Miyuki Jokiranta

Aug 20, 2023 | abc.net.au | Miyuki Jokiranta

The remote Aboriginal community of Balgo – Wirrimanu - sits on the southern edge of the Tanami Desert in Western Australia’s East Kimberley. It’s harsh but exquisitely beautiful country. First contact is a living, breathing memory here. But life in Balgo is tough. All those statistics you hear about the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people? In Balgo, it’s not so much a gap as a gaping chasm. People die far too young. Jobs are scarce. Housing, appalling. School attendance perilously low.

Aug 13, 2023 | abc.net.au | Miyuki Jokiranta

For as long as she can remember, Zoe’s dad Greg was addicted to alcohol. By the time she was 26, his drinking had taken its final toll. And this led to a reckoning. “What are my memories of dad? Am I actually remembering something real, or just creating a memory from an old photo? Was that really me? Or one of my sisters who wore that dress and sat on his knee?”Ghost in the Machine documents Zoe’s search for answers: who was the man she called Dad before he lost his battle with the bottle?

Aug 6, 2023 | abc.net.au | Miyuki Jokiranta

Sunil didn’t grow up with fairytales, but the stories his Indian mother told him – not just of Hindu gods and heroes, but of her colourful family back home. Most colourful of all, Sunil’s uncle, India’s best-known sceptic, who devoted his life to disproving fraudulent gurus’ “miracles” by eating fire, bending forks, levitating and more. But at the heart of the Sceptic’s magic was the tragic disappearing act of his long-lost wife.

Jul 31, 2023 | abc.net.au | Tim Jenkins |Miyuki Jokiranta |Kirsti Melville

Sir Douglas Mawson is a titan of Australian Antarctic history. A scientist and expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, memorials to him are dotted all over the country. But you’ll find little mention of Sidney Jeffryes, a member of Mawson’s crew and a pioneer himself. In 1913, Jeffryes made two-way wireless contact between Antarctica and Australia for the first time in history and established a crucial link with technological and political implications.

Jul 30, 2023 | abc.net.au | Miyuki Jokiranta

Julie hadn’t seen her best mate Laurie for more than ten years when she got a message from his ex-wife saying he’d passed but that nobody wanted to collect his ashes. What had happened to the charismatic and hilarious Laurie that meant he now lay unwanted in a box in a funeral parlour? In this intriguing trip into the realm of death and memory Julie finds answers amongst Laurie’s new friends and Maureen the funeral director and keeper of the ashes.