About SPEAK

SPEAK is a digital platform owned and operated by Women of Colour Australia (WoCA). WoCA is Women of Colour founded, run and led non-profit, grassroots organisation advocating for a fairer and more equitable Australia for all Women of Colour. WoCA exists to champion Australia’s Women of Colour through education programs, community support initiatives, and advocacy work.

SPEAK has been created for and by Women of Colour to centre our voices, stories, and lived experiences through articles and essays, poetry and prose. Pieces within SPEAK bring the voices of Women of Colour, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women – so often overlooked in our society – to the forefront to discuss every aspect of Australian society, from politics, arts, and culture to health, beauty, and social issues.

We share unvarnished realities and unsanitised truths.

We interrogate ideas and challenge assumptions.

We unmask stereotypes and break stigmas.

We analyse and critique systems and structures.

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

We exist to champion Australia’s Women of Colour.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PHRASE “WOMEN OF COLOR”

“Women of Color is not a biological designation. It is a solidarity definition. A commitment to work in collaboration with other oppressed women of color who have been minoritized. It is a term that has a lot of power.” Loretta Ross
Learn more here

WOMEN DEFINITION

Women – Transgender and cisgender, all those who experience or have experienced oppression as women, including non-binary and gender non-conforming people and all those who identify as women. Self-definition is at the discretion of the individual.
Definition credit: wire.org.au

ALLY DEFINITION

A – always centre the impacted
L – listen and learn from those who live in oppression
L – leverage your privilege
Y – yield the floor
*Mnemonic credit: Kayla Reed Executive Director ACTION St. Louis Follow Kayla Reed on Twitter @iKaylaReed

Privacy Policy Refund Policy Terms Of Use

WOMEN OF COLOUR LTD ABN 17 643 518 576 ACN 643 518 576 is an Australian Public Company Limited by Guarantee. We are a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). We have Deductible Gift Recipient status and operate the WoC Harm Prevention Fund. Gifts to the Fund may be deductible.

The WOMEN OF COLOUR AUSTRALIA logo is a Registered Trademark of WOMEN OF COLOUR LTD.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved

We acknowledge the Wallumattagal clan of the Darug nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which Women of Colour Australia is situated. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the strength and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with whom we stand in solidarity. We acknowledge that as settlers on this stolen Aboriginal land, we are beneficiaries of the dispossession, genocide, and ongoing colonial violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We believe that it is our collective responsibility and moral imperative to help dismantle the systemic barriers and structural inequities oppressing the original inhabitants of this land. We are also painfully aware that this land was taken forcibly, without a Treaty or reparations made. We have taken a practical step towards honouring sovereignty by paying the rent – and we invite you to do so too. This land is and always will be Aboriginal land. Sovereignty was never ceded.

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