Women on the Line

As we welcome a new year, and Victoria settles into their new covid normal, one community still reeling from the lockdown are the residents of the nine towers. Most of you will remember that in July 2020, nine housing commission towers were forced into a hard lockdown.  Residents could only leave their homes for supervised exercise, on compassionate grounds and for emergencies. These detention ord...

On today’s show, we listen to excerpts from Invisible Voices 2020 Human Rights Day - a World Human Rights Day special broadcast on 3CR Community Radio. This special broadcast aired on 13 December 2020 during 3CR’s Queering the Air, and it was a live panel discussion about the issues impacting LGBTIQA+ forcibly displaced people in the Asia Pacific Region. This panel event was presented by Invisible...

This week we bring you Part 2 of an MPavilion talk called Womxn’s Covid-19: Archive and Artwork in Conversation For almost a year now, artist and activist, Katie Sfetkidis has documented the stories of women and gender diverse people living in Victoria during COVID 19.Two participants from the archival project, Hope Mathumbu and Kate Sulan, sat down with Katie Sfetkidis to share their reflections...

This week we bring you an MPavilion talk called WOMXN’S COVID-19: ARCHIVE AND ARTWORK IN CONVERSATION.For almost a year now, artist and activist, Katie Sfetkidis has documented the stories of women and gender diverse people living in Victoria during COVID 19.Two participants from the archival project, Hope Mathumbu and Kate Sulan, sat down with Katie Sfetkidis to share their reflections on the tum...

This week we hear from two protests against injustice in Melbourne. First, we hear from the Renters and Housing Union Victoria's snap action against evictions to homelessness, where the government is winding back its hotel housing program, including from member Adriana. Second, we hear speakers on systemic issues in solidarity with the national day of action 'Gamil Means No!' to stop Santos' gas f...

This week on the program we focus on Blockade IMARC, an online conference and actions series focussed on resisting extractive industries, colonialism and capitalism. IMARC stands for the international mining and resources conference, and listeners may remember last year’s significant protests against the conference in Melbourne. We hear extracts from the panel “Extractivism 101 and Latin American...

 In this episode with poet, Darlene Silva Soberano, we speak about the possibilities of poetry and social justice. How bewilderment, found through poetry and daily living, can keep us connected to our humanity, connected to land and community, giving us purpose for the struggle for justice. Darlene and I discuss bewilderment, pleasure, pandemic lockdown and wellbeing. Listen in to hear Darlene’s p...

In September 2020, a private member’s bill aiming to criminalise coercive control was introduced in the NSW parliament. Penalties under the bill includes jail terms of up to 10 years.  Coercive control is broadly defined as a pattern of behaviours used to intimidate, humiliate, surveil, and control another person. A number of high-profile family and domestic violence advocates and campaigners have...

Survival Guide isn’t just another radio show. It is a fight for community, land, and for the right to exist unapologetically. In 2018, Lorna Munro and Joel Sherwood Spring got together to create a show that would chronicle the gentrification of Redfern and Waterloo. But Survival Guide isn't your typical gentrification saga. It is the story of the ongoing displacement of Aboriginal people, greed, a...

The Federal government is currently pushing to expand its trialled cashless debit card scheme provided by Indue that quarantines 80% of recipient's payments. We hear from Amanda from the advocacy group The Say No Seven on the fight against the cashless debit card, the danger and harm the card causes particulary for women, and how campaigns against the card have been received in feminist movements....

This week on the program we look at changes to both the structure and culture of policing during COVID-19.We speak with Tiffany Overall from Youthlaw about the implications of a new bill which will significantly expand the reach of Protective Service Officers in Victoria. Moving to NSW, we speak with Charlie Murphy from Pride in Protest about the police response to an October 10 protest against ne...

On this episode of Women on The Line you’ll hear from Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, the Professor of Psychiatry, at The Alfred and Monash University. Today we hear from Jayashri about the link between mental health and reproductive hormones. In particular, the impact of hormonal contraception, on mental health. We also discuss the problematic diagnosis of borderline personality disorder amongst wom...

