 Today is a momentous day, but it is the combination of a long history fought on this land, for equality, of sharing stories, of being able to share our truth and our power, and putting truth to power too. And I'm really, really honored to be joined today by many people who I've admired over the years and thought far wiser than their years. And I think that we have this unique opportunity to hear from them today. So it is my absolute pleasure to announce and introduce you to our panelists today. Sitting on my left here, we have Latoya Rul, who is a PhD candidate at the Jambana Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at UTS, where their research raises the voice of Aboriginal women leading the movement to stop Aboriginal deaths in custody. Latoya is a really phenomenal and outstanding leader who's worked successfully towards achieving legislative change in both the South Australia as well as continuing to work nationally and having the effect of that work flow through internationally too. They've been honoured with inclusion in Deloitte's Out50 LGBTIQ Plus Leaders of Australia and were selected as one of five racial justice guardians of the year. In Time Magazine's People of the Year 2020 edition, please join me in welcoming Latoya. Next, I'm so thrilled to be able to introduce Yasmin Poole, who really needs no introduction, but who is a public speaker, a board director, and an advocate. She's passionate about ensuring that young people in particular and diverse young people have a voice in Australia's political institutions, as well as across the media, and I would say in far more boardrooms and rooms across the country. She's the chair of the Victorian government's Youth Congress, a plan international ambassador, and non-executive board director for both OSHA Harvest as well as YWCA. In 2021, she was awarded Youth Influencer of the Year by the Martin Luther King Junior Centre and has been also named as one of Australian Financial Review's top 100 women of influence, as well as one of the 40 under 40 Asian Australians. Everyone, please welcome Yasmin Poole. And finally, I'm so proud to introduce Varsha Yajmin, who is just one of those phenomenal young people who goes above and beyond, when I think most of us don't really know what we're doing in high school, someone who's really out there at the forefront. So at 19 years old, 19 years old, Varsha is a speaker, podcaster, and advocate for climate justice as well as mental health awareness. Varsha has been an organiser for the School Strike for Climate and also for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Varsha is now a coordinator at the Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity Network and a paralegal at Equity Generation Lawyers, who conducts climate change litigation. Varsha also has a podcast, So Not to Be Controversial, which aims to create a community for young people across young South Asians to feel represented, as well as empowered and have the leadership potential that they already show. So thank you and welcome to Varsha too. So here today, I'm evidently joined by this wonderful panel of young women and gender-diverse people who really represent a broad spectrum of society but also have some really deep and important views. And I want to throw with a, you know, kind of throw you a question to all of you to start with. And that's, I guess, in, you know, colonial Australia that we've, you know, grown up in or perhaps experienced for parts of our lives. I think a lot of people, when they think about leadership, they've been socialized to think about maybe that straight white man in power, the old look, who's able to make all of the decisions. And perhaps in some ways they've taken on some of those ideas of what it means to be a leader. So what do you think of when you think about leadership? And also, do you think that young people, maybe there's a bit of a changing of the guard when it comes to advocating for some of these social change initiatives? Latoya, can I start with you? Can I throw it open to you? Sure. Hello, everybody. Yeah, I just want to quickly acknowledge the country, obviously, that we're standing on is Aboriginal land and that this is stolen Aboriginal land as every Aboriginal nation across Australia is. And just obviously acknowledging Aunty Matilda as well and thank you for such kind and inspiring words for all of us. And that really is the, you know, I guess the debt that Aboriginal people have also, that's not really spoken about is that we're constantly looked to continuously to inspire other people when it does come to issues like colonialism, when it does come to issues of governance and, you know, the overpowering patriarchal structures because of course, we were the first ones, my ancestors were the first ones to have to face these issues here on this land. And so fittingly, I think we are the first ones, particularly our elders, Aunty Matilda are the first ones to be able to speak to these issues. And so in saying that, I would say, yeah, I do think that the government and these structures are falling away. And I know that wasn't necessarily the question, but my hope, I guess, is that they are falling away and being dismantled. And you can see that from here at least today by this panel that historically wouldn't have happened otherwise, not too long ago. I do look forward to a future of a decolonial decay of the government and structures that we're working within and I'm sure we're going to speak to those more, but yeah, I'll pass it on. Love that decolonial decay. Yasmin, what do you think, what do you view as leadership? How is that changing in your eyes? Yeah, I mean, well, when I was younger to me, especially in high school, leadership really was, when someone would say it, I think, okay, a CEO. A CEO of some abstract bank or financial corporation, someone that could do a really strong handshake and had a gruff voice and someone who was, I'd see like a old white man. And that was what I think I had been socialized to see, especially growing up. When you switched on the TV and you'd watch Question Time, that's exactly what we'd see when you look at images of business and other leadership. That's what I would see as a young Asian-Australian woman. But what I think was really significant about last year, especially the movement around women, I remember going to the protest at Parliament House and it was, I think a moment that really stayed with me was standing in front of Parliament House, which is the highest political institution. And then turning around and seeing a wave of people standing together, mainly women, from all diverse backgrounds and walks of life. And I think there was something in that, because we were outside demanding for structural reform and for necessary change and for agency and justice and freedom for everybody. So to me, the people that were sitting inside of Parliament refusing to meet with us, refusing to acknowledge us, that wasn't leadership. But for us coming out wherever we are, that was us coming together as leaders in solidarity together. And I think more and more, I've realized that the true leadership is one that cuts through the jargon and all the political rhetoric and speaks truth to power. And I've been really, really inspired hearing the voices that are doing that and speaking about