Episode 2: Leadership and Community Empowerment

Episode 2:  Leadership and Community Empowerment

Can juggling multiple roles lead to a fulfilling life?
Meet Sahana Ramesh, Wyndham City Councillor -  a remarkable woman who stands as a testament to this possibility. As the only elected representative of Indian origin in Victoria, Sahana shares her journey of balancing the complex roles of being a wife, community member, city councillor, management consultant, and business owner. Her story is one of passion and dedication to community service, deeply inspired by her family's involvement in such activities in India. Sahana offers valuable insights into managing a demanding professional life while maintaining personal commitments, underscoring the power of intentional time management, task prioritization, and grounding practices like meditation and yoga.

Discover the importance of diverse voices in politics and leadership, especially from underrepresented communities. In our discussion, Sahana highlights the significance of representation for the South Asian community, particularly women, in politics. She stresses the need for support networks to encourage more women to take on leadership roles, acknowledging the challenges faced by those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Sahana calls for empowerment through embracing one's identity, building confidence, and engaging with the community. Her inspiring journey is a powerful reminder of the potential within each of us to make significant impacts in our communities.

Concept & Host:  Priyanka Nomula
Designed & Directed: Sandeep Raj
Presented by: Aussie Talkies
Guest Name: Sahana Ramesh

Chapters

• 0:00 Community Service and Balancing Responsibilities
• 15:18 Diverse Community Representation in Politics
• 29:06 Empowering Women in Community Leadership

Transcript

Priyanka: 0:00

Welcome to the show. Sahana ji. How are you? Thank you, priyanka. Thanks for having me here and I'm doing great Thanks for coming in and it's a pleasure.

Priyanka: 0:08

So to start off right for our audience and for everyone watching, let's know a little bit about you. So who is Sahana Ramesh?

Sahana: 0:20

So me as a person

Sahana: 0:23

Honestly, I probably don't think very highly of myself and these questions are always awkward when people ask me who are you as a person? But I'd like to say I am a wife, I am a community member, I'm currently a councillor. I serve on the Wyndham City Council. I have also, in terms of the work that I do, I'm a management consultant, I work in the city and I also run a few businesses on the side.

Sahana: 1:02

So I've sort of dabbled along everything from navigating complex projects to community service and that's sort of who I am, wow you do a lot of things juggling through multiple things, so just wanted to know what led you to go into local government and serve as a city councillor.

Sahana: 1:25

So I guess I always had a deep-rooted sense of wanting to be part of the community as well as community service. From a very young age I've seen my family being involved in community service. You know a cousin of mine. He ran an NGO helping aged and disabled communities within India and I took a lot of inspiration from him. I also took a lot of inspiration from my uncle, who was quite active within politics, and I'd watch him serve the community, navigate politics, understand the intricacies of public service, and I've always been very curious and very passionate. I guess from a from a young age.

Priyanka: 2:15

Yeah, I mean, your interest seems to be, like you know, rooted from back in India, where your family is also part of the community services, and then you came to this. That's, that's really good. So you basically have a deep interest towards community. So, as a city councillor, what are your main things that you would be looking at and you know what's your purpose?

Sahana: 2:38

yeah, so as a councillor and I guess you, I guess the roles and responsibilities is probably very similar to what we see in India, but a little bit more of community involvement here in Australia. As such if you want to sort of compare it that way is to represent my constituents, be the voice of my community and any concerns, their needs, to represent them within the local government council area, which is the Windham City Council. There is also an important there are other important aspects of the job as well Again, providing strategic direction for the various policies and decisions that are being made, also being the decision making authority for some of the planning matters as well, getting involved in a number of important decisions that are being made through, even running through the budget cycles each year, and you know there's a lot of important decisions that are being made for the community to make sure that our community is liveable and inclusive, and all of those things we get involved in as councillors of that municipality.

Priyanka: 4:03

So in your introduction, you were saying about not only serving as a city councillor, you are also a managing consultant as well, as you have several businesses. How are you balancing all of these? Again, you have your own personal life as well. It's not like in India. We have lots of help, right. How do you balance all of these things?

