Kindling and Sage Magazine: Natalia Garcia on finding joy in solidarity and collaboration

In the midst of a global pandemic and without any formal journalism, publishing or design experience, Natalia Garcia launched the Kindling and Sage website.

Five months later, she was hitting print on the first issue.

Almost at the one-year mark the print and digital platform – which centres the voices of non-white women and gender-diverse people – has a third issue in the works.

Natalia says she picked the theme joy – with a subtitle of food, love and community – for the upcoming issue, because she wanted to start the new year thinking about the “spaces of joy” created by “coming together and supporting each other”.

Finding joy during a global crisis, while also dealing with entrenched, systemic issues (such as racism and classism), is not easy, Natalia says.

There are also so many different interpretations of joy – and it doesn’t mean being happy all the time, and it doesn’t mean we don’t care about all the stuff that’s going on.
Natalia Garcia

Through critique, opinion, features and art, the previous issues have aimed to foster a “safe space to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and perspectives” – the kind of space that Natalia was missing when she set out to launch the magazine.

I wanted to replicate those spaces of trust and safety where you’re held by your community and you become stronger because of it.
Natalia Garcia

The platform strives to “push further” by “building a fire” and the Kindling section does just that. It showcases, among various other content, a group interview – one of two feature interviews – called “around the kitchen table”.

The idea is to recreate that warm, safe space where I’ve had some of the best conversations in my life – with my grandma, and my mum and aunties.
Natalia Garcia

Natalia speaks with Radio Adelaide’s Festival City about all of this and more (including a birthday raffle), ahead of the release of the third issue.

The first issue of Kindling and Sage is now available to read online for free and the second issue is available to purchase in print or digital format.