CHAT SESSION 132 with Mietta

Topic- Slow down, listen, and come home to awe, gratitude, and childlike wonder - in yourself, in one another, and in place.

Monday 17^th November 2025 1pm https://rppfm.com.au

When Mietta stood under the sparkling fairy lights and green tendrils at Commonfolk Mornington after launching her first headline show and debut single "Slowly," she noticed something she hadn't quite expected. People weren't filtering out into the night. They were lingering, caught up in conversations with strangers who'd somehow stopped being strangers over the course of the evening. The room held a special warmth that happens when a performance becomes something more - when the music creates a doorway and people walk through it.

And increasingly, that's what drives her work: not just creating beautiful music but understanding how to cultivate spaces where genuine connection and change become possible.

Roots and Rhythms

That instinct for creating spaces for connection and transformation has roots in Mietta's upbringing on Boonwurrung Country, along the Mornington Peninsula coastline. When Mietta and her mum first moved to the Peninsula, the pair lived with her grandparents from a young age. Her grandfather, a landscape artist savouring his surroundings in oil and watercolour, and her creative and kind-hearted grandmother offered her a different pace of life - a different way of seeing. "Living with my grandparents gave me the lived experience of understanding that knowledge and care move between generations in ways that aren't always visible," Mietta reflects. "It deeply shaped who I am, how I show up in the world, and what I value."

Her mother, Georgia Symmons - a future guest on The Daily Mirror herself - spent years working in the for-purpose sector, showing Mietta early on that work could be about service, not just personal success.

Mietta's musical journey began even earlier than most realise. She's been playing music publicly since her teenage years - earlier if you count busking at the Mindil Beach Markets as young as seven years old while her mother was working in the Northern Territory. 

Over the past decade, she's frequented venues, breweries, wineries, restaurants, cafes, community functions, markets, and charity events across the Peninsula and beyond. "There was something really special about those first years of busking every weekend between school days," she reminisces. "The joy of meeting new people and communities in places I hadn't spent so much time in. The energy, the coming together of people, the warmth of smells and sounds. I valued how it was all kindness and generosity based."

Building her craft gig by gig, she's supported Pete Murray, shared stages with Kim Churchill, Lior, Domini, Charm of Finches, Maxon, Lachie Gill, and Chris Cavill, co-headlined the Ninch Nights series organized by local duo Sunday Lemonade, and played festivals from Penola Coonawarra to Seven Sisters.

But somewhere along the way, the questions got bigger. "I started wondering: what if music could do more than create a moment?" Mietta says. "What if gathering people together could actually shift something - in how we see each other, how we relate to place, how we show up in community?"

When Education Shapes Art

These questions didn't emerge in isolation. Alongside her music, Mietta has been doing serious work in education and systems change. Through Culture College and Learning Creates Australia, she's been part of supporting young Australians to learn alongside First Nations leaders and wisdom in active reconciliation, as well as youth-led research influencing how we recognise young people's learning beyond traditional metrics.

Her time with the Earthwatch Australia Agents of Change for the Environment program deepened this thinking further. The "Hearts & Hands" event she organized in collaboration with Living Culture, The Revillaging Project, and Hyphae Co-Creates in December 2024 demonstrated how environmental stewardship and community connection are two expressions of the same question about how we want to live on this earth.

This systems-level awareness shapes her artistic practice. She understands that transformation happens when you create intentional spaces where different kinds of encounter become possible.

Building the Vision

"Slowly," released in May 2024 and produced by fellow musician Timothy Li, was the first public indication of these deeper questions. "It's a love song to self," Mietta explains, "but one that came from conversations with women and communities I've encountered. The message is simple: if you offer compassion and action for the world, you need to offer yourself compassion and grace first."

In November 2024 came "Beyond the Past" with producer Damien Cafarella, in collaboration with Chris Cavill - another past guest on The Daily Mirror. Cafarella brought both technical excellence and creative openness, supporting Mietta in her growth from performing to recording artist.