Sahana: 4:26

So well, I guess you know, I think we are raised in our communities to be very driven from a young age, right, and I guess there was plenty of opportunities that were presented to me in this country when I moved in here and there was opportunities to learn and opportunities to even fail as well, so I guess I just embraced it. But yes, I do a lot of things. It's quite important, I guess and this is something that I've learned over the last couple of years is to be intentional with time right and understand my priorities very well. So, just working through, for example, you know, tuesdays are my council days and I dedicate all of my headspace to council, and you know, another day, another couple of days might be for something else.

Sahana: 5:23

Mondays I'm in the city, you know, doing my consulting gig, and weekends I'm at my hospitality venue that I own in Turak, and it's about balancing all of that, and I guess I also strongly believe that you need to have something, an anchor, something that grounds you, and work on it. So my family is a huge sort of a grounding element for me and I consciously sort of invest in things that actually rejuvenate and recharge me, things like meditation and yoga or spending time in nature whenever possible and and having that, having sort of that balance, I guess makes me have that energy to do all of this. I guess I would probably say that wow.

Priyanka: 6:18

I mean, this is something that a lot of people could learn of as well, because if you give me like few tasks together, I would get super confused. Obviously you go into the confused mode and then you'll see prioritization. But to stay focused and continue that takes a lot of effort as well, which is amazing like you are doing it great well it's.

Sahana: 6:42

It's never I mean every single time that I added something onto my plate. It was never easy, right? Yeah, it took a while to sort of get the flow right and the balance right and that additional load. It takes away something else from your life, correct? So you need to sacrifice something to make space for something else, correct? So it was. Yeah, it was. It was never easy, but, you know, over a period of time you sort of learn and and and. The other thing is also that finding your passion right, if you're doing something that you enjoy and that you're passionate about, you will always time, make time for it and they'll always be space for that in your life.

Priyanka: 7:19

That's so true.

Priyanka: 7:21

You basically willingly go. It's not like a chore for you.

Sahana: 7:23

True, yes, and and finding those things that you're passionate about in life also sort of gives you that willingness and energy you know to be able to do a lot more things, yeah, yeah.

Priyanka: 7:36

Do you like doing all of these things together? Do you actually get some time to socialize and have like friend network with your friends? You know, go out with friends. Do you get enough time for that? Sometimes, like I know, I kind of, like you know, suddenly end up having no time for my friends. That is the only part that keeps, you know, getting a bit, uh, neglected yeah yeah. So what about you? Like you're doing so things, do you get actually time to socialize?

Sahana: 8:04

So I've got two other girlfriends that are amazing, right, so we catch up once a month. We do. We pick a nice Melbourne's got amazing places to eat and you know places for high tea and things like that, and well, I just get dragged along. They plan so I just show up once a month just to catch up with my two girlfriends and it makes a massive difference, like you know, we talk about everything under the sun and that's another way, sort of. You know, that just recharges me, that's awesome.

Priyanka: 8:37

So as coming back to your role as a city councillor, right, what are the key issues that you're working on? And every time there is an issue, obviously there is a problem that you're solving, and Then you have an idea to solve it. Do you get support? So maybe just start with any of those key issues that you're working on. Yeah, you can give some examples.

Sahana: 8:56

So over the last four years, I have focused a lot of my efforts on sustainable urban growth, as an example, and social inclusion and making sure that our diverse communities so the culturally and linguistically diverse communities are getting their share of what they should within the community. The Wyndham community that I serve in. It's a massive, massive community. The Wyndham community that I serve in it's a massive, massive community. There's about 350,000 people that live in that community and it's one of the fastest growing municipalities in Australia and one of the most diverse communities as well. So that comes with a lot of challenges and making sure that, as I was saying before, that all of the communities, irrespective of their background, get their share of what they deserve in the community and that they feel valued. There is social inclusion within these communities because you know, for all of us we've left our home and you know we're migrants in this country and we need a sense of belonging, I guess, as human beings. So if we can establish that, and working within local government and that's why it's very important, right, and that's why I love local government, because you're working at the grassroots level, you're connected to the communities, you're looking people in the eye and you're making a difference in their lives. So so my focus has sort of been that over the last four years.

