Scene: Sounds of the ocean, seagulls and beachgoers having a good time 

ANGELICA VO: The Australian summer. You might imagine sparkling coastlines, swimmers catching waves, surf lifesavers in their red and yellow caps. A scene from a tourism ad, basically. 

[cue Tourism Ad Tape] 

Tourism ad: We’ve saved you a spot on the beach. So where the bloody hell are you?  

ANGELICA: It’s the way we’re seen around the world and the way many of us see ourselves.   

Shane Gould: Australians Swim, it’s who we are. Swimming is in our cultural DNA.  

Sarah Malik: The beach is the emblem of Australian culture. You see it on Home and Away. It’s in all of our shows. It’s the Australian summer experience. 

ANGELICA: Except for most of us. That’s not our experience. Including me. 

My name is Angelica Ojinnaka Psillakis. I live nowhere near the beach. I’ve never used a surfboard, and I can’t swim. It feels embarrassing to admit this. But actually, many of us in Australia can’t swim as well as we think. We live mostly near the coastlines, but that doesn’t mean we have easy access to a beach or a swimming pool. And we don’t always feel safe or welcome in these places. Lots of us will spend this summer escaping the heat in busy, air-conditioned shopping centers. Not in the water. Especially here in Western Sydney. This is where one in 10 Australians live. And it’s heating up faster here than almost anywhere else in the country.  

[cue News clip montage] 

News clip1: Western Sydney will swelter through temperatures as high as forty-four degrees 

News clip 2: Those baking hot days in Sydney’s West, not just uncomfortable but deadly 

News clip 3: Western Sydney this summer could be the hottest place on earth.  

ANGELICA: This is Sink or Swim. A podcast about learning to swim over one super-hot Sydney summer. It’s my story. And it’s set in Western Sydney in the summer of 2023 to 2024. It doesn’t sound like a tourism ad. It is a preview of the much hotter future that all of us are facing. 

[Cue Blacktown scene tape] 

Angelica: I just need to get a drink, it’s so hot. 

ANGELICA: I can safely say, if you want to know about Western Sydney, you’ve come to the right place. I’m 25 and I’ve lived here all my life. And I’m in great company.  

Angelica: Hi, Auntie.  

Auntie: How are you?  

Angelica: I’m good, how are you?  

Auntie: Good, my daughter.  

Angelica: Okay. Okay. It’s so hot…  

ANGELICA: I live in the Blacktown local government area. This land is owned by the Dharug people, and over 430,000 Sydneysiders now call it home. It’s one of the fastest growing regions in the country. It’s an exciting place to be. So many people want to live here! That’s why I haven’t left!  

[cue Traffic sounds] 

ANGELICA: It takes an hour to drive from the Sydney Opera House to my house. That’s a journey of more than 40 kilometres by car, to one of the 54 suburbs in the Blacktown local government area.  

Just so you know, one of these suburbs is also called Blacktown.  

It feels pretty jam packed.  

[cue scene tape] 

Angelica: Oh my goodness, it’s so hot.  

ANGELICA: In peak hour, the drive takes much longer.  

Angelica: It is extremely hot outside. I just turned on the air con. A girl’s got to breathe. 

ANGELICA: By public transport it’s more like 90 minutes, at least. In summer, there’s usually aircon that keeps it nice and cool. But sometimes the train is so busy, the aircon can’t keep up. And when the doors open in Blacktown, it’s hot.  

[Vox Pop] 

Speaker 1: It’s very hot. In this area. Sometimes it gets a bit crazy,  

Angelica: The craziness is what makes this area, right? 

Speaker 1: that’s what makes it Blacktown 

Angelica: Every summer it gets hotter and hotter. 

Speaker 2: Here diversity, more diversity than anything, anywhere. 

Speaker 3: I am here from, um, I’m here in Australia from one month and a half ago. 

Angelica: Really? 

Speaker 3: Yeah.  

Angelica: Yeah. Where from?  

Speaker 3: Yeah, From Egypt.  

Angelica: Egypt. Ah, African as well.  

Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah,  

Angelica: Yeah. Yes, fellow. And there’s a lots of us, of course.  

ANGELICA: 44 percent of people in Blacktown were born overseas, which means it’s pretty diverse compared to the rest of Australia, where it’s only 28%  

And as I said before, it’s hot. It’s hotter than other parts of Sydney. And what do you do when it’s hot? You swim, right?! Except for me, that’s a bit of problem, because I never learned to swim 

Lucy: I wasn’t really aware of how important swimming is in Australia. 