This week on Women On The Line, we hear from Franco Stevens, founder of the magazine Curve, one of the largest lesbian magazines in the world, and Jen Rainin, director and co-producer of the documentary Ahead of The Curve. This film chronicles Franco's personal journey, lesbian visibility, and the power of community. Ahead Of The Curve was recently screened at the Queer Film fest 2020 in Sydney. P...

In 2006, the minister for Melbourne Bronwyn Pike told the Carlton Residents Association that the Carlton Redevelopment project would “break down the social housing ghetto”. The ghetto Bronwyn refers to is the Carlton Public housing estate. An estate that prior to the redevelopment project was home to a rich and vibrant community. Everyone knew each other. They babysat each other's kids, borrowed s...

In this episode listen to Shoshanna Dreyfus speak about her research project to co-design potentially the worlds’ first all abilities and ages inclusive playground in the City of Wollongong. You’ll also hear from Katherine Horsfall about her research project, in partnership with the City of Melbourne, to develop Melbourne’s first Indigenous wildlife meadow at Royal Park in Melbourne.

We hear stories from women inside prison. People in prisons are already experiencing state violence, now during a pandemic where contagion can spread like wildfire in crowded indoor spaces. We hear from Vickie Roach, Yuin writer and activist, about her lived experience inside prison to politics of abolition. Second, we hear from LGBTIQ and disability justice advocate Ashleigh Chapman on her experi...

 How we prepare for, get through, and recover from disasters have sadly become increasingly pressing questions. But the impact of disasters, and people’s needs in these conditions can be very different according to their circumstances. To address some of these questions, recently DARU, that’s the Disability Advocacy Resource Unit, held an online forum on Disability and Disaster Resilience. This we...

In this episode listen to Aakanksha Manjunath and Natasha Sharma from ‘It’s Not a Compliment’ about their inclusive campaigns addressing street harassment and measures they’re taking to respond to the unique challenges being presented during Covid19.You'll then hear from Professor Devleena Ghosh, from the Social and Political Sciences Program at the University of Technology Sydney, followed by Ann...

This week, we are joined by Ayan Shirwa, producer of Diaspora Blues. Ayan talks to us about her show, the importance of cultural diversity in media, and how to tackle systemic barriers to increase such diversity. You can listen to Diaspora Blues at www.3cr.org.au/diasporablues. 

In 2016, marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa made headlines during his Olympic run in Rio. As he passed the finish line he crossed his arms over his head. This gesture would send Feysia into exile for two years.  Before this moment, the plight of the Oromo people barely made the news. His protest however brought the spotlight on Ethiopia's crackdown of Oromo Protesters. So who are the Oromo people and w...

Hospital maternity departments are rapidly changing protocols and policies in an attempt to protect staff and patients from the Covid-19 virus. However, these changes leave birthing people concerned. As a result people are turning to homebirth in unprecedented numbers. We speak with Grace Sweeney, one of the coordinators of Homebirth Australia about this turn to homebirth and the campaign to suppo...

This week we turn to two different areas long neglected by governments in Australia, now facing more dire consequences during the coronavirus pandemic: decarceration and housing justice. We hear from Tabitha Lean (Twitter), an advocate for incarcerated people on pushes to free people inside prison at risk of death from virus outbreaks and politics towards prison abolition. This interview previousl...

June 21 marked 13 years of the failed Northern Territory Intervention. To mark this date, groups Concerned Australians, the Intervention Rollback Action Group and Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney held an online forum featuring five First Nations speakers speaking from on country across the NT via video link, moderated by First Nations Professor Larissa Behrendt AO. This week we bring you ex...

In this episode we bring you some of the key stories and messages delivered by Hope Mathumbu and Sue Bolton during the Online Forum: Covid19 response: Healthcare and Justice not Racism, hosted by Socialist Alliance on Saturday July 13th.

On 30 June 2020, the Victorian government announced a lockdown of specific hotspot suburbs in an effort to control the spread of COVID19 cases. Less than a week later, on 5 July 2020, the Victorian premier Dan Andrews announced a 'hard lockdown' of 9 public housing estates. The residents in these housing estates in the suburbs of Flemington and North Melbourne, were effectively placed in detention...