Reading Radio interview

[Music]

[voiceover] Amazing Australians and the story of their lives.

You're tuned to Lots to Chat About with Rosemary Peterswald [Music]

Hello listeners and once again welcome. My guest today is Peter Archer who worked with Vision Australia for 10 years and is the founder of Beyond Vision.

Peter who is sight impaired and has other challenges to face, founded this community for those like him who are sight impaired.

It allows people to socialise and be involved in various activities like outings to museums and galleries, concerts, plays or just going to a cafe or a restaurant for a meal and a catchup.

Peter's goal is to create an easygoing atmosphere where people can feel comfortable to be themselves, it's a non-judgemental environment that is welcoming and supportive and his key strengths are compassion, empathy, open-mindedness and building rapport.

(Rosemary)

So welcome Peter

(Peter)

Hello Rosemary thank you for having me

(Rosemary)

It's a pleasure. Now Peter you told me you have an eye condition named Stargardt is it?

(Peter)

Yeah that's right how you said

(Rosemary)

Which is sort of a form of muscular generation,

but you also have a couple of other challenges

to face as well which one of them being a bone

disease which you said which makes your bones

sort of didn't grow completely, so that's sort

of a double whammy isn't it to be hit with.

(Peter)

a bit of a mixed bag

(Rosemary)

yes, but looking at you, you look particularly fit and well and and whatever,

so you've obviously managed to overcome those setbacks.

(Peter)

Thank you for painting that picture for the audience appreciate that.

But yeah you know it was difficult at the time and I think anybody who gets diagnosed with any type of condition, I mean there's a, you do go through stages of you know discomfort it's almost like going through the stages of grief, I guess you don't really believe it's happening at first and then you know the anger sets in and and so on and so forth ... and yeah it was challenging for a long time but I always felt like I wanted to to make something of my life I didn't want it to get the better of me.

(Rosemary)

Right how old were you Peter when your your eyesight started to deteriorate?

(Peter)

I first started noticing it when I was about eight or nine, but I always tell people that I was able to read a book one day and the next day it was like very difficult for me to read, but now that I think about it more you don't just lose your eyesight overnight like that so I guess it was gradually building up until that point until I actually did notice it.

(Rosemary)

Yes different to Paul isn't it Paul, with you because Paul was actually born with sight impairment and so it's a a different kettle of fish you knew what it was like didn't you to be able to to see?

(Peter) Yes I don't really remember

what it what it was like but yeah

(Rosemary)

You were very young

(Peter)

Yes I think so

(Rosemary)

So Peter what inspired you to start Beyond Vision I know as we said that you worked with Vision Australia for many many years and then you decided that you'd start Beyond Vision, so what inspired you to do that?

(Peter)

I was working at Vision Australia as a community support worker for about nine years and running a whole bunch of you know different social groups from walking groups to special interests groups where I would try to teach my clients skills and look up more information about topics they were interested in. I ran a cooking class for a very long time and a whole handful of groups and even through COVID we did Zoom groups which was really interesting, and then unfortunately I was made redundant, all the community support workers were at the time, which was a bit of a shock and I was given a couple of options from Vision Australia to work for other organisations and even a couple of roles at Vision Australia itself and I guess there was this feeling of maybe I just I would like to see if I could do this for myself and I you know I really wanted to continue on with with the work I'd been doing and and continue on supporting the clients that I had been supporting for such a long time so I just thought let's try this, let's see how this goes.

(Rosemary)

So was that in Brisbane, are you a Brisbane man?

(Peter)

I'm a Brisbane man, I grew up in Sandgate, North side of Brisbane beautiful place right by the water

(Rosemary)

Lovely so when you worked for Vision Australia you were working out of Brisbane?

(Peter)

I lived in a few different locations so I was living in Fortitude Valley for a little bit right next to the Jubilee very very loud I don't recommend it, and then I met my to be wife and we we lived in Eight Mile Plains for a bit, and then moved to Carina Heights where we're currently living. So it wasn't too bad just like a bus and a train it's a pretty common story with a lot of vision impaired and blind people you know, you just got to do what you got to do.

(Rosemary)

Absolutely and tell me now you've got a son?

(Peter)

Yes his name is Ethan he's three years old

(Rosemary)

Oh lovely.

