Celebrating Women of Colour away from the White gaze
Sometimes mics are extended to a few well assimilated tokens of colour as an afterthought at International Women’s Day events in Australia (never ceded), where the inclusion of White men takes priority over solidarity with Women of Colour and gender diverse People of Colour.
The organising team of the collective, We Are The Mainstream, a force of Women of Colour and gender diverse People of Colour, spearheaded by Priyanka Bromhead, formed just in time to put on a joyous inaugural event for International Women’s Day 2020, just before COVID struck.
White people and cis men were asked to back us through financial contributions instead of sharing our space to validate our pain and strides, reliving us of White women tears to mop up and fragile men to coddle.
Within such a space, away from the White gaze, is where we grappled with our internalised White gaze, and had a chance to discuss topics such as settlers of colour aligning with the dominant culture in the oppression of First Nations Peoples, casteism within the South Asian diaspora and classism, with some nuance, without fear of pandering to tropes of People of Colour.
We Are The Mainstream aspires to challenge all forms of supremacy. Our end game is to deconstruct power and dismantle the table, rather than squeeze our seats in by way of tokenising ourselves, upholding the myth of meritocracy, tripping up our peers and losing ourselves in the process.
As First Nations, Gender Diverse and Women of Colour, we are used to giving away our intellectual and emotional labour for free to organisations and institutions in the name of collective betterment. Our insights and traumatic stories are often used as learning opportunities for others, leaving us depleted and undervalued. For this reason, we make sure to pay our panellists, workshop facilitators and content creators. Contributions will also be used to cover catering, event photography, website maintenance and admin. Because being in solidarity with First Nations peoples is central to our collective, part of our funds will also be used to pay the rent for living on stolen land, by allocating specific funds to engage the work of First Nations women. We also want to effect change within schools and support girls and gender diverse children of colour through running school programs which also requires funds.
We have always been self-and community-funded and this year we are drawing our net wider and calling on those who value the work that we do, to show up to our fundraiser in the lead up to International Women’s Day. It is a great opportunity for accomplices and community members to meet the team, join us as we reflect on all that was achieved in 2020, and sit in as we share our plans for 2021.
We are aiming to raise $50,000: https://chuffed.org/project/2021-we-are-the-mainstream
- $50,000 will guarantee we can continue the good trouble that is elevating and celebrating First Nations, Women and Gender Diverse folk of Colour, as well as expanding to add educational programs for both students and adults.
- $10,000 would cover our IWD event and allow for each of our panellists to be reimbursed as they should be.
- $5000 would cover our inaugural Girls’ students’ event encouraging young women and gender diverse students of colour to be empowered by authentic representation and challenged to reclaim their own narratives.
- $20,000 would help us develop and implement student wellbeing, mentorship and leadership programs to schools across the Western Sydney area, seeking to build solid connections with young women.
- $10,000 would allow us to continue to run First Nations-centred programs
You can join the fundraiser party on December 08 at 8PM AEDT by filling this google form.
Supporting We Are The Mainstream is a show of genuine solidarity with First Nations, Women of Colour and Gender Diverse People of Colour, trusting that funds will be used to elevate and celebrate our causes, for us, by us.
Since our inception we've:
- hosted our first IWD event with guests and speakers from across the nation
- facilitated 24 hours in courageous conversations
- held space with fierce and fabulous folk
- launched our crispy new website
- paid artists to share their powerful works on our platform and at our events
- engaged over 3000 like-minded individuals online and offline
In 2021, we are back with our second International Women’s Day symposium, as well as a students’ day, The Girls’ Edit. We recently launched our website and are excited to be publishing more and more of the work of our community who are often overlooked by mainstream publishing outlets. We will continue to have critical, creative and courageous conversation for us and by us, across the course of the year, as well as offering intersectional advisory services to the wider community. Our team of experts come from various professional industries and are thrilled to be taking anti-racist and decolonised practices and frameworks to individuals and organisations looking to be authentic in the way they engage with justice, equity, diversity and inclusion work.
To support We Are The Mainstream fundraiser, head here: https://chuffed.org/project/2021-we-are-the-mainstream
All images used have been provided by WATM.