Event Session - Panel: State of play - equity and inclusive practice in Australia

Day 1 - Tuesday 26th, 2:00pm - 3:00pm AEDT

The Wheeler Centre - Performance Space

Veronica Pardo (Participating chair), CEO, Multicultural Arts Victoria

Tony Briggs, actor, director, producer and writer (The Sapphires)

Sophie Black, Head of Publishing, the Wheeler Centre

Leah Jing McIntosh, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Liminal

Kath Duncan, researcher, producer, and Co-founder of Quippings Deaf and disabled queer performance troupe

Bali Padda, Industry Development Executive, Screen Australia

Bringing the conversation back home, what's the status quo in Australia for equity and inclusion across the creative sector? Discussions on the need for change can often meet with defensiveness or discomfort, empty platitudes, or superficial action that does little to shift underlying power structures. What do we need from allies? What actions and interventions are already taking place? And what actually works?

Panel (45 min) followed by Q&A (15 min) facilitated by chair.

Media Contributions

Key Points

  • disc
    Tony Briggs: We are all in this together and we're not going anywhere.
  • disc
    Bali Padda: It is OK to fail. We are trying to do out best in the systems and structures that have failed us.
  • disc
    Tony Briggs: But as long as there is learning from failings.
  • disc
    Sophie Black: I think failure is is definitely linked to education. Fail and fail better.
  • disc
    Kath Duncan: I don't feel tokenised by quotas. I don't see there being a danger.
  • disc
    Leah Jing McIntosh: Stop caring what white people think. Care about what your community thinks. Care about what your community wants.
  • disc
    Leah Jing McIntosh: I want to see more excellence from diverse artists. I know that it is there.
  • disc
    Bali Padda: Allies, identify us (we're probably standing right beside you) and grab us, mentor us.
  • disc
    Kath Duncan: Looking around the room it's a group of people already on the path. Who we need in the room is the disinterested.

We would like to acknowledge that we are meeting today on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation, to pay our respects to their Elders, past, present, and emerging, and to honour their long lineage of creative practice.