Casually quiz Dr Sumant Badami about his CV, and the Kiama resident can enthusiastically reel off a lengthy list of recent activities.
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Dr Badami, known to most as ‘Monty’ is an anthropologist who gained his PhD from Macquarie University.
In addition to being an educator, the 43-year-old is also a public speaker, civil marriage celebrant, jazz singer, martial arts instructor (of taekidokai) and is currently training to become an officer in the Australian Army Reserves.
“Anthropology is really just the study of humans, and I’m fascinated by humanity and all its forms,” he said.
“This is kind of why I do lots of different things, because humans, we’re variable, and we like to do lots of different things.
“I find myself much more geared towards doing lots of different things because they appeal to different parts of my personality.
“We’re all complex personalities. We’re not just one thing – we’re not just a man, a father, a friend.
“We’re all these things and more. Our identity intersects, and it’s fluid and relational.”
Dr Badami was born in Australia to Indian parents, and later spent a period travelling.
“The more places I visited and the more different people I met, the more inspired I was to explore our humanity and diversity,” he said.
Dr Badami said he’d had a long-time interest in anthropology, but initially didn’t think there was a job in it.
“There still isn’t – I had to make one,” he laughed.
In 2006, his PhD studies resulted in him living with the Paniya, a marginalised indigenous ethnic group in south India, on-and-off for a three-year period.
“They were slaves until quite recently,” he said.
“It was learning about their life... Learning about how they were able to keep waking up every morning in a world where everyone’s telling them how to be, how to live and what to do.
“They’re beyond the margins, they’re not even on the caste system.
“I was trying to understand how they were able to remain resilient through that, and looking at the different political, social and historical dynamics that affected it.”
These days, Dr Badami is working closer to home; he’s interested in how change happens in schools and communities.
“I work with men and boys, using my anthropological knowledge to challenge the norms of toxic masculinity as well as other stereotypes of class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and race,” he said.
A year ago, the father of two started a social enterprise, Habitus, whereby he works with young people, parents, schools and communities.
Dr Badami said Habitus is focused on providing “lifehacks to be a good human”.
They run bush camps, creative programs, training and consultancy.
Dr Badami’s also an Honorary Associate at Macquarie University, a core faculty member at The School of Life in Sydney and co-presents a podcast called The Meaning of….
One of his goals is to “make anthropology a household name”.
“People know psychology, people kind of know sociology, but when I say I’m an anthropologist, people say, ‘oh, you dig up stuff then’.
“They don’t really understand, and I would to love to be... ‘Who’s Dr Monty Badami? Oh, he’s that anthropology guy’, and have people know what that means.”