Advocacy – Page 2 – LARSEN

Take on Board podcast on Palestine as a governance issue

Failure is the status quo at the moment when it comes to Australian arts, cultural and non-profit organisation’s response (or lack of response) to Palestine as a governance, risk and crisis management, duty of care and financial issue.

My conversation with Helga Svendsen for the Take on Board podcast is online today with more.

And another thing: on cultural safety

Arts boards and organisations, stop using cultural safety as an excuse to make your programs, spaces and business practices less culturally safe.

Palestine governance resources in The Commons

The rushed and fumbled public statements made by Australian arts and cultural organisations in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine have made failure the status quo on matters of risk and crisis management, financial sustainability and duty of care – including the statements many have made with their silence.

A collection of my provocations on Palestine as a governance issue have been collated and republished The Commons Social Change Library.

The power of digital poetry

At last month’s Perth Festival Writers Week in Boorloo/Perth, I began my Tiny Little Digital Poetry workshop with the following:

Given Perth Festival Writers Weekend brings writers and readers together in a colonial city built on unceded Noongar Boodja, it’s impossible as a guest writer not to acknowledge that our writing colleagues here and overseas are currently being killed, threatened and censored at unprecedented rates.
Continue reading “The power of digital poetry”

Dear arts organisations

Amongst everything else, the last several months have been a crash course for boards, leaders and organisations in risk and reputation management, crisis communications and duty of care from the pointy intersection of arts and human rights advocacy.

Inspired by my recent vlog series on why boards need to talk about Palestine (but applicable more broadly), here’s my attempt at framing the sorts of conversations going on amidst the hurt and panic, best and battered intentions, solidarity and silences right now.

Have your say on the arts in SA

The South Australian Government has announced plans to redevelop its long-term vision for the state’s arts, culture and creative sector. SA artists, arts workers, arts lovers and audiences are encouraged to have your say.

Board members, we need to talk about Palestine

Like everyone else at the moment, Australian arts and cultural organisations have been making headlines for what they are or are not saying or doing about the daily and devastating breaches of international law and human rights happening in Palestine and Israel right now.

Have your say on the Modern Awards Review

Due next Monday (4 December 2023), the Modern Awards Review 2023-2024 is a pivotal opportunity to improve workplace rights and entitlements for the arts and cultural sector.

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it consultation period, the Fair Work Commission has invited submissions from artists, arts workers and organisations to investigate potential gaps in arts and cultural sector employment terms and remuneration.

And another thing: on profiles and platforms

Preparing to teach a recent workshop on building an artist or author brand made me realise how much my approach to my own brand and online profile has changed over the last several years.

That feeling has been exacerbated over this last awful month, in which the social media spaces I have held in such esteem have become sites for both community making and lonely making, action and distraction, truth-telling and shadow-banning, finding and losing of trust.

It’s been a timely reminder that our online profiles are political – regardless of whether we using them to share political content or politicise our silence.

Ally is a verb

Yesterday in Tarntanya/Adelaide, a blood test took me over the road from Pirltawardli (Possum Park). In need of some nature, I attempted to walk the edge of one of three golf courses in that part of the city. Ten minutes later, I left in tears. The glaring normalcy of the scene, of exclusively white golfers in a privileged place of safety and leisure, felt surreal and gross in a week that the world is in literal and metaphorical flames.