Interview with Kath Melbourne
/“It’s the bigger things of being that person that young women come to when they need to understand how to make a sexual harassment claim, of being a person that holds space for the difficult conversations and is always committed to making the world more equitable. ”
We spoke to Australian-based arts consultant Kath Melbourne, who is one of the mentors for the This Is Who We Are mentoring programme.
What three words best describe you?
Curious. Optimistic. Sentimental.
Name one woman who has inspired you and why?
Lesley Hall. (VALE) a ferocious defender of human rights whom I was fortunate to work beside.
Anyone who has the courage and smarts to acknowledge the irony of a beauty pageant raising money for people with disabilities while entrenching a stereotype of what beauty is and rock up to protest is someone not afraid to walk into spaces that have never seen people like her and say ‘why not?’
https://www.afdo.org.au/beauty-quests-by-lesley-hall/
In what ways have you practiced solidarity and community?
It’s the small ways in meetings where women’s voices are side lined, working together to amplify and reiterate great ideas.
It’s maintaining and supporting great networks of women doing brilliant things and sharing what they do with others.
And it’s the bigger things of being that person that young women come to when they need to understand how to make a sexual harassment claim, of being a person that holds space for the difficult conversations and is always committed to making the world more equitable.
From your understanding of TIWWA and its possibilities/potential, what would you most like to get out of being part of the project and being a partner with us?
An interesting and smart international network of brilliant women doing brilliant things.
Helping younger women or women or those new to the industry to navigate systems and possibilities while making change and fighting old ways of doing.
Amplifying and supporting smart new ways of doing that are different to elitist or excluded ways of doing.