In March 2025, Mietta participated in the inaugural Australian Matrescence Festival, serving as a musical bridge between speakers and panels. Then came May 2025 and "Childlike Wondering" - the second single with Cafarella and the first of the "When The Water Stills" gatherings. The sold-out launch at local community space and bio-dynamic farm, The Revillaging Project, tested whether a storytelling gathering centered around the theme of "Awe & Gratitude" for people and place could create transformation. The way people lingered and shared afterward suggested yes.

When The Water Stills

"When The Water Stills" - Mietta's seven-track EP and four-part storytelling series - is the fullest expression of this philosophy. Supported by a Mornington Peninsula Performing Arts Development Grant, it weaves together live music, storytelling, and diverse voices including local creatives, land stewards, First Nations custodians, and guest storytellers.

The project draws on Joanna Macy's "Work That Reconnects" framework - a spiral journey through Coming From Gratitude, Honouring Our Pain for the World, Seeing With New/Ancient Eyes, and Going Forth. Each of Mietta's four gatherings aligns with these stages, exploring Awe & Gratitude, Intergenerational Wisdom Among Women, Communing with People & Place, and Individual & Shared Responsibility - navigating an expression of the spiral journey together.

Throughout 2025, Mietta worked with Cafarella to complete the EP. "I felt this really expansive feeling as an artist," she reflects, "hearing and feeling these stories come to life. There's something about collaboration that opens up possibilities you can't access alone."

The songs are now finished, with three more gatherings planned from summer into autumn of 2026. "I'm so grateful for the Shire's support," Mietta says. "It's been transformative - not just in making the project financially viable, but in what it represents. It's an investment in local artists and storytellers who have a vision for how art can activate community, support local gathering spaces, and bring awareness to the incredible work happening around sustainability and change on the Peninsula. This grant gave me the resources and confidence to bring 'When The Water Stills' to life as a series of gatherings, not just a collection of songs."

What Changes

Participants at Mietta's gatherings report something hard to quantify but unmistakable: a felt sense of belonging, a remembering of what it means to be in authentic relationship with Self, others and place, and most profoundly, a shift in how they see their role in caring for this as a continued movement.

"What I've seen at these gatherings is people recognising themselves, their home, and one another differently," Mietta observes. "Not just as audience members, but as co-creators of culture, as holders of stories that matter, as people capable of meaningful contribution."

As her debut EP prepares to release, what's becoming clear is that Mietta represents something important in Australian contemporary folk: a generation of artists refusing to separate creativity from care, individual expression from collective wellbeing, artistic excellence from social responsibility.

Beyond the three remaining gatherings in 2026, Mietta is already thinking about what comes next. "I'm curious about how this model could support other artists and communities," she says. "What if we created more spaces like this? What if the Peninsula became known not just for its natural beauty, but as a place where art actively strengthens community bonds and environmental care? There are so many incredible groups and individuals activating this kind of movement. What if we celebrated and ran with the momentum?"

For those who've experienced her work, they carry away the knowledge that another way of being together is possible. "Art can serve transformation," Mietta says simply. "Gathering can change us. And sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is slow down, show up, and trust the tapestry taking shape among us."

Follow Mietta's journey and find upcoming event details at @mietta.music on Instagram and Facebook. For event documentaries and videos, find her on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@miettamusicau.

You can find her music via streaming services - Tidal, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud and more. Current releases are “Slowly”, “Beyond the Past”,

and “Childlike Wondering”. More to be released in 2026.

My hope is that when you’re looking at yourself in the

‘The Daily Mirror’

YOU SMILE

EMBRACE BEING YOU

AND FIND 10 MINUTES IN YOUR DAY TO NOURISH YOUR SOUL!

To get in touch with Cathy email smileinthedailymirror@gmail.com 

'The Daily Mirror' acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present.