ANGELICA: This is my mum, Lucy. She’s a beautiful woman.  

Lucy: Especially coming from a background where there’s fear around water. I don’t go to the pools ’cause I, I can’t swim. So, um, I just stay indoors with air-condition. Air-condition. That’s all I do. And drinking water. 

ANGELICA: That fear of water can have tragic consequences. According to Royal Life Saving Australia, one in four people who drown are born overseas.  

My mum grew up in Nigeria, but I was born here. So my two feet are in two different places all the time. 

I always wanted to swim. I wanted that birthday party at a swimming pool that my schoolmates had. I wanted to join in conversations about going to the beach on the weekends. And I wanted to go to Bondi. I didn’t even know where that was as a kid. All I knew about it was what I saw on TV. Because in my family we didn’t go swimming. 

Lucy: I didn’t, have that education when I arrived here as a migrant of how important it is to enroll your kids into swimming lessons. That is until later. And it was difficult for me as a single mom. I didn’t have support, it was costing me too much. It’s one of the things that I, I blame myself (f)or still do, but then I can’t really do anything about it. Sometimes I, I have a lot of guilt, I really don’t share. I just wanted to keep raising these children, raising them the best way I know how to. 

ANGELICA: When I hear my mum saying that she feels guilty, I just feel like giving her a big hug. It wasn’t her fault. It’s an all too common experience that many parents here share.  

My mum is a teacher. For over 20 years she’s taught the migrant English program to hundreds of adults who’ve newly arrived here in Australia.  

Lucy: I’m thinking about all these other migrant parents, maybe they’re going through the same thing. When you migrate to a country where you are new to everything. You need some kind of education, support, really, support. At some point, if I save up money, I would love my kids to get out and go to the beach and be comfortable to jump in the water like every other kid. Around them, or go to the swimming pool and do laps, but, um, is it too late? That’s the question. Maybe you can test it out.  

[Cue Mount Druitt Pool tape] 

Vox Pop 1: I must admit today in the 43 degree heat is very, very oppressive. 

ANGELICA: I’m here at the Mount Druitt Public Swimming Pool in Western Sydney.  It’s the beginning of summer. And there’s a big festival happening today.  

Vox Pop 1: Oh, it’s just too way too hot and he last two years, man, the heat’s unbelievable. 

Vox Pox 2: We get the muggy heat and over here it’s just dead heat. I don’t know. Is it 40 degrees already? 

ANGELICA: Forty three.  

Vox Pops: Forty-three. Oh, no, no wonder I’m mounting.  

ANGELICA: We’re all melting, but most of us are happy to be here. In one of the relatively few public pools in Westen Sydney.  

There’s five public pools in Blacktown. For over 430,000 people. By comparison, Randwick, in Sydney’s east, has nine, but only 141,000 people. And of course, the council has 29 kilometres of beach!  

[cue pool tape] 

ANGELICA: It’s not all bronzed bodies and bikinis at the Mount Druitt swimming pool. There are people in the water wearing all kinds of clothing. Men in faded t shirts, older women in long pants, Kids wearing mismatched colourful prints. 

Angelica: People really go in mostly like with dresses and stuff. 

Lifeguard: People really go in mostly like with dresses and stuff. Yeah, people go in with all sort of clothing so you can spot out the non-swimmers  

Daniel: people are passing a footy around and if it goes to someone else, they’ll throw it back to them. I don’t know who owns the ball, but everyone’s just throwing it to each other and sharing pool noodles and jumping in and seeing who do the biggest splash. 

ANGELICA: This is my husband, Daniel. My partner in crime. I’m here at the Mount Druitt swimming pool with him.  

Angelica: If I was to jump into the pool, where would you think I would be?  

Daniel: I think you’d definitely be staying near the, near the wall or. I, I’d wanna be near you if you’re in the deep end too. I want you to feel comfortable and know that you know you can do it, which I know you can do it, but I think you’d feel more comfortable starting off in the shallow end knowing that you can just put your feet down and stand up. Yeah. Or hold onto the wall. 

Angelica: How would you feel if I wasn’t holding onto the wall? 

Daniel: I think I wanna be with you because if you don’t have a floaty or a noodle, I don’t want you to panic or be worried. I want you to enjoy it, not be stressing out about, oh, I need to stay afloat.  

ANGELICA: Daniel grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches. He’s used to golden sand and emerald green ocean pools. Swimming is second nature to him. And his experiences at the beach growing up did kind of look like one of those tourism ads.  

