Women on the Line

The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified existing systemic inequalities. We hear from a rally in Melbourne, Fighting for public health and workplace safety. We hear from rally co-chairs, Sarah Hathaway and Jiselle Hanna, unionist and Greens candidate Celeste Liddle, retail worker and unionist Maudie Osborne, and public health worker and unionist Nita Okoko.

This week on the program we focus on the situation for people fleeing from war on the Polish border with Belarus and Ukraine. More than 1.8 million people escaping war in Ukraine have arrived in Poland since February 24, but not everyone has received the same welcome to the European Union. On the Polish-Belarussian border, people seeking safety in the EU from war in the Middle East continue to be...

Today's show features two women working towards climate justice in so-called Australia: Tishiko King, Campaign Director at Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, and Emma Bacon, Executive Director of the Sweltering Cities project.  Tishiko, a proud Torres Strait Islander woman with connections to Masig and Badu Islands, speaks about climate vulnerability and fighting for climate justice in Zenadth...

In a collaborative show with Sudanese refugee and freelance journalist Elina Mark, we delve into education issues for refugee communities stuck in limbo in Indonesia as a result of Australia's border policies. We feature two interviews. Firstly, the mother of four children, Shereen speaks about barriers for her kids to access education in Indonesia. Afterwards, co-founder of the refugee-run Educat...

On this week’s program, we’re analyzing two stories making national news. Our first story looks at what happens when police view migrant and refugee women as the main aggressors in family violence calls, and our second interview focuses on the exploitation of Pacific farmworkers. Helping us tell these stories is the CEO of inTouch Michal Morris and Dr Victoria Stead from Deakin University. Article...

This week we hear from  queer, Maori-Polish writer, abolitionist and organiser, Julia Rose Bak, about the concept of disability justice (First aired on Radio A and A, also see Disability Justice network mutual aid fundraiser). The summer of 2021-22 has seen a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with the Omicron variant, mass illness and death in an environment of woeful state responses and complacen...

This week on the program we cover two important topics which have seen some significant development in the last week. First, we speak with two Gomeroi yinarr, Aunty Polly Cutmore and Traditional Custodian Karra Kinchela, about the fight to stop Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project, near Moree in North West NSW. 850 gas wells are proposed for the area, and court hearings are underway. Visit the Moree Ecolo...

In today's episode, we delve into a thriving leftist movement in Narrm (Melbourne) built by migrants from Turkey in the 1970s and 80s. International human rights lawyer, researcher and activist, Eda Seyhan joins us to discuss her article published in Jacobin on how this movement organized migrant workers, supported political refugees, influenced unions, and contributed to the anti-imperialist stru...

In this show, Murri historian and activist Dr Jackie Huggins speaks about the recently-published updated edition of 'Sister Girl: Reflections on Tiddaism, Identity and Reconciliation', which is out now through the University of Queensland Press. She reflects on the process of writing and on her prolific career, touching on the strength of Aboriginal women, race relations in feminism, Indigenous le...

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was founded 50 years ago on Invasion day, January 26, in 1972. It is the world's longest ongoing protest camp. In this episode, we air some archival audio from 1992 on the 20-year anniversary and from 2012 on the 40-year anniversary. We hear the voice of Dr Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Sykes, an excerpt of an interview with the late Aunty Pat Eatock from 3CR’s coverage of 2012 Embas...

We hear about the collective Boycott Sydney Festival campaign to end the troubling partnership between the Sydney Festival and the Israeli state. A Palestinian led campaign, as part of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement for Palestinian freedom has been calling for the festival to be boycotted because the Festival refuses to drop its relationship with the Israeli Embassy. We hear from Pa...

In today's episode, we're diving into a discussion about gender identity and self-representation for trans and gender diverse people with Dr Brooke Brady and Shoshana Rosenberg, who are currently undertaking a research project called The Dynamic Gender Hotline. The hotline, voiced by Zaya Barroso, invites transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming or otherwise gender diverse people to leave an...