So just going back to starting Beyond Vision, gosh where where did you sort of well where did you start?

(Peter)

Well it was first coming up with the name, the name came to me at like two o'clock in the morning

(Rosemary)

It's a great name really

(Peter)

Yeah thank you, and I told my wife about it the next day and you know she was excited but we were a little bit apprehensive cause I've never run my own business before. but I assured her that I was in a very lucky position where Vision Australia allowed me to continue working with the the clients that I was supporting at Vision Australia because they weren't doing that type of service themselves. So luckily a few clients came on board straight away.

And just sort of took it from there and the idea behind it was I often say in a lot of my videos that I put up on Facebook that we're creating unique experiences because there are a lot of community support workers out there and you got to try and stand out somehow so you know there's a lot of people doing what I do, taking people out to different places but what's different about Beyond Vision is that we're all living a you know a shared experience, we're all living what the experience of having a disability is like. I have that experience so that creates a kind of kinship between myself and my clients which you wouldn't necessarily find anywhere else, I mean that's something you can't really learn in University or anything like that, it's just

(Rosemary)

Exactly, you've really got to experience what it's like to be living like that. You sound as though when you go out, and I watched a video where you're all having an absolute ball and music of course is is very much a part. But you go to galleries you go to all sorts of different places, it sounds as though it's a a wonderful organisation to be part of.

(Peter)

Yeah I believe my my clients are having a very good time and I'm having a good time as well so if the the support worker is having you know equally a good time it makes the biggest difference.

So part of my role at Vision Australia was doing a lot of research into Friday outings and so I've got like years of outings up on the website and I'm always looking for different out of the box sort of things to do as I said before unique things to do so.

You know recently we've been to places like Shark and Ray Nursery out at Loganholme where you get to go in a a wading pool and a gentleman who's had a lot of experience around sharks and different marine life, he'll introduce you to these these sharks and stingrays which have been rescued from nearby areas and apparently they're debarbed I believe that ... I hope so [laughter]

(Rosemary)

Nobody was eaten

(Peter)

No and yeah he talks all about sharks and and gives you a whole sort of great rich information and history about you know his organisation and marine life in general so that was just one outing. And before that I took a client to a place in West End called TH7 Body Lab which it was sort of like a Wellness Spa sort of place, so you spend 20 minutes in a sauna and then you spend 3 minutes in a cold plunge pool which is like negative 12 degrees then you go into a a hot pool back into the cold plunge, into a steamer for 20 minutes then back into the cold plunge. So different things like that I'm always trying to look up new ideas and make it interesting.

(Rosemary)

Absolutely and wonderful sensations and whatever, but just going back to music you go to concerts and we were talking about that actually last week I had Mary Dickinson on our show who is what's called an influencer and has lots of followers on social media but we were talking about the importance of music and adding music to any things that we actually sort of put on Facebook or or Instagram or whatever and it came across yes how important music is for those people that are sight impaired so going to concerts must be a wonderful thing.

(Peter)

I completely agree I mean some of the concerts that I've gone to recently of clients with, you know we're both, we don't know what to expect from the concert and when we walk away from it we're just, you know we're amazed we're feeling much lighter and happier and we're talking about all our favourite moments in the concert and it creates this really nice bonding experience between myself and whoever I'm supporting there is something so powerful about music and luckily a few of the people that support me.

I have an amazing volunteer named Tom Culleton who ...

(Rosemary)

Irish Tom

(Peter)

Irish Tom yes he's amazing on the acoustic guitar loves his blues music so we'll often go out for barbecues like at the Colmslie Park Reserve or something like that and he'll just pick up the guitar and start playing a couple of songs and if he doesn't know a song he'll learn it right then and there and and you could, you should see just everybody just get up and dance and start singing and it's just, it's a wonderful thing to see

(Rosemary)

How wonderful why is he called Major Tom too was he in the army?

(Peter)

No, it's after the David Bowie song

(Rosemary)

Oh okay [laughter]

of course. As our listeners would know when I spoke to Paul earlier on a few weeks ago, Paul also, you play a number of instruments don't you Paul and how important music is to your life?