Sahana: 10:34

Yes, so there's a process and and of course, there's a political element as well involved. When you propose to make a change or add something on, there is there's obviously an element of making sure that you're working together with your council or group. Yeah, you will need to lobby sort of your issues that you are promoting or you're advocating sorry, promoting is the wrong word, but the issues that you're advocating for you need to get buy-in from the council officers. You need to get buy-in from your councillor colleagues. So there's there's definitely a strong element of you being able to work together with you within your councillor group as well. A lot of the times, I guess, you get support. Yeah, you know, all of us are there sort of in the interest of the community. So when there's when, when you've got a voice within the table that is saying that there's a group of people that need this or something like that, then there's a discussion. It goes through a process. We do get support a lot of the time. Sometimes it doesn't, but that's just how it works.

Priyanka: 11:46

Yeah, yeah okay, how do people approach you? Like what, is there a channel to approach you? Or like do you actually directly work with the people or is this, is this something like there is a project and you look at it?

Sahana: 12:00

um, so many different avenues so people can reach out to me directly. They can just pick up the phone and ring me, right. So all of my details are on the website. So people reach out to me through mostly through the phone. They just pick up the phone and ring me and say there's a problem here and I need help, or they write emails, and that's another channel.

Sahana: 12:27

There's community forums that I attend. There's events that I attend within the community where we have conversations on a number of different topics. There could be something that comes out of those conversations as well. So multiple different channels, I guess, and you also need to act, invest as a counsellor in understanding your community as well. So I held so I chair the Smart Cities portfolio. So I ran Smart Cities summits where we discussed a number of issues, brainstormed about what are the possible solutions can be for a number of topics. We spoke about everything from AI to cybersecurity and there's a number of different things. But you know, even those forums act as great platforms to get feedback and insights from community as to what it is that they need. And there are some really smart people as well, right, and they give us great ideas, some of which we've implemented in projects. So yeah, so there's a number of avenues that way, that's awesome.

Priyanka: 13:38

As a woman from South Asian community, you know you've come a long way to becoming a city councillor, right? How did you navigate your way through to it, and did you actually face any gender or racial biases along the way?

Sahana: 13:54

So my experience has fairly been positive in terms of that. Well, I guess I've always had a positive outlook towards everything, and even when I approach people from different races, you know I'm quite open to learning about them, learning anything you know, anything that's new. I've always been that way and I've not really felt that you know something like that held me back through my experiences in the past. But there are, you know, of course. I've read through a number of instances within the media that have come through over the last decade or so, quoting instances of racism, but I guess what's really important in this aspect is to integrate with the existing communities, right as the newer generation of migrants. I guess we also need to take steps towards understanding other communities that have come here before us, and having that respect and having an open mind when we're engaging with people that are different to us in various aspects of our life here in Australia would actually smoothen out that process to a large extent.

Priyanka: 15:18

Yeah, and speaking of representation, right, so do you think there's enough representation for South Asian community out there in the government at the moment and do you see that improving down the line?

Sahana: 15:36

In politics? No. So, yes, if you think about the ratios and if you just look at numbers and if you go by that, then I don't think so.

Priyanka: 15:50

Because you know, men to women in in general corporate situation yes, there's obviously. There's less lesser leadership roles given to women, yes, and then on top of that, there's South Asian communities, right, yes, a brown girl? Yes, I don't know how much of that opportunity would, how many of us would be in the leadership position? Yes, right, yes, I always see that there's a gap there. Yes, but do you like? Yeah, no, I agree with you. Yes, I always see that there's a gap there. Yes, but do you like yeah, I hear you.

Sahana: 16:16

No, I absolutely agree with you, right? So there's this. I think we've come through a long journey in terms of bridging the gender gap. I see, and even the data shows as well, right, about 43% women in Victoria, for example, within the cabinet. Yes, there's, there's a lot more improvement that needs to be made, especially catering to the culturally and linguistically diverse communities and, as you know, women from the South Asian or Southeast Asian backgrounds.

Sahana: 16:48

There's still a long way to go in terms of us having that seat at the table or representation, even in politics, and, and, and you know, I strongly, strongly believe that anybody that's, you know, I'm the only elected Indian, you know, elected representative of Indian origin well, in Victoria at the moment, and that's that's not, you know, that doesn't that's not representation of the numbers that we have here in Victoria.

Sahana: 17:16

So, pushing our own communities. There's a lot of amazing women that are there that want to run for politics, and some of my own friends ran for state elections in the past, over the last five years. But I guess there's room for improvement and there are steps that are being taken and and as, and I think, as I said, right, we always find a way. We've just got that, we're driven and we'll always find opportunities, but we also need the right support as well. We need support networks, we need people that have done this in the past, you know, encouraging more women from our communities to stand up, have that confidence to say yes, I can give this a go and I deserve it. Right, I think there's a lot of things we can do to improve the situation. Yeah.