Daniel: I don’t know how I learned to swim. Like I can’t remember. I just remember being comfortable swimming. I can’t remember the. The that came before it. ’cause obviously I learned to swim at some point I remember if it was a hot day and you’re really sweaty, just jumping in the pool after cooling off or spending a day at the beach. Catch waves on a little board. And getting stung by a blue bottle, that’s probably a distinct memory 

You know, me, I swim a lot, whether it’s at the, a pool or at the beach. I usually can’t wait. Like, if it’s a hot day, I usually can’t wait to just jump in. It’s like a relief. It’s like when you, drink a cold juice it’s like, oh, it’s nice. Other times you swim ’cause you feel well, I feel when I swim, I feel free. 

ANGELICA: I want to feel like that too. 

Lucy: He has got a life in water, you know, from mom, dad, grandparents, you know? The other day he went out to the beach, and you were sitting at the corner. I would love you to be able to do that part of what he enjoys doing with him. It crossed my mind whenever I see them going to this swimming. Like I know why you’re not going, you know, I don’t say a lot, but I do say a lot in my mind, to myself. 

ANGELICA: I feel exposed when I hear that. She’s right. I do stand on the side, smiling on the outside, but frustrated on the inside. What I hear from my mom is that my inability to swim comes from something bigger. 

[Fade in music. Transition pool atmos] 

ANGELICA: Back at the Mount Druitt pool, I’m standing on the side and watching Daniel swim. From one of the few shady spots. There’s almost no shade here. 

Angelica: Was this what you were expecting it to be? 

Daniel: It’s so busy that everyone’s in everyone’s way. So you’d look up and there’s someone in front of you and, some of ’em say hello, someone just keeps swimming, splash you. It’s pretty busy in the pool. A few balls flying around. Almost got hit in the head.  

Angelica: Everyone is trying to find a tree to stay under, but even with the trees, the shade is really limited. People are on the edge of the pool jumping back in or dragging their kid really frantically to get back into the shade because the sun is back and full force  

Angelica: Why aren’t you in the shade? 

Swimmer 1: Dodging some random people here.  

Swimmer 2: Yeah. We’re dodging some random people. Just trying to get away from people. It’s two too packed here. Yeah.  

Angelica: Oh, so it’s, you feel like it’s too packed here,   

Swimmer 2: But it’s a good day to be outside. We came here to take him outta the house. Do something for today? 

Angelica: The recorder keeps heating up. I’ve had to probably sit down about six times or just stand in the shade a few times from the recorder getting super hot.  

ANGELICA: Just recording this podcast is already proving difficult. Our recording equipment is not coping with the heat. 

Angelica: I’m scared that the device is going to melt on me while I’m talking to people. 

Daniel: There’s like a breeze, but it’s like a hot breeze, like when you open the oven. I can’t remember the last day. It’s been this hot. 

[Fade in light, foreboding music] 

David Snow Cone: I’m David. I’m from Tropical Snow. I do shaved ice. I’m down here today at the Mount Druitt pool. We’re selling snow cones in 25 flavors and we’ve probably done about 250 cups so far today in the 43 degree heat.  

Angelica: Wow. That is a lot. How long have you been doing this for?  

David Snow Cone: Yeah, I’ve been doing it for about 30 years. 

Angelica: It feels so good to just to sit down and rest. The water’s a little bit milky as well. Probably from the amount of bodies that have jumped in and out and are splashing about. And I wanna jump in the water but I’m probably making excuses for myself but I think I might try tomorrow to swim. 

[Fade up earlier music. Transition. 

Natalie: Please be careful in the water.  

ANGELICA: This is my dear friend, Natalie.  

Natalie 2: Us as Nigerians or Igbo people, there’s this thing of, like, it’s not fear, but like, respect water. So I think in a way our parents have gotten scared of water. Most of us never learned how to swim. So I’m really proud of you for the fact that you’re actually taking that step to actually learn now. But at your big age. (laughs) Cause I don’t know. Africans don’t really be like on that. Like, ‘Oh, like I want to learn how to swim.’ They’d be like, ‘eh, what?’ Like, you gotta go do other things. I want to hear your stories. But don’t drown, I beg. 

 Angelica: My mum is on the same page as Natalie.  

Lucy: There’s a lot of fear surrounding water where I come from. You feel the, the force of nature like oh, wow, wow, wow. Like, oh my God, it’s massive. You know? I wonder how deep it is. It is just the fear of acknowledging, the force of nature that created it. 