(Paul)

I certainly do I pick up just about anything and have a go at it, I haven't done the bag pipes yet but

(Peter)

There's still time (Paul) one day (Peter) still time

(Rosemary)

It is amazing, well it's not amazing it's just wonderful that music is so much a part of well all of our lives, I must admit the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is turn the music on and it's on all through the day and until we go to to bed at night, and so it is very much part.

But now Peter just going back to what we were talking about social media and how sort of people that are sight impaired are able to interact, which brings me to I mean how do you sort of contact everybody when you're telling them you've got a wonderful function lined up or whatever do you do it on social media or do you do it by phone call or do you do it in other ways?

(Peter)

All of those ways really, I post a lot of things up on on Facebook so I'll just let people know what's coming up and I'll also show them videos after the events so if they saw an outing that they liked then I let them know that they can contact me if they'd like to do it themselves. I put it all up on my website as well so www.peterarcherbeyondvision.com so a lot of stuff goes up there. And I also just call around so just see, I get a pretty good idea about what interests my clients so when something comes up that I know that they'll enjoy I just just call them up and say you know it's on this certain day would you like to come along would you like it to be an individual activity or would you like it to be a group activity.

(Rosemary)

Right and do you pick them up or do you have a sort of certain meeting point where you meet or does Major Tom pick them up and what happens there?

(Peter)

Major Tom helps out with, we do Friday outings once a fortnight so he'll do all the picking up for those outings. I also work alongside another company called would Love To Assist who's run by James Copsey and Chris Smith, wonderful wonderful people they do a great job as well so sometimes we'll do joint outings and they call it the milk run, they'll go around and they'll pick everybody up and we'll split the cost of you know how much the fuel would cost and that he has a way of taking it out of all of our packages.

I'll sometimes hire a support worker to pick me up and to take me to my client's homes to possibly pick my client up and take us to a nearby train station or public transport of some sort, so that's another way of doing it or just catching taxis and and adding that to the invoice at the end.

(Rosemary)

But you also have a number of sort of Zoom groups don't you as well which they do things like trivia and spelling bees and comedy R and book club and a podcast group?

(Peter)

That was when I was working at Vision Australia but I would love to get the Zoom groups up again, if that does interest anybody I mean they're so much fun you can do them from you know the peace and quiet of of your own home and it's just a great easygoing way to to catch up with like-minded people and to have fun at the same time so that's something I'll be looking at in the next couple of weeks setting something like that up.

(Rosemary)

Oh that sounds wonderful, now you're listening to Lots to Chat about I'm Rosemary Peterswald and my guest today is Peter Archer founder of Beyond Vision

[Music]

(Rosemary) You did say that

with the NDIS being a little bit tougher now it makes things a little bit fragile with Beyond Vision is that right, and things can be well a bit tough?

(Peter)

Yeah I think it's, I think the NDIS are sort of cracking down on everyone it seems, everyone I speak to is NDIS funded which I guess is is fair enough, more and more people are going on the NDIS everyday and they don't have you know a limitless source of of money so I guess that they do have to do these things even though that we think that they're unfair at the time, so I just have to be very conscious of how I spend my funding and how my clients spend their funding as well they can't just go to concerts all the time they need people to come in and maybe support them with cleaning and other necessary things. So it's just about being mindful and and not sort of exhausting anybody's funds including my own

(Rosemary)

Exactly and you need to sort of stand out in a in a different way don't you because as you've said there is sort of support workers coming out and saying well they can do a similar sort of thing but as you've said before they're not actually living with the conditions that you are and being able to be, well so much part of it all rather than sort of looking from the outside it's a totally different thing isn't it?

(Peter)

And that's what I'm really trying to promote I mean like you said there's support workers coming out of the wazoo but as far as people that have the lived experience of disability we're a smaller group we're a smaller group of people and I think that is such an asset for this type of industry. I mean I can't tell you what it's like when I first meet a a client it just it feels like this instant connection because we've both had our struggles and we're both trying to get through them the best that we can and we acknowledge that in each other we appreciate that in each other and we just want to support each other to live the best lives that we can whatever that looks like

(Rosemary)

Exactly now Peter you've travelled a lot and you've been to Peru where you attended ayahuasca retreats in the Amazon jungle now. My daughter Charlotte actually belonged for many years and still does to Mind Medicine Australia, and Mind Medicine Australia were very active and proactive in getting it made legal ayahuasca that is in Australia, but anyway tell us a little bit about your trip to Peru and how it's helped you because it's been a wonderful wonderful thing for people suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress hasn't it?