Priyanka: 18:06

Do you see a lot of women from our community coming up to take part in elections or be part of the council?

Sahana: 18:11

So the council elections are coming up in take part in elections or be part of the council. So the council elections are coming up in October this year, right, and we had a candidate information session that was held and there was only I think I could count them there's probably about three women from diverse backgrounds that were there wanting to learn more about the council and elections and what it means to be a councillor. Three out of Three out of, I think about 30 people, I guess. So that's still a very low number. There needs to be more awareness of what it means to be a councillor and how is it going to add value to our own communities.

Sahana: 18:54

And diverse representation in decision-making is so important, right, because if we don't have a seat at the table, we don't have our representatives in the government, in politics, representing us. When policies and decisions that are being made that will affect us and generations, our own generations, in the future, we need to have a say in it, and that's so important. So, yeah, so I'd sort of encourage all women from our background right, to think about it and think how we can. This leadership, I guess, comes in many different forms and all of us have something to give. All of us can contribute significantly. It's about trying to find out what it is that you can do within your own backyards, in your own local communities. You don't even think big. I mean you know there's federal state opportunities, senate there's so much more you can do in the political realm.

Priyanka: 19:53

Yeah, I mean it's probably the unknownity or probably the profile, the high profile sort of a kind of nature of the job probably put some people back. There's obviously there's a fear of kind of not knowing, fear of kind of not knowing.

Priyanka: 20:13

Yeah, fear of rejections not knowing things or maybe I'm not good enough to be there.

Priyanka: 20:17

That's probably it. Most of them would probably come from that angle and the other people would probably be okay. Politics is not my my cup of tea. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I think it's a call for people to actually, you know, go forward, you know, put your foot forward into that as well, and represent. If you are a leader by default, you can actually do it right. Yes, absolutely yeah, and obviously there's a lot of learning they'll have to do, but I think the first step is to actually be involved.

Sahana: 20:47

I guess yes, and you know making up your mind is probably half the battle. So if, if you can get to a point where you can say yes, yes, I want to, you know, I want to give it a go, then you know half the battle is won and you can, and from that point on the journey is much easier. So that's what I've seen that just the confidence having that confidence to to you to proceed and give it a go, has held back so many people around that I see.

Priyanka: 21:18

I'm really hoping after watching the episode some ladies will feel like they're empowered? Yes, I hope they're motivated. So how do you engage with diverse communities as part of City Council

Priyanka: 21:29

?

Sahana: 21:30

So there are multiple ways of engaging with them. So we do have regular forums where we bring in representatives from multiple diverse communities to talk about a number of important topics, whether it's health, roads, sustainability, you know, and all other services that the council provides in terms of understanding their needs. We bring them together quite regularly, just engage with them, understand what their needs are. That's one way where we actively engage. There's online surveys and tools that definitely make a big difference. The feedback is very important. Yes, we're doing work, but we need to hear from the community whether or not we're doing the right thing and if it meets their needs. So getting that consistent feedback loop and regular feedback is very important.

Sahana: 22:23

So we do run surveys quite regularly as well, and we do run, you know, we, we publish reports that people can read, that that talk to the performance of the council what, what have we done, and you know it's a quarterly report that we done how have we performed, and you know getting feedback through, and we also publish the feedback that we've got from the community as well. So that it's it's, it's. It's quite a good yeah, good process that way, and that's one aspect of sort of it from a governance standpoint, but there are amazing events that run in the city as well. Right, so we've got Wyndham Diwali as a fantastic event. It's that's quite famous it is.

Sahana: 23:09

It is A lot of people. We have Wyndham Holi, we have Wyndham Diwali, lots of these large multicultural events that bring people together and, you know, engage, celebrate our culture, you know, and, and, and those. Those are some great avenues as well for us to engage. So we, we absolutely don't miss any of them, so we do try and make it to these events as well, and that's a fantastic opportunity for us to engage with a large group of people there yeah, I mean, like you said, you need to feel at home.