Angelica: As a kid, what are your memories of ever going into the water? 

Lucy: I remember one day I went with local kids in the water to wash my clothes and the river took my clothes, so I tried to go in that water, but , the local kids said, no, no, don’t go in there., I was really scared of it because it was very fast-flowing river really. And when I got home that day, my grandfather was really upset with me. And that was the last time I actually entered into a river. I haven’t tried to just swim like other people ’cause I don’t know how to.  

I can’t say it’s fear because I know I can control how far in I go to. It’s just the embarrassment like I can’t swim like other people. So, I don’t even want to try. If people could support migrants. Especially African, of African descent. Because there’s this fear around water that we generally have. 

I don’t know if the school ever asked. They never asked me at that time. Can your kids swim? 

Shane Gould: Australians Swim, it’s who we are.  

ANGELICA: But why? Why did the swimmer become a national archetype! To find out, I ask one of Australia’s most famous swimmers. 

Shane Gould: My name’s Shane Gould. People know me best I guess as the Australian Swimming Champion. And Australian of the Year for 1972. 

[Cue news tape Shane Gould] 

Also keeping an eye on the Olympic scene, is Australia’s super swimmer Shane Gould, third from our camera.  Though she’s only 15 years old, Shane is world record holder for the 100 metres. Already this youngster has shown the potential to make a clean sweep of every freestyle event in the Olympics. 

Shane Gould: Swimming is in our cultural DNA. There’s a whole thing around being a swimmer in Australia that is different to other countries. So people think that to be Australian you have to be able to swim, which is a really interesting identity for a population to have. 

There’s a long history of Australians as swimmers and at the first Olympic games in 1896 there were some Australians there who competed in swimming, and won. So, of course, the world though “Oo this country of Australia, in the back blocks of the world, who are these people?” So there’s a lot of history there about why Australians are considered swimmers and then that becomes an identity. If you can’t swim, are you not Australian? That’s how strong the identity narrative is. 

[cue tape of Sarah Malik] 

Sarah Malik: You feel like this schism, you know, you’re like, am I even part of this? Australian culture? , what does that mean? There’s a sense of failure as well. Like, Oh, I can’t do this thing. And I feel embarrassed It’s a metaphor for so many things, isn’t it? 

ANGELICA: This is writer and journalist Sarah Malik. She and I faced similar barriers growing up. And she didn’t learn to swim until she was an adult. I’m chatting to her for some moral support.  

Sarah Malik: Growing up in Western Sydney and Muslim my parents didn’t grow up around water and we didn’t have that kind of water knowledge and practice. There are those barriers there. Like being a South Asian girl. Like the hair, like so much hair! I just felt like I don’t look like these white girls, and I’m not going to look cute in a swimming costume. And I felt very self-conscious about my body and modesty and that kind of stuff. And I never really saw anyone around me in swimsuits and it just wasn’t the done thing. There’s so many different factors that are involved. In certain kinds of people feeling more welcome and comfortable. 

Angelica: You brought up hair that’s like. The biggest thing when it comes to us, even now, I’m wearing like very thick golden cornrows and I’m already thinking, how are these going to get destroyed in the chlorine? They’re just going to get heavy  

Sarah Malik: When you’re a black woman in society, your hair is constantly under scrutiny and judgment. And so you move through the world differently. It’s a whole different set of things that you have to think about. And that’s something that the regular Anglo person is not thinking about. 

There was this longing at swimming carnivals and Kiama water sports park ads on TV and wet and wild and, and you’d see it all, but you felt like you couldn’t really participate. And I remember going to parties. With family, friends growing up. And it was always like, that’s not for us. Like we just kind of are going to dip our toe into the water. The swimming journey mirrored my own feelings of belonging and not belonging in Australia generally 

ANGELICA: A sense of belonging. That’s something I’m really picking up here at the Mount Druitt Pool.  

 [Cue Vox Pox of pool and Indian family] 

Vox Pops: It’s like a whānau, we call it whānau, but it’s a, a family nick of community. You hardly get families congregating and having a place to go to. 

Vox Pox 2: It’s actually good to be out, even if it’s 43 degrees and surrounded by all different people. 

Vox Pox 3: It’s a community pool, so it’s a lot of different cultures coming in so it’s a good time to meet people and it’s good for the kids as well. They feel included 

Vox Pox 2: You know, looking around different race genders, you know, you’re surrounded by different people and their cultures 

ANGELICA: People have come from all over Western Sydney to be here. Some even further. 