(Peter)

Yeah and I think it's becoming more and more popular, I mean if you ask a GP about it they'll call it iausha or something like that, it's not quite with it's not quite in that sphere but it is becoming more and popular like I said. So I didn't just go over there on a whim I was facing quite a lot of difficulties in my life at the time, I was diagnosed with major depression but you know thinking back on those times if you go in and you tell a specialist that you know you, you've got an eyesight condition a bone condition you know there's depression in the family, of course they're going to be you know thinking like that. So that label didn't really serve me but it took me a little while to rise above and I put in a lot of hard work. I listened to many self-help books listened to philosophers, I learned more about why you know, why people do the things they do by doing courses like Lifeline Crisis Core counselings social work I did some things at TAFE as well just trying to learn more about you know myself and and how can I navigate this, how can I find that light at the end of the tunnel that everybody's talking about.

And then a friend of mine mentioned ayahuasca and I looked into that and he did a lot of research into you know the the safest places to do it. And a lot of those places were in the Amazon so a long trip to get over there something like 35, 40 hours you know three or four stop offs along the way and it was amazing for me it was an amazing experience and it's exactly what I needed and and I couldn't tell you the, you know the scientific way that it all works but I can let you know that it's an an ancient tradition I mean

(Rosemary)

Is it the magic mushrooms from beyond I mean from from a while ago?

(Peter)

The Beyond Vision magic mushrooms [laughter]

No no no, it's different to that so ayahuasca is, they use two particular trees the roots of the trees plus some other ingredients and the brewing process takes some time it can take a day it can take longer and it's an ancient tradition so I went about a Shipibo version of the tradition and they don't take it light-heartedly. I mean there's a ceremony that's put in place you know there's intentions that are put in place, they are very caring people they treat you like their children and it's challenging to describe how I felt but if I could tell you that after the number of ceremonies that I did, I just walked away feeling lighter I had all these insights into my life and I felt like there was a place for me in this world, I felt valued I've valued myself more ... I just it was amazing, and I came back and and people noticed that I was smiling more and you know I was just just so, like I said before I was so much lighter and and just saw life as just it was magical again for me you know and it encouraged me to do things that you know I would, I would never have done before like ...

(Rosemary)

How long ago was it that when you went actually?

(Peter)

Just before I met my wife actually so the last time I went was about five or six years ago

(Rosemary)

Right, I've watched a number of movies through Mind Medicine Australia and through Charlotte and it is an extraordinary thing particularly with ex-servicemen who come back from war in Afghanistan or even going back as far as Vietnam where my husband was. Where they have managed to help people tremendously by the use of ayahuasca and to watch some people who were so traumatised before and then come out the other end, it's quite an amazing thing really.

(Peter)

I've seen it yeah and it also helps people who have had difficulties with alcohol and drugs and all sorts of abuse and things like that and they sing these songs during the ceremony they're called Icaros's and to just listen to them, they just sound like these lovely Spanish songs that are by themselves just listening to that is is a healing thing. But I recently found out that those songs are actually like a set of instructions and it was described to us, like imagine say like a a dentist you're going to see a dentist appointment so if the dentist was to say everything that he was doing he would be saying like "Okay I'm going to open your mouth now, I'm going to clean your teeth I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that" that's what the the songs if you translate them to English actually are, they're like a set of instructions but instead they're saying okay I'm going to enter your body now I can see where the pain is in your body I'm going to go about extracting that pain and so on and so forth, so it's fascinating how they do it.

(Rosemary)

It is an amazing thing and now as I say it is legal in in Australia which so if people do want to take part in it they don't actually have to go to the Amazon although that's quite an experience.

Now just going back to Beyond Vision are there people that are loathed to come and join your outings that they they feel sort of at home and they feel in a little bit of a cocoon and they're nervous about going out and meeting other people and whatever so how do you go about persuading them to come and join in?

