Our action is what is needed now

I have spoken before about white privilege and being aware of whenever we talk about equality for women and men that there are members of our community who have an entirely different reality, experience and fight for rights and recognition.

I thought I had a sense of it, I abhor it and I want to be proactive, but I didn’t understand in the way I do now.

I think with all that is happening in the US and what the uprising across the world has taught us that there must be a time when this changes.  I realise that in order to stand with our sisters and brothers from diverse communities we need to find out from them how we can support them and what it is that we need them to do. I have been talking about for at the past three years about how we can put pool our community and resources, and I have floated the idea, but I hadn’t yet got to actioning it. I realised this week that this was not good enough. It bothers me so much that the region we started WWA is not very diverse, and as we expand, I want to ensure that everyone is welcomed, represented, heard and seen in our community.

I am making a pledge to reach out to the communities and groups that exist in Australia and the work and work out ways we can collaborate and work together to lift everyone equally. The original idea that I had was to host a morning tea with local stakeholders that might be interested in getting together, further to that I want to be very clear about our position at Women with Altitude, we are about inclusion, equality and our goal is to be proactive in helping eliminate prejudice and inequality.  If any of our community arena opposition to that stance, then we are probably not the community for you.

I have two children with disability. I must do my bit to contribute and create societies that includes them, advocates for them and gives them the same opportunities. Like everyone I have watched the coverage and heard and seen interviews in the past two weeks and I think Lisa Wilkinson on the Project summed up our white privilege so well on Sunday night. Lisa said, "I thought I understood what white privilege meant but I never understood in the way I do now”.