Angelica: You both arrived yesterday from India, correct?  

Indian woman: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right.  

Angelica: How have you found the day so far? 

Indian woman: Amazing, amazing. Full of lot of enjoyment in water and all these peoples. 

Angelica: I love that this is a good welcome. I’ve lived in the Blacktown area for a long time and so it feels really nice you know, that you feel welcomed here. And that you feel included. 

Indian man: Aussie climate is too hot. Enjoying swimming is a really very good idea. 

Indian woman: Today’s the hottest day, I guess. 

Indian boy: I thought it was going to be really hot, but uh, once you go in the water, it feels really good. 

Angelica: Are you worried about the summer? Um, what are you worried— 

Indian boy: Cause like, um, the temperature, it’s, um, the temperature, it’s going to be, it’s going to be hot.  

Indian woman: And I really love this idea that we are, you know, all, whole family together, spending nice time together in the water. 

ANGELICA:  

You know, we’re lucky to be here. This big pool party may never have happened. Most public pools in Australia were built after the 1956 Olympics in Melbour ne, when Australian swimmers impressed the world. The population was booming, the suburbs were growing and migrants were moving here from all over Europe.  

Mt Druitt pool was opened in the seventies. But ten years ago, they almost closed it down. The council said it was costing too much money.  

But the local community got organised and pushed back. The pool stayed open.  

 It meant that much to people – and being here today, I can see why.   

I’m excited to get over my fear of the water because I want to share in this joy. The feeling of relief from the heat and the sense of community. 

But there’s one big thing standing in my way. And it’s something I’ve put off telling you. It’s a memory.  

ANGELICA:  I see a crowd of people at the end of the swimming pool and I can also hear chants go, go! We’re waiting. I can see the teacher who has the gun say, on your marks. I can see in the corner of my eye people getting into positions. I’m now trying to get into a position myself that I think will help me dive.  

Set, people started to crouch down. So I’m now crouching down and then the sound of the gun. Put my hands out like a fish and just jumped in. My eyes are stinging, but my head is just saying keep going, keep going, keep going. My legs, though, they’re not working. They’re not going anywhere. My arms are not doing what my brain is trying to get it to do. Just keep just one arm forward, another arm forward, another arm forward. Just close your eyes. Close your eyes. You’re fine. But I feel like I’m now swallowing water. And I’m screaming.  

All I feel next is someone scooped me up. Someone with light coloured skin, blonde hair.  

But all I can feel right now is everyone looking at me. I can also feel a lot of pain in my chest and I’m coughing. Feel really cold as well and feel like I’ve failed. Yeah. Which I know now I was drowning.  

I think it would have just looked like someone jumping into the pool, flapping their arms and essentially just sinking. I was so embarrassed, but I was also so scared. I was very desperate for my mum not to know that that just almost happened. 

Angelica: Hi, I’m just here for the SwimSense classes as well.  

Pool staff: What was your name?  

Angelica: Angelica.  

ANGELICA: It’s time for me to face my fears. 

Angelica: I don’t know if I’m going to be relaxed in the water. Oh, they look really relaxed. I don’t know why my nervousness just picked up again. To me, this is like, not just a pool, this is like a totally new world. And so it feels super uncomfortable to be here.  

ANGELICA: In the next episode, I learn to swim. 

Angelica: Ahh. Breathe. You’re doing it. You’re here, it’s fine. 

Shane Gould: Half the population can’t swim 50 metres. 

News archive: It’s officially the worst ever summer for drownings 

Kim Loo: The people who are actually most vulnerable are the most likely people to die from heat.  

Sebastian Pfautsch: People in other parts of the world will face the same problems. We are the test bed. 

ANGELICA: This is Sink or Swim, an Impact Studios production. This podcast was made on Darug and Gadigal lands. 

Credits 

ANGELICA: Sink or Swim is an Impact Studios production. It was written and produced by me, Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis and Britta Jorgensen.  

Audio editing by Britta Jorgensen and Celine Teo-Blockey. Additional support from Jane Curtis and Tamson Pietsch.  

The executive producers are Olivia Rosenman and Sarah Gilbert. 

Sound design by Melissa May. The theme song is by Friday.  

Podcast artwork and graphic design by Alexandra Morris. 

Research by Jackie May. 

Sink or Swim is part of a place-based audio project called Welcome to Blacktown, supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation.  

If you want to know more visit our website www.impactstudios.edu.au/sinkorswim 

Www dot Impact Studios dot edu dot au Slash sink or swim