(Peter)

That does happen from time to time and I guess I just got to gauge where that's coming from like if it's something that maybe they do need a little bit of time at home maybe there are some some real difficult things that they're going through with family or maybe they're just having a day where they do want to stay home but I guess eventually what I'll try to do is just gently encourage them and say that maybe it is time to go out, for you know for a little bit doesn't have ..

(Rosemary)

very therapeutic

(Peter)

yeah and that can be great, I mean just being outside you know it's interesting with the outings when we do them like when everyone hops in the car people are a little bit quiet a little bit reserved and as the day sort of goes on you know we're listening to to music that everybody likes in the car we're catching up asking each other how our week's been and and then when we get to the destination, say if we're going to Kirra Beach we're going for a walk along Kirra Beach we know we we're feeling the water with our with our feet as we're walking along and you can, you can see it's you can see them starting to you know starting to relax and you know this smile starts creeping up on their face and they you know you can see the transformation and by the end of the day I mean they're completely different from when they first started. And so just real basic stuff like just you know that's just the the day folding out naturally and then on top of that I'm just trying to be as positive as I can and I'm trying to create a light-hearted mood and we're joking around and we're you know sort o,f I'm also checking in with them in my own little way just seeing you know how they're doing making sure that everything's going okay in their lives

(Rosemary)

It's a wonderful wonderful thing that you're doing and watching going back to watching the video which I did of one of your outings there and it was obviously Irish Tom I would say playing guitar I think it was or whatever and you're all singing along and it just looks terrific fun

(Peter)

yeah yeah, and you know we'll order pizza and we'll have a little sing song like you, like you said and it's just really easy and really light and you know people can just feel comfortable being themselves they're not going to be judged they're just you know we will accept you for who you are, you know we're all we're all different and you know

(Rosemary)

We certainly are

(Peter)

and that's fine ... more than fine

(Rosemary)

Exactly and it's just a wonderful thing. But tell me now what's in the future for Beyond Vision have you got anything specific that's coming up that you'd like to tell our listeners about?

(Peter)

So there's some Zoom groups which I'll be working on but also I'd like to encourage people to have a look at joining us for our our Friday outings every second Friday so I team up with Love To Assist and we're going to places all across Brisbane you know we're up and down the coast, we're going to all you know, if you look on the website there's a whole list of outings there and we're going to zoos we're having barbecue, we went to the Chinese New Year not long ago so just things like that when events pop up and I think it's going to interest my clients I'll you know I'll advertise those. And so every second Friday we're going to do an outing and it's usually from about nine am to three pm. It includes morning tea, includes lunch, you do have to bring your own money along for that, it's just a fun day.

(Rosemary)

It sounds as though it's terrific fun and what about Peter Archer and his family have you got any sort of future things, I know Paul loves to go pack up the four-wheel drive and go camping and whatever, what have you got anything sort of planned?

(Peter)

Yeah well we'll probably head down to my wife's place in a little bit, down to Woolgoola to see her family so that's just before Coffs Harbor. That's a beautiful part of the world, so beaches and rainforests and things like that, so we like to catch up with Emma's family every now and again. Apart from that usually we try and go on holiday at the end of the year, so last year we went to Mermaid Waters this year maybe Bali who knows

(Rosemary)

Oh lovely well I must now tell our listeners again that is the best way to contact you is peterarcherbeyondvision.com or can they ring you on on the phone I've got a phone number here is that okay to give out it's of course 0412 406 869

I'll just repeat those peterarcherbeyondvision.com or by phone on 0412 406 869

(Peter)

And you can also email me on peter_archer_beyondvision@outlook.com and you can follow me on Facebook by typing in Peter Archer Beyond Vision. That's where I post a lot of videos and and things like that

(Rosemary)

Lovely! Well sadly we are running out of time Peter but it's been an absolute pleasure to have you here and to hear more about Beyond Vision which is a wonderful community group for those with sight impairment and thank you so so much for joining us today

(Peter)

Thank you Rosemary and thank you with your help also with promoting the Beyond Vision barbecue that went really well. We we had 63 people come on that day because of your assistance which was a a record number for Link Vision so thank you!

(Rosemary)

How terrific, well thank you Peter and thank you Paul once more

[music]

[voiceover] great friends and great chats that was another Lots to Chat About with Rosemary Peterswald .

Stay tuned next week for another amazing chat

[Music]