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MEAA news for February 2019
Marisa Wikramanayake updates you on what MEAA has been doing for the month of February 2019 and future plans.
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Where you will find me in October 2018
You will hear my voice everywhere in October.
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Khodayar Amini, Australia and asylum seekers, one year on
Khodayar would often listen to Ahmad Zahir's songs as he lay on his bed in Sydney. In 'Man Nagoyam' Ahmad Zahir sings about being like a caged bird that wants to be free. In Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, all musical instruments and music making bar the frame duff drum and religious singing had been banned by the Taliban. Khodayar ran from the Taliban after most of his family were killed. He ran from death as most humans would, to a place of perceived safety as most humans would. But he ran to Australia where he would end up feeling more caged and more in danger.
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27 ways to support diverse writers
I had this thought one day. I should qualify that it was between the hours of midnight and four am, generally not a great time for coming up with new ideas for me but a good time to work on ideas I already have. I thought about how I didn’t always see a lot of non-POC authors discuss, read, review POC authors’ works or interview them despite doing so for various non-POC authors regularly on their blogs. There are some authors who don’t do that sort of thing on their blogs at all for anyone else’s work and that’s fine and up to them but there are some that do…
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The Unconvential Guide to Freelance Journalism: Part 2 – setting up the business
So in Part 1 I explained why I wanted to answer the question of becoming a freelance journalist but also clarify exactly how difficult it can be to work as a freelance journalist. In this part I am going to tell you what, in Australia at least, you need in order to become a freelance journalist and to set up a business. Business type And the first thing you need to know is that yes, you are starting a business. And that you can be all by yourself as a sole trader, work with a couple of others in a partnership arrangement or set up a company with yourself working…
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Interview with Sarah Ross from Refugee Rights Action Network, Feb 2015
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Equal Love Rally Perth 2012
It’s far sunnier than I expected on a Perth winter weekend morning as I enter Stirling Gardens formerly the Supreme Court Gardens. It’s an innocent bit of greenery in the middle of the city. On Saturday, 11 August 2012, it got taken over. And I was there to protest. And to photograph. Equal Love – it nearly sounds like something left over from the ’70s but this isn’t that old but neither is it exactly new. Across the world several countries have amended laws to allow people with alternative gender identities and sexual orientations, all sorts of civil rights including the right to marry. Eight years ago, the Federal government…
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International Women's Day: "Woman"
“Woman”. That word scares me a bit. I don’t know what it means to be a woman. No, wait. Scratch that. I do know what it means to be a woman. But I don’t fit. Years ago, I was writing a weekly column for a newspaper. One day, someone asked me if I was a feminist. The question stumped me. I knew I was all for equality but I had never really bothered with the concept of feminism before. I knew the very definition of it had altered so fast over three decades. But this was a good idea for a column and hey, those were in short supply. So I…
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International Women's Day: And the backlash has started…
Note: This is my second attempt at writing this so it isn’t as wonderful as the first one was. Also these articles were originally posted as part of the blogging challenge for International Women’s Day on Emergen. It’s almost half past eight. Most of my friends have now woken up and headed off to work and have logged on to at the very least wish each other “Happy IWD day”. I’d like to think that they knew about the date and event because I’ve been harping on about it on FB for awhile. But as with anyone supporting any cause, there is a backlash. There have been a few negative…
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International Women's Day: What do we talk about?
When the invitation was waved in front of my nose, to blog for International Women’s Day (if I hadn’t jumped in willingly, I am sure Janine Ripper would have twisted my arm or blackmailed me somehow), I was excited but I felt at a loss. I don’t think gender should be an issue – as in that it is such an accepted part of life that it ceases to be part of what identifies you unless you wish it to be. And so, I wondered, “What am I going to discuss?” especially as I see a lot of issues as being human issues, complicated, yes, by gender inequality and…