2017-01-25
Marcella Brassett
Since I joined the Greens, working on Adam Bandt MP's 2013 campaign, I have been working to create spaces of safety, participation, comfort and empowerment in the Greens for people of colour and diverse cultural backgrounds.
My work for Adam in the latter half of the campaign was mainly to engage volunteers, supporters and voters from local African-Australian communities. I recruited many volunteers, including community leaders from Somali, Eritrean, Ethopian and Oromo backgrounds who came together to support Adam, in return for the great advocacy work his office had done for their communities. For these supporters it was self-interested political participation at its best.
But it wasn't easy. I transformed my little nook in Adam's CBD office (that I already squished in with our designer and volunteer coordinator) into a space for two African-Australian young people where I could make sure they were comfortable and had everything they needed.
When Muslim women came to Adam's office, while our micro-campaign sped up, I literally opened my arms to greet them. I showed them over-the-top warmth and made sure they never had the chance to feel awkward or out-of-place in an office space packed with mostly white middle class people.
We created a prayer space, and our highly supportive campaign manager gave up his office when there was nowhere else in our increasingly crowded spaces. Spaces that were dominated by people unlike us.
I remember when the young man I had recruited first sat on Adam's couch and said quietly that he thought his voice was too loud. “Who cares! My voice is loud!” I replied, rather loudly to make him feel ok about the volume of his voice, to be an ally.
These are the kinds of things we worry about when we are amongst the dominant Australian culture that is so different to ours, surrounded by people who don't look or act like us. How we can not stand out, how we need to change to fit in, or simply how not to call attention to ourselves.
I worked hard to reassure, mentor, train and support these amazing, politically savvy people and it was one of the greatest things I have ever done.
Together we did the work to engage and empower diverse communities in Melbourne, and that work has seen Adam re-elected twice, and Ellen Sandell elected. The African-Australian community in inner-Melbourne have two strong advocates for the issues their communities face.
The Greens are poised, now more than ever, to represent the political, social and economic interests of multicultural Australia. Our leader Richard Di Natale MP has committed to this. Our policies enshrine equality.
But true representation to really work, we must create that nook of comfort and safety. As our Co-convenor says, spaces where people of colour and diverse backgrounds can speak freely. The Greens have the opportunity to build something that no other Australian political party truly has done: give Australians of colour, including First Nations people, restorative justice through participation and representation, and real political power achieved through concerted affirmative action.
It could begin with progressive speaking lists in all meetings, as Rai Ismael, a powerful young Sudanese woman, running for a lower house seat in WA suggested at National Conference last November. It begins with checking privilege: respecting, genuinely consulting, listening to and empowering First Nations people — as Jasmyn Sheppard, a powerful young First Nations woman said at National Conference.
I am proud of the enormous work we have already begun to do and the support and solidarity we diverse Greens have given each other.
But this work won't get done unless every Greens member creates the space for more multicultural and multicoloured Greens. And allows, supports, stands aside for and encourages those of us who put our hands up to be leaders among them.
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Marcella Brassett is Co-Convenor of the Victorian Multicultural Greens Working Group