explaining, educating, consulting,
Directing, performing, explaining
Mentoring, writing, volunteering,
Fund raising, leading, programming
Access and Inclusion…ummm
Where do we even begin…?
Therapy
40 years worth of therapy,
Guilt for being of ‘them’
Grief, anger, depression
The status quo declining
Access and Inclusion
Diagnosis
Like a sock
Evolving from inside
To the outside
To the inside again
Three years ago
My sock revealed new skin
“You have Stage Four cancer”
doctors tell me
“It’s incurable” they say.
“Not sure how long you’ve got”
“Better take it day-by-day”
Farewell
Farewell to my innocence
Goodbye to my able-bodied life
This woman is facing terminal illness
With a possible end quite nearer in sight
Motherhood
With pain, fear, grief
As my new daily grind,
I spent 2020 in lockdown
loving my new baby
with an unwell body and mind
Skin
And yet, despite my prognosis
Three years on
A new freedom’s been found
From within
From outside
And inside again
I’m finally in my skin
VIP
I’m disabled too
Like all of my family
Finally!
No longer an insider/outsider
I’m part of the club
It’s new to me,
Yet familiar
I feel vulnerable yet strong
Light bulb moment
I understood access and inclusion
But wow,
Ableism is next level…
When you’re…
When you’re paid less than your entire team
Even though you’re the disabled leader
Or when your boss prefers your GP’s opinion
And chooses not to listen to you
When the chemist counts your monthly opioids
To check you aren’t addicted
When you have to state your UR number each week
to the hospital staff who know you
The monthly scans, quarterly reviews,
The speed the world moves at
The daily naps, the breathless walks
It’s bloody hard to keep up
I’ll tell you that…
When you’re advocating for your life to parliament
In the hope they’ll fund your cancer plight
When you’re trying to fit in
Even though you have given them all of your worth
When you talk to them about a wage increase
They say “sorry but that’s the way it is”
“It’s not our fault you can’t keep up”
“We’re real sorry about your diagnosis,
gee that must be real tough.”
When you have to bite your tongue
Hide your tears
Hold your head up high
And explain”
That this is the best they’ll get
And that you’re worth it time and time again”
Conclusion (at least for now)
Balancing life as a disabled woman and mother
As disabled leader and artist
My breathing, my capacity, my energy
It’s a fine line to tread…
Yet the deeper these skin folds my socks hold
The more and more I feel connected.
I’ll continue to pull my socks up,
Create
Gently lead
Not give up,
Stand on the shoulders of my disabled family
All three generations of us
When the going gets tough
Jodee Mundy OAM is a Melbourne based interdisciplinary artist, festival director, activist and cultural leader. A heritage signer of Australian Sign Language, she grew up as the only person who hears in her all-Deaf family. In November 2019, Jodee was diagnosed with a terminal cancer when she was thirty- five weeks pregnant. Shortly after, she went into lockdown for almost two years. With a survivorship of three years Jodee lives from treatment to treatment depending on ground-breaking cancer treatments. In 2020, Jodee was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her service to the performing arts.
www.jodeemundy.com