🎙️ In this episode of the What Really Matters podcast, we sit down with Tara — community organiser, activist, and equality practitioner — to talk about belonging, displacement, identity, and what it really takes to build inclusive communities from the ground up.
Tara shares her powerful journey growing up Kurdish, born into a nation shaped by genocide, war, and displacement, and fleeing with her family as a child. From navigating trauma and identity, to growing up in multicultural London, to later moving to South Bristol and experiencing exclusion first-hand — Tara reflects on how these lived experiences shaped her values, her activism, and her commitment to justice-led community work.
We explore:
- Growing up Kurdish and the long shadow of conflict, displacement, and intergenerational trauma
- Fleeing as a child and rebuilding life in London as a refugee family Identity, belonging, and the impact of moving from multicultural spaces into less diverse communities
- Being a child interpreter for parents and the hidden responsibilities placed on young people
- Education, resilience, and the teachers and relationships that change lives
- Motherhood, creativity, and rediscovering self beyond survival
- Community organising, campaigning, and why people come together around what directly affects them
- Grassroots action vs institutional power — and why change must be driven from the ground up
- Inclusion, equity, decolonising systems, and the danger of tokenism
- Why lived experience, trust, and relationships matter more than policy alone
- Rest, hope, joy, and sustaining yourself while working for change
🌱 A deeply honest, reflective and hopeful conversation about identity, power, community, and finding ways to keep going — even when the work is hard.
🎙️ Want to have your say on What Really Matters to you? Contact Ben Carpenter at info@grassrootcommunities.org
👉 Subscribe for more conversations amplifying lived experience, grassroots voices, and real stories of change.
💰 Interested in sponsoring the What Really Matters podcast? Please get in touch. Learning from the past and present to help inform a brighter future — What Really Matters ❤️