In this episode of the Invisible Woman podcast we are featuring questions and answers from the live panel discussion Put Her Name on It Q&A: Public Commemoration Here, Now and Future, which was held at Melbourne Town Hall in March. This is part 5 of the discussion. This is the last part of this series.
The invisible woman project funded by our social enterprise's impact program promotes awareness and actions for women and gender-diverse people, to age with dignity, security, and safety. Find out more on justgoldwomen.net or on our socials @justgoldwomen.
Hosted by Kyriakos Gold
Edited and produced by Carley Bishop
This is a Just Gold podcast.
[00:00:00] Carley Bishop: This is a just gold podcast.
[00:00:02]
[00:00:02] Carley Bishop: Captured on the lands of the peoples of the east Eastern Kulin nation. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
[00:00:25] Carley Bishop: In this episode of The Invisible Woman Podcast, we are featuring questions and answers from the live panel discussion. Put her name on it, q and a public commemoration here now and future, which is held at Melbourne Town Hall in March.
[00:00:42]
[00:00:42]
[00:00:45] Ella Gauchi Seddon: Whenever I talk about being involved in the, put her name in a group and commemorative justice and what that means to me, it's about making all people feel comfortable in their public space, in the space that they're in. And it might seem like a small thing to be surrounded by names of people who aren't represented of your gender, but it's, it actually is a really big thing.
[00:01:08] Ella Gauchi Seddon: And we know that advertising of sexualized women undermines women and has the impact of perpetuating gender inequities and actually violence against women and children. And so it seems like a little thing, but actually they're all compounding and. If we can see everyone reflected in the built environment, that will actually make the city better for everyone.
[00:01:31] Sally H: This is also about supporting women artists and making sure that we're providing meaningful employment opportunities. And we know that artists were some of the hardest hit professions and occupations during Covid. And the Women's Public art program has a strong focus on making sure that the people that complete the art, the sculptors and the all the technical words that I don't know are also women.
[00:01:52] Sally H: And not, there's a collection of non-binary artists as well. And that's really important. We know that women are underrepresented in terms of tho that industry and that this is an employment and economic security point as well. And then the other one, I suppose to your point is just around permanency and the balance between modern and non-representative art and the fact that there are these bronze statues.
[00:02:12] Sally H: And we heard this feedback through the Women's art project that. We're interested in in murals or in light art or in augmented reality. I don't really even know what that is in terms of how users en would engage that show my naivety. But how do we balance that out versus the fact that we have these very permanent, very physical, very large bronze statues and they are particularly colonial and they, we know we've got some feedback around that representational art of one individual is not necessarily inclusive and it's not, certainly not a first Nations informed approach.
[00:02:44] Sally H: And that more collective representative is where where we'd want to go, but just balancing it out, I suppose, and whether we do need to have a focus on permanency because we're going to create murals, for example, that are painted over in years to come and we actually want to actually create permanent art that is enduring for as long as the statues are Sandra.
[00:03:06] Sandra G: Yeah. Maybe just to add to what someone was speaking about in terms of what is the medium what is the rhetoric of the commemorative justice, what does it look like? I think that when we think about monuments, we should have an opportunity to critique those that have already been placed in public space.
[00:03:23] Sandra G: To give an example, which is not in relationship to statues, but if you think about renewable energy, right? A lot of the global south has taken a very long time to have electricity into different spaces, and that's been a deficit. But the benefit of that is, unlike the global north that has, developed electricity through fossil fuel, a lot of the global south is using renewable energy.
[00:03:44] Sandra G: So we are ahead of the curb in terms of that because of the deficit that we received. And that's to say that when we think about Monument, can we use this as an opportunity to critique what's there and to find ways forward that might be better. And that's not to say that the output has to be augmented reality or whatever that might be, but from a design perspective, I think it needs to be beyond the art object and beyond the iconography.
[00:04:08] Sandra G: That it's not just about recognition, but it's that recognition coming in with education and context to understand context. And I think that's why finding her such a great opportunity because this storytelling and this narrative and this place embedded with that. And I think if there's ways that we can think of this kind of commemorative gesture as something that is experiential with the individual and participatory, then what we are building is rebuilding personal memory and connecting that to a collective memory that then helps, present a public that is so multifaceted.
[00:04:43] Rafe Benley: Great. Yeah. With the release of the Gender equality acts back in 2020 And the work that we've been doing with Gender Equity Victoria, it's been pleasing to see within state government, the requirements, the reporting requirements that have been raised that, oh no, we've got a report on x, Y, Z, I'm not gonna talk about x, y, Z cuz I'm not part of the government in that sense.
[00:05:04] Rafe Benley: But yeah, certainly some of the initiatives that were underway, whether or not it's the art programs or whether or not it's the support that we are providing through the place naming side of things, there's a whole raft of things that are underway in the state government and it's really impressive to see the Victorian state government preparing its report to the gender gender Equality Act.
[00:05:26] Rafe Benley: And yeah, I think it's a bright future for us all in these kind of conversations as much as why do we need to have them, I think in the future we will come together as a community and names are enduring. One of the best thing in our working place names, so I'm gonna include it, certainly having your name, having a place, a road or feature named then.
[00:05:48] Rafe Benley: That to me is a fantastic honor. And, we would love to tell that story whether or not it's an Arabic names application or finding her, but to preserve your, the history of that person and hopefully we get more places named after women.
[00:06:01] Kyriakos Gold: Fantastic. Carrie, want to, I want to ask you, how do you feel seeing this site up today? Just a very personal question, because I know how hard you worked.
[00:06:11] Ella Gauchi Seddon: Oh, it was brilliant to see it, come to life, it's been a long. Slog, over the last three or four months, and in particularly the last month, really, crossing the Ts and dotting the I, but it looks brilliant.
[00:06:23] Ella Gauchi Seddon: As I said, Keka brought the magic to the ideas. We're ideas people, but we need someone to actually be able to put that down into a digital platform and make it accessible to people to be able to see. So, you
[00:06:34] Sally H: know,
[00:06:35] Sally H: It was,
[00:06:35] Ella Gauchi Seddon: thank
[00:06:35] Kyriakos Gold: you, but the compliment is to you. So what are your, can you tell us what's stage two looking like?
[00:06:45] Kyriakos Gold: I can you reveal anything or what are you working towards? Do we need to call for more funding
[00:06:49] Ella Gauchi Seddon: through this video? Of course, stage two will definitely need some additional funding, but stage two is definitely not just about finding her and building on that. It's about that capacity building of the sector.
[00:07:01] Ella Gauchi Seddon: So local government is absolutely fundamental to making the change that we wanna see. They're the biggest land managers and owners. They they are, authorities, naming authorities. They are down at the level of communities every day. They are connected with people. They can make this happen quickly.
[00:07:20] Ella Gauchi Seddon: It is a numbers game but it's a stories game and a history game as well. And so if they can get out there, audit what they know what's on the ground, find work with communities to find those stories, work with communities to develop projects, use their existing processes to change, to make, to do naming then this can happen.
[00:07:39] Ella Gauchi Seddon: And we said 2030, which was, a very short period of time. But with some bold action we can make some significant progress.
[00:07:47] Kyriakos Gold: Get on the website. Don't forget. Thank you.
[00:07:50] Ella Gauchi Seddon: Thank. The invisible woman project funded by our social enterprises impact program promotes awareness and actions for women and gender diverse people. To age with dignity, security, and safety. Find out more on justgoldwomen.net or on our socials justgoldwomen