Women on the Line

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...

In 2016 the Federal Government quietly rolled out the Online Compliance Intervention. It would later become known as Robodebt because of its automatic debt recovery process. Income data matching isn't new. The Department of Human Services has been comparing data submitted to the Australian Taxation Office, with earnings reported to Centrelink, as far back as 2004. But this time around it was diffe...

We hear from two historians, Mary Sheehan and Liz Crash, talking on the experience of the Influenza pandemic that peaked in 1919 through the lens of today's pandemic. They cover a broad area, with Mary touching on experiences of nurses in Melbourne including Valda Kelly, community support, comparisons to today; and Liz exploring history repeating, technological changes, gender, unemployment and re...

In this episode of Women on the Line you’ll be hearing from several women and gender non conforming people about their experiences of connection and disconnection during this current COVID19 pandemic crisis. Many of these were personal submissions made from voice memos apps on phones or computers. We explore what it’s like to live in social isolation in this time, connection with and histories of...

This week, we are joined by Madison Griffiths, producer of Tender, a Broadwave Productions podcast about what happens when women leave abusive relationships. Madison is a writer, producer and poet whose words can be found in the Guardian, VICE, Overland, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and more. We speak about the need to center survivors in their stories and why it is important to talk about what hap...

It’s been almost a month since eligible Australian’s started receiving their Coronavirus Supplement. This extra $550 a fortnight payment was the government’s financial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week we're joined by Kristin O'Connell from the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union to help us make sense of the supplement, and why our government insists on punishing the poor. Produced and...

This week we look at two different areas, but both relating back to this current pandemic. Many disabled and chronically ill people have been navigating living at home long before the pandemic and have been supporting each other through it. In the first half of the show we hear from writer and facilitator Julia Rose Bak on care work in disabled communities, and bittersweet reflections on how non-d...

What is it like working from home for women and people with caring responsibilities? How can we expect women and carers to do two jobs at once? May the 1st is May Day, an important day for workers, and this week on the program we look at work under COVID-19 through a feminist lens. We'll hear a personal account of someone working from home with two children undertaking remote learning, and speak w...

This week on Women on the Line, we explore how the COVID19 pandemic is affecting people in immigration detention both in the US and here in Australia. First, we listen to a conversation between Max Castle from 3CR Community Radio's Thursday Breakfast, and Maru Mora-Villalpando, a community organiser working in Seattle/Tacoma, Washington, about the threat of coronavirus outbreaks in US immigration...

It’s a strange time at the moment, a time to stick together, while doing our best to physically stay apart. This week on the program we speak with epidemiologist Dr Meru Sheel based at the Australian National University about the public health implications of COVID-19 and the best things we can be doing to work towards solidarity in community and global health at this time. We also hear from Sally...

This week on Women on the Line, we hear a speech by social theorist and activist Professor Patricia Hill Collins on why intersectionality matters. This talk was recorded at the Activism at the Margins conference organised by RMIT University.  Professor Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology Emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park and Charles Phelps Taf...

This week on Women on the Line, we hear some highlights from the Activism @ the Margins conference. In the first half of the show, Kashifa Aslam, an RMIT researcher, looks at the women behind the viral hashtag #illridewithyou.  Kashifa also explores whether their activism was real, or symbolic. Later in the program, RMIT lecturer, Pauline Anastasiou discusses the silent activism of the Big Umbrell...

This week on the program we look at flood plain harvesting in NSW and the impact of bushfires in East Gippsland. We'll hear excerpts from a recent interview by 3CR Community Radio Tuesday Hometime presenter Jan Bartlett, who spoke with Fiona York for news from East Gippsland after the devastating fires. First though we speak with Bev Smiles, President of the Inland Rivers Network, about the recent...

This week we hear speeches from protests tackling racism in the settler colony. First, we hear from the Invasion Day 2020 rally in Melbourne, organised by the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, with Sasha Edwards speaking on Justice for Jesse Edwards, and from Apryl Watson-Day on Justice for Tanya Day. Second, we hear from the protest, No to racism, lift the travel ban rally by Stand Together...

Since October 2019, Chile has been crippled by rolling strikes across multiple sectors of the economy, and generalised political rebellion in the streets. The cause of these uprisings at one point, was the raising in prices of fares on the Santiago subway, but has since channelled people’s general anger and frustration at political corruption and enduring poverty in that country. Juliana Rivas, is...

On this show, you will hear from Donna Lyon, academic, filmmaker and boxer discussing her project ‘Left/ Write// Hook’ - designed to help women who have experienced sexual abuse and trauma find a connection to their body, mind and spirit through weekly transformative writing and boxing workshops. You will also hear from Mischa Merz, boxer, writer and owner of Mischa’s Boxing Central Gym discussing...

Today on Women on the Line, the campaign to abolish Australia Day. January 26 marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, the invasion of Australia and the start of genocide against the original owners of this land. For the last 3 years, the campaign to abolish Australia Day – not just to change the date – has garnered a lot of public support. We...

This week we hear about the broader issues of oppression around the struggle for Justice for Filipina trans woman Mhelody Polan Bruno, who was killed on holiday in Australia last year. We hear from Lina Cabaero, from Migrante Australia, who also talks about Phillipines solidarity. We then hear excerpts from a vigil last year in Melbourne, organised by Members of Filipinx, Trans, Asian Diaspora com...

India’s Hindu-supremacist BJP government has stepped up its state repression by ramming through areactionary Citizenship Amendment Act in early December 2019. The law grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but denies that right to Muslims from any country in South Asia. Immigrants from other countries in the region, including Tamils from Sri La...