2016-05-15
Vivienne Glance
Movie fundraisers are fun to go to, and even more so when the movie fits in with Greens values. For our Curtin fundraiser we chose 'Wide Open Sky because its a story about possibilities, about potential. Its about giving kids a chance to be the best they can be.
Im often asked why I put myself forward as a candidate, and why for the Greens?
I looked back at my career in writing, theatre and arts production and I realised I have many of the skills a candidate needs. Im comfortable speaking in public, I can organise my time (believe me, theatre is a very disciplined profession), I can work in a team and I can communicate using facts and story. But above all Ive nurtured my creativity and I can imagine a better future.
And it is this that inspires me to advocate for a Greens future. For us to bring about change, with community support, we must inspire with the power of hope.
I spent most of my childhood as one of six children, cared for by my widowed mother. We were poor, and when times were hard, we had empty cupboards, but we were supported. We lived in social housing, we all benefitted from free state-funded education, and as young adults, we had unemployment benefit to help us during economic downturns. When I was 20, I became homeless, fortunately only for a short time, but I was able to access community housing and complete my university degree.
And it was this support and access to education that gave me hope for my future. It helped me reach my potential and become a contributing member of society. But now I see these systems have disappeared or are being dismantled. Its only The Greens who have consistently spoken up about this, and worked hard towards a caring vision of Australia.
We cant rely on the Liberals to help us; they want to drag us back to a 19th century society, where the rich get richer, and the poor are classed as deserving or undeserving! And Labor has lost its way. A party that started out with high ideals in the early 20th century, has steadily moved away from its founding principles to do anything to get elected, with power-hungry factions tearing it apart from the inside.
But The Greens are the party of the 21st century. We can see whats coming and were ready to work with the whole of Australia to make our lives better.
We see a future where we can live with the environment not detached from it, where we respect all life on this planet and are sustained by it. We demand meaningful action on climate change that will stem global warming.
We have the visionary WA 2.0 plan that not only shows us how to build liveable cities and regional towns, that sees urban green spaces as vital to our health and well-being, as well as for biodiversity. It shows us how to build community, and provide transport and housing to supports our needs not just a developers bottom line. Its a plan that puts families close to schools, shops, and parks. What vision! The kind of vision we need for our future. And thanks to Scott Ludlam for his imagination in designing WA 2.0.
And thanks to Rachel Siewert for her often thankless work standing up for the marginalised and the vulnerable in our communities. Thats a hard gig. She bears witness to so many people suffering from violence, discrimination, poverty, loss of family, culture and identity, those without money, homes and hope. And she has worked tirelessly for over 12 years to speak up for them. What courage! What resilience and determination to care for people down on their luck, or who have been systematically rejected by the atrocious government policies of the past. And she fights for these people, and with them, to help change their lives for the better.
But to have a vision for the future takes imagination. It takes creativity. And the Arts are all about both.
We must release the creative energy within our children through great arts education at school. We can build that creativity into meaningful research and employment through tertiary education, whether in the social sciences and humanities or in the hard sciences. And we can maintain creativity throughout our lives by engaging with the arts in many ways.
Artists tell us our stories, they show us our community, they help us imagine a future – sometimes even one wed want to avoid. Artistic and creative expression is vital to our emotional and mental health, and to our sense of wellbeing. I once jokingly said that I want to bring more poetry into politics. But the more I imagine it, the more possible it becomes.
Art is part of our lives all of the time. At a recent protest about the woeful inaction on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a poem opened the rally and another closed it. And I had tears in my eyes. Poetry creates moments for us to fall into. It can stop time and take us into ourselves, to help us understand who we are, and to empathise with others.
But whether Ill succeed in bringing poetry into politics or not isnt up to me alone. Its up to you, all of you and anyone else you can bring along with you. If we want to turn a growing movement into an agency for real change, we need you. Please help us in the coming election with your support, your time, your vote and with your hope – the most important thing you can give us – because your hope is contagious. It gives people the drive and energy to make change possible.
An election can provoke feelings of cynicism and powerlessness in voters, but we should see it as our chance to be heard, to share our vision. Your hope for a better, cleaner, fairer and greener Australia will rise above the negativity, and it will lift you up, too.
As Greens members and supporters we care – and that takes courage. But we can do this. We have that courage. We have that vision.
And, like the kids in the movie 'Wide Open Sky who come from a small outback choir and are now singing their hearts out around Australia, we are also being heard. Together, we can take action and make our imagined future for a better Australia into a reality.
Photo: Viv flanked by Uncle Ben Taylor on the right and his brother Alfred, a profound poet, on the left (other person unidentified) at the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody rally on 15 April. Judy Blyth