In this episode, we are joined by two writers based in Indonesia who speak with members of their communities. Firstly, Elina Mark works with two non-profit educational organisations: Education 4All and Beyond the Fabric. Elina speaks about educational barriers refugee children face with the co-founder of the 4all, Faiza Ahmed Omer Faloul. Now focusing on delivering online education, 4all is a refu...

This week we're tackling the subject of racial capitalism: what is it, why should we care, and how does it threaten our existence? Helping us make sense of this concept is antiracist race critical scholar Alana Lentin. As promised here is a link to her lecture. ProducerAyan Shirwa 

Tamil people are fleeing violence in their homeland in Sri Lanka and facing border violence from the Australian government. This week we shed light on the Tamil struggle for freedom and the struggle to free refugees in Australia locked up by Australia's regime of border violence. First, we hear from Renuga Inpakumar, a spokesperson with the Tamil Refugee Council. Second, we hear from speeches give...

This week on the program we focus on Transfemme, a new online resource for preventing heterosexual or bi+ cis men’s violence against trans women. We speak about the project with Amao Leota Lu, community advocate, consultant and performance artist, whose work focuses on weaving the tapestry of intersectionality of race, culture and gender, and Starlady, social justice advocate and Program Manager a...

Today's episode features two timely conversations. First, we are joined by Fiona York, Executive Officer of Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) and a broadcaster on 3CR with HAAG's program Raise the Roof. Fiona raises concerns about the government's crackdown on the charity sector via amendments to the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC) regulations. NOTE: Since this ep...

In light of what people, in particular Indigenous and First Nations peoples, have called a failure at COP26, we bring you two conversations on the effects of climate change. We first hear from the Pacific Climate Warriors Coordinator for Victoria, Folole Asueao Sagele Tupuola who first spoke with Thursday Breakfast. Daughter of the Moana, they are a storyteller and artist settled on Wathaurung Cou...

This week we look at the Voter Integrity Bill 2021, and in the second half of the show, we discuss the practice of female genital cutting (FGC), its causes and the health risks. Helping us with the Voter Integrity Bill is the Deputy CEO of The Australian Council of Social Service, Edwina MacDonald, and tackling FGC are Medina Idriess and Rani Pramesti from the Multicultural Centre for Women's Heal...

This week we focus on the movement for sex worker rights and liberation. The Victorian government currently has a bill to partially decriminalise sex work. We hear from Dylan from Victoria's peer sex worker organisation, Vixen Collective on the benefits decriminalisation brings to sex workers and why the present bill leaves some sex workers behind. Later in the program, we hear from Peaches about...

This week on the program we hear an interview by 3CR broadcaster Priya Kunjan about Homes Not Prisons, a campaign to stop the expansion of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a women’s prison in Victoria. The campaign is fighting for money the State Government has allocated for this project to be used to build public housing instead. Priya speaks with Vickie Roach, Yuin woman, activist and advocate for...

In a piece for IndigenousX published 27 August 2020, Mineng Noongar social work academic Jacynta Krakouer stated that "Now is the time for critical race conversations in social work." Krakouer discussed the colonial origins of the field, and a need for changes in the way that it is taught and researched- particularly in terms of disrupting the overwhelming whiteness of those in positions of author...

In this episode, we look at the impacts of the pandemic on sexual and domestic violence (SV/DV) in Aotearoa (New Zealand).Sexual and gender-based violence specialists, Hala Nasr and Miriam Gioia Sessa join us to discuss recently released research data and issues more broadly within the SV/DV sector. They also discuss navigating the siloing effects of neoliberalism, government policy, community pow...

This week we speak to Dr Maria Hach about the Sexual and Reproductive Health Data Report 2021.Dr Maria is the author of the report and the acting Research Advocacy and Policy Manager at Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH). Due to the length of the report, we've had to narrow our focus to a few key areas. These areas include contraception use, family violence and reproductive coercion. I...

Mid-Late September has seen extraordinary reactionary mayhem in Melbourne. Anti-vaccination to anti-lockdown to far-right forces smashed the  CFMEU office, took to city streets and were repressed by riot police. To make sense of these events, we hear from long time anti-fascist, unionist, writer, Arrernte woman and Greens candidate, Celeste Liddle. We also hear more broadly about the left, the nee...