Priyanka: 23:42

Yes, how can you know, as leaders, how can you make sure that your community is feeling at home? Yes, some of these things for Indians, like you know Vrindam, diwali, holi, all of these things. So probably does the decisions of like you know what events should be held, and things like that. Would that depend on the population of the council, like where's your majority of population? Or like how does it happen?

Sahana: 24:07

so there's no real restrictions, right? So anybody can run an event basically as long as. As long as you meet the criteria and rules that are set by the council, anybody can, can form an organization. Anybody can actually put together an event, big or small doesn't matter. So I mean, through the year we've got hundreds of events that are run by various different communities. I mean, yes, the Indian diaspora, indian community within Wyndham is huge. So you can see that, come through and you know all Indian festivals are celebrated as an example and we all get invited to that and you know it's fun, it's a fantastic experience.

Priyanka: 24:52

Yeah, lovely.

Priyanka: 24:53

How about your? You know, in a day to day as a city councillor, like, do you have like challenges in you in focusing on, say, a few issues coming your way or there's a conflict? There can be a lot of challenges dealing with your work as a city councillor as well as managing your other side of the things, which is your business or whatever it is. How do you balance?

Sahana: 25:20

as a counselor, I think navigating the intricacies of local government and still, you know, still coming up with innovative ways of providing solutions. And and I think I touched on this right we've got a massive, growing, rapidly growing community and it's a diverse community and it's always very challenging to make sure that everybody's needs are met. As an example, in Poncuk there's people that are speaking I think there's about 80 languages. I think the diversity is massive, which means the needs are so diverse, which means we need to cater to all those needs and pleasing everybody at the same time. Right, it's always difficult prioritizing what's important.

Sahana: 26:14

We go through extensive processes through our budget cycle. You know to understand where is it. You know what's most valuable to the community, where should we put the money. You know what projects are we going to do for the next year. One of those things is actually quite as much as rewarding as it is, it is quite challenging as well. So I would say those are some of the challenges, and politics is tumultuous by nature. You're dealing with a lot of complex conversations, you're dealing with complex situations and, as you are aware, there's an element of politics in all aspects of our life. But when you look at government and you're in public service. It's.

Priyanka: 27:08

It's quite different yeah, yeah, I mean, I know nothing about politics, to be honest, but I'm learning a lot from you as we speak. So, like you know, when you have become a city councillor yes, right, you would obviously receive a lot of requests, and some of them could be, like you know, funny, or probably not applicable at all. How do you actually deal with them?

Sahana: 27:32

Well, I mean, my job is to listen to people and I do right, so you have to sort of engage and listen to people and a lot of the times, there are requests that come through that are not relevant or not my purview, so I can't have any influence on some of the decisions or issues that they raise with me. You know, the first thing we do is obviously to point them to our local member or the federal member, you know, just so that they can help them navigate. I get a lot of requests on visa issues, as an example, right on, which I can't do anything about absolutely nothing. I've got no influence over it. So I just point them to our federal member and she's been great. So they help us out with these kind of requests.

Sahana: 28:22

And yeah, it's this there's been a lot of instances where you know, people have just turned up to my house, as an example, they they sometimes ask you to fix their family problems as well, relationships issues, this. There's a lot that they come to you with which is, I mean, it's fantastic to see, it's great to see that, but you really need to sort of point them to the right people that can help them. And, yes, I can maybe provide counsel as a friend, yeah, but you know, so it's quite important, I guess, to pass them on to someone with the right skills that can help them.

Priyanka: 29:06

So, before we wrap up, what is your advice for the women, especially from the minority backgrounds, who are aspiring to go into leadership roles in communities? You know to step forward.

Sahana: 29:19

I would say embrace your identity and make it your source of strength. The journey to politics or a position in a government may not be necessarily easy, but, as I said right, there's immense talent and there's a lot of women that I have come across that have, you know, great abilities to do this job and do it extremely well. So having that confidence and making sure that you believe in your abilities is quite important. I would also say speak up, take risks and don't be afraid to advocate for what you truly believe in. Staying focused on engaging with your community. Understanding your community is very important, so I guess I would say that would be a great starting point. And, lastly, I would say, leadership comes in many different forms and all of us have the ability to make a significant impact.

Sahana: 30:17

So just go for it. That's a great advice, to be honest, and thank you so much for attending this show, and your journey is truly inspiring and your dedication to your community, as well as leadership, is commendable. Thank you so much. Thank you, you're very kind, thank you.