Contemporary Indigenous run arts space, Blak Dot Gallery presents ‘Fifty Shades of Blak’ part of this years 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival, an exhibition exploring the voices of First Nations women from across Australia and the world. An inter-cultural exchange between Australian and global First Nations women, ‘Fifty Shades of Blak’ highlights the voices of fifty visual and performing female artists, each addressing issues of stereotyping, colour coding, racism, identity and societal perceptions of First Nations women and women of colour.
‘Fifty Shades of Blak’ is Blak Dot Gallery’s first exhibition at their wonderful new premises 33 Saxon St (via Dawson St), Brunswick. Artists: Atong Atem | Cora-Allan Wickliffe | Dulcie Stewart | Frances Tapueluelu | Georgia MacGuire | Gina Ropiha | Ira Fernandez | Jasmine Togo-Brisby | Julie O’Toole | Katie West | Katherine Gailer | Kirsten Lyttle | Lily Laita | Lisa Hilli | Maree Clarke | Megan Van Den Berg | Paola Balla | Sarah Hudson | Shona Tawhiao | Tania Remana | Texta Queen | Treahna Hamm | Vicki Couzens | Ying Huang More details via Blak Dot Gallery Performance night Sat Oct 1, 7pm
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9:00am Poetry and performance: Our incredible women wordsmiths ring in the first FWF with their powerful spoken words. With Emilie Zoey Baker, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Koraly Dimitradis, Nayuka Gorrie & Lian Low
3:00 pm This panel will explore the question ‘what is feminist writing’? Does writing need to explicitly concern feminist issues in order to be feminist? And what about the audience? To whom should feminist writing speak? With Lian Low, Emily Maguire & Jean Taylor The Feminist Writers Festival networking day (Friday 26 August) will be held at the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Ground Floor, 210 Lonsdale St, Melbourne. QVWC is accessible via ground level, 210 Lonsdale Street. There is wheelchair access to the rear entrance of the building that runs along the Western (left hand) side. Hosted in partnership with the Melbourne Writers Festival, the 2016 Feminist Writers Festival comprises a workshop and networking day on Friday 26 August at the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, plus five public events, co-hosted by the Melbourne Writers Festival, on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 August at Federation Square and Footscray Community Arts Centre. Full program details at The Feminist Writers Festival #DangerAsians
Peril Magazine, Australia’s leading online platform for Asian Australian writing, arts and culture, takes its name from Yellow Peril, a term coined in the 19th century to describe the perceived menace of Asian migration. But are Asians still dangerous in Australia? Or are Asians in Australia the “happy migrant effect” writ large? Writers, activists and academics, Hoa Pham, Eugenia Flynn, Dominic Golding, Nadia Rhook lead a panel discussion about the past, present and future constructions of race in Australian writing – hosted by Lian Low, get ready for #DangerAsians. WHEN: Saturday 30 July, 12pm – 1pm VENUE: FCAC Performance Space Full details at the West Writers Forum: Our Stories
I stole an hour or so of highly acclaimed writers Suchen Christine Lim (Singapore) and Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz (the Philippines) Melbourne Writers Festival time to chat about their residency and public event experiences in Hoi An and Hanoi, Vietnam and Strathvea and Castlemaine, Victoria.
Both writers were participants in RMIT’s WrICE: the Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange Program which is a program of reciprocal cultural exchange and cultural immersion between Australia and Asia focused on writers and writing led by Directors Associate Professors David Carlin and Francesca Rendle-Short, and Clare Renner. Suchen’s long list of awards and honours include the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize for her third novel Fistful of Colours in 1992 and the South East Asia S.E.A.Write Award in 2012. In 2015, her novel The River’s Song was featured in a prestigious American book review magazine Kirkus Reviews as one of “The Best Books of 2015”. Jhoanna’s first book, Women Loving: Stories and a Play (Anvil Publishing, 2010), is the first single-author anthology of lesbian-themed writing in the Philippines. Her writing has won the Philippines’ prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Her short story, “Abi Nako” which she worked on in the WrICE residency was published in Griffith Review’s New Asia Now II edition. Last year Jhoanna was included in Buzzfeed’s 17 incredible lesbian pinays you need to know in celebration of December 8 as the National Lesbian Day in the Philippines. Jhoanna is currently associate professor at the University of the Philippines Mindanao in Davao City. In the video both authors read from their recent work: Jhoanna reading from Women Loving: Stories and a Play and Suchen reading from The River’s Song. More about Suchen Christine Lim here More about Jhoanna Lynn B Cruz here *Very special heartfelt thanks to Jacqueline Erasmus and Hayden Golder the wonderful and talented duo behind the camera and editing suite. *A big thank you to Francesca Rendle-Short for enabling this conversation to happen and who waited so warmly and patiently behind the scenes at Building 100 (Design Hub) RMIT. *With thanks David Carlin, Francesca Rendle-Short, Clare Renner and Ali Barker, Peril's partners at WrICE The Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange Program. (WrICE) is an initiative of nonfictionLab at RMIT University, generously supported by the Copyright Agency. This post was first published on Peril Australian LGBTIQ Multicultural Council present – Chilli & Spice, Curry or Rice at Hares & Hyenas
Elizabeth Syber, Lian Low, Lotus Ye, Dr. Tinashe Dune, Christina Kenny. Hosted by Judy Tang WHEN: Sunday, 24 January 2016 at 18:00–20:00 WHERE: Hares Hyenas, 63 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 COST: $5 at the door Conversation Exchange accompanying the exhibition Both Sides of the Street
Saturday 27th June 2015, 2:30-5pm @ The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick "Place and Belonging in Contemporary Australian Society from Both Sides of the Street" Blak Dot Gallery in collaboration with The Counihan Gallery In Brunswick is proud to present ‘Conversations from Both Sides of the Street’, a panel discussion where First Peoples engage in dialogue with culturally and linguistically diverse people. What are the commonalities and shared experiences between both communities? What does it mean to live and create on Aboriginal land? How can First Peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse people work in solidarity together? This unique panel discussion will bring together Aboriginal Activist Robbie Thorpe, Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance Member Meriki Onus and RISE Refugees, Survivors & Ex-Detainees Founder/CEO Ramesh Fernandez. Hosted by Writer and Arts Worker/Producer Eugenia Flynn, the panel event will also bring together Gamilaraay Poet and Educator Luke Patterson with Writer, Editor and Spoken Word Artist Lian Low for a very special poetry performance. Note: I was invited to speak at Blak Dot Gallery at the opening of 18C – a quick response exhibition to the proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Here’s the full transcript of my speech first published on Peril 18th April 2014. * * * I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we’re on, the Elders past and present of the Kulin nations. I would like to also gratefully thank Blak Dot Gallery for their incredibly quick-thinking efforts in organising 18C and for providing a space for artists and writers and supporters to voice our opinions against a Government that would otherwise choose to silence our voices, in order to keep their position of power. I would like to acknowledge and thank authors Dr Anita Heiss and Alice Pung for their incredible efforts in collating 175 responses from authors, writers, journalists, editors, publishers, directors, artists, filmmakers, academics and supporters which comprises our submission to the Attorney General’s proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act. (For the full submission, please see: 2014-04-14 Submission to the Attorney-General ) So, recently, I was turfing out old magazines and newspaper clippings when I found one that I had snipped out from 1997. “Anglo-Celts highly sensitive on race remarks: report” published in The Age on January 2nd, 1997. Basically the report outlined how people of Anglo-Celtic heritage were “hyper-senstive” to comments about their racial origins. The highest on their list of complaints was “whinging Pommy bastard”, the racial insults peaking during the English team’s cricket tours to Australia. That year, 1997, the University of Wollongong produced a study which found that “22 per cent of complaints came from people of Anglo-Celtic origin”. This was more than Indigenous Australians (20 per cent) and Asian Australians (12 per cent). However, according to Mr Chris Puplick, the President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board at the time, many of the complaints by Anglo-Celtics are declined as “lacking in substance”, as “[m]any are issues of hyper-sensitivity, rather than indicating an extent of ethnic and racial hatred”. Fast forward 17 years, and there are four sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that the Government would like to repeal including 18C, which makes it unlawful for someone to publicly “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person or a group of people. In a report by the ABC, Senator Brandis said: “Those three words – offend, insult and humiliate – describe what has sometimes been called hurt feelings.” “It is not, in the Government’s view, the role of the State to ban conduct merely because it might hurt the feelings of others.” There is a big difference between being hyper-sensitive and being the victim of racial hatred. So, what has sparked these changes to the Racial Discrimination Act? In an ABC report on Monday 14th April, Race Discrimination Commissioner Dr Tim Soutphommasane says “no major report or inquiry was provided by the Government prior to the release of the draft amendments. He says the only reason given was the case surrounding columnist Andrew Bolt.” In our submission to the Exposure Draft, Kerry Reed-Gilbert, Chairperson of First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) writes: “For one reason and one reason alone: that the Government’s mate Andrew Bolt lost his case and this Act is now being amended so that the mates can attack Aboriginal people, the target for their racial vilification. The mates will now be able to say what they want, when they want and there will be no protection for Aboriginal people at all.” While there has been a lot of focus on the allowance of hate speech and bigotry, one of the subsections in the proposed changes, Subsection 3, is possibly the most dangerous because it veils who in the Government’s view is able to determine a person’s experience of racial villification. This standard is to be measured by an “ordinary reasonable member of the Australian community”. This “ordinary reasonable member of the Australian community”, does not belong to “any particular group within the Australian community”. Journalist Waleed Aly critiques this flawed standard of measure in The Age, “Brandis’ race hate laws are whiter than white“: “What race is this hypothetical ‘ordinary reasonable member of the Australian community’ meant to be, exactly? If you answered that they have no particular race, then you’ve just given the whitest answer possible. It’s the answer that assumes there is such a thing as racial neutrality. Of course, only white people have the chance to be neutral because in our society only white is deemed normal; only whiteness is invisible.” “If the ‘ordinary reasonable Australian’ has no race, then whether or not we admit it, that person is white by default and brings white standards and experiences to assessing the effects of racist behaviour. Anything else would be too particular. “This matters because – if I may speak freely – plenty of white people (even ordinary, reasonable ones) are good at telling coloured people what they should and shouldn’t find racist, without even the slightest awareness that they might not be in prime position to make that call.” I am of Peranakan Chinese Malaysian heritage, my family had the economic means to leave a Malaysia that politically marginalises its minorities in legislation. I was 14 when I migrated to Australia in 1991. In 1996, Pauline Hanson made her maiden speech in Parliament. As a new migrant to the country, I was shocked by Hanson’s maiden speechasserting that Australia was “in danger of being swamped by Asians” and ‘Aboriginals received more benefits than non-Aboriginals’. Hanson’s speech was politically inflammatory, in fact she continues to be like this – you just have to visit One Nation’s website. On the home page, amongst one of the “serious problems in our country” is point no 2 – “Immigration and Multiculturalism – have we ever been asked?” Furthermore, in the original principles and objectives of the party, no 19 is: “To abolish divisive and discriminatory policies, such as those related to Aboriginal and multicultural affairs.” George Brandis doesn’t need to legislate for the rights of bigots, it’s already in existence. Over my 20 years of living in this country, I am constantly questioning and navigating my identity as an Australian, how I feel about calling Australia home. In calling Australia home, I also realise that as a non-Indigenous Australian, I benefit from the continued history of dispossession still experienced by Indigenous Australians. Says Kerry Reed-Gilbert in our submission to the Exposure Draft “In this country other cultures are allowed to be Chinese-Australian, Irish-Australian etc. Their cultural and religious details are collected, acknowledged and respected. I find that in this country – our country – that respect and honour is not given to Aboriginal people and due to government laws and media portrayals, we are the ‘Other’. The ‘Other’ who are devalued and disregarded continually by those who now call this country home. With the proposed amendments to this Act, Aboriginal people will become a bigger target for others to vilify.” The Australia I want to call home, the Australian I want to be, is about exploring an identity and a relationship to place that respects and honours Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, not the other way round as these proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act would like to establish. In conclusion, I want to read out the last statement in the submission prepared by Dr Anita Heiss and Alice Pung: “We have never felt our freedom of speech threatened by the current Racial Discrimination Act 1975. We firmly oppose the proposed amendments to the Act. We submit that we will endeavour to do all we can in our respective fields to ensure that Australia does not become a country that condones ‘bigotry’ – unsubstantiated and untrue racist comments and discourse that incite hatred towards others.” On 25 March 2014, the Australian Government approved amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act. An Exposure Draft of the proposed amendments was also published on the same day, seeking submissions from all stakeholders. The amendments seek to remove sections 18B–E of the Act. Exhibition 18C is in reference to a section of the Racial Discrimination Act that the Government is proposing to amend, the same section that journalist Andrew Bolt was found guilty of contravening.
See full text here on Peril |
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