their lived experience. So I guess for me, even through my background and trying to navigate leadership, I've really overcome that traditional idea of the guy in the suit. So for me, even as a leader in my roles, I'd like to sit back. I don't like to dominate the conversation. I wait until I feel like I have something valuable to say. But actually it's in the moments of listening that I think sometimes we can get to the best outcomes. So you mentioned Youth Congress, that was all about mental health and what was really important was to sit back and listen to every young person in that room. And we all had different experiences of the mental health system. There were people who were queer, who were First Nations, someone who was disabled as well. So I think to realise that different forms of leadership is empowering and to embrace who we are in our full selves is really important. I love that and it reminds me, Latoya's spoken to ABC, I believe, on radio and has this great segment. You were speaking essentially about how important lived experience is to leadership. And it's not all about getting a university degree, although we're in the A and U, so welcome. But also there's really about that coming to and being who you are from wherever you are and meeting others in that similar way. You don't have to, they don't have to be someone particularly in some particular role. So, Varsha, over to you. What do you think of as leadership and how do you think maybe is the guard changing? Do you think? I don't know, but I guess I also do want to acknowledge that we are on stolen land and being a South Asian woman myself, I inherit a lot of settler privilege being here and then a lot of what I'm going to be saying today is about justice. But I really can't say that we can achieve justice without acknowledging the Black peoples of so-called Australia. And I think that feeds into a lot of my idea of leadership as well, because this is a very random story, but at uni a couple of weeks ago, we were asked about what traits we associate with a leader. And honestly, all the ones that came to mind weren't great. Like I couldn't really say that I think leadership is about accountability or honesty or vulnerability, but really having a think about that, that's what I think leadership is. Like to me, my mom is a leader because she's vulnerable with me. She has conversations with me. I think she's so strong and she's persevered. And I don't see that in our traditional idea of leadership. I don't think parliament has leaders at the moment if I'm quite frank in the fact that there is no accountability. There is no transparency. I feel like we're never having conversations anymore. It's just kind of, I'm being fed policy. I'm literally just chucked a policy brief and being like, oh, okay, read this. This is what we want to do. We're not going to listen to anyone. And we've constantly seen that people actually aren't being heard, even with like the March for Justice and everything. It was completely denied and like, oh, at least we're not, you know, attacking people. Like, that's not the solution, sorry, but we need real leaders and real leadership means listening and it means having open, honest conversations that demand vulnerability and that's what justice and that's what leadership should be about. Thanks so much, Varsha. Really, really good point. And I guess, you know, each of you have quite a distinct journey but also experience of leadership yourselves. I'm really curious because we are based in the university. We've got lots of young minds and minds who are, I guess, open to learning and taking on new kind of ideas and transforming perhaps what they've always thought. You've all stood up to various institutions, whether it be the High Court, whether it be, you know, your very high profile public kind of talking on TV and radio, fighting for justice as you've done really on the front lines and at a very personal level. What would you tell young Australians when it comes to, I mean, those who maybe who wanted to help and who want to speak out or who want to be involved in these initiatives? What's the first step? How did you know what to do? And yeah, what would be your advice to them? And Varsha, do you want to kick us off this time? Yeah, let's do it. So first thing I would say is you don't need to be school captain. You don't need to be a prefect. You don't need to have a certain position anywhere. You don't need to be popular to do anything, any of those things, because that's how I always felt in high school. I was not school captain, didn't have that little badge or anything like that, because at the end of the day, I think it really is about passion and wanting to make change and not putting expectations on yourself. I feel like with areas like advocacy, activism, whatever you want to call it, there's an expectation of, you need to hit a certain number of followers or you need to be on these many platforms and be known by these people to actually feel like you're making a difference, but that's not true. I think when I started, I didn't really know what I was doing at all. I didn't even really know about climate justice or what mental health awareness was. These were just kind of buzzwords thrown around. So for me, it's really about learning. I think the first step to being able to make change is to actually learn why you want to make that change and having substance behind what you want to do. So I think from there on, it's just getting involved in your local group. I feel like everyone says that, but just find a community, whether it's a Facebook page or I don't know, a YouTube channel, anything that kind of fills your soul and also makes you feel like you're with like-minded people. I love that. Yeah, Yasmin. Well, I would say for me, it starts with realizing that everything around us is political. So in high school, we often teach, we speak at young people, we speak at students, but I think it's really more empowering to think about, well, what do you care about? What are the things that resonate with you? And to realize that you have power and capacity to try to address that thing, whatever it may be, and that we have a democratic system and a democracy for a reason, but it's really important to, I guess, to learn and to even see yourself as part of that solution. So for me, a big turning point was actually in high school when I decided to enter into my school's public speaking competition. So it was really small. It had like, there was like five people in the audience at most, but I decided back then when I was 16 to speak about the racism that my mom had experienced. So for context, it was 2014 and there was a lot of Islamophobia going around because ISIS was the main news topic at the time. So I would sit in the classroom and hear my classmates repeat the same kind of racist speeches that then hear their parents talk about, like banning all Muslims from entering the country. So in that moment, I decided to just say something and it wasn't polished and it wasn't perfect, but I decided to just stand up there and speak about my experiences and speak about what it's like to watch that and feeling silenced as a result. So in that moment, I realized that, we just spoken about seeing those male politicians in parliament and the suits, but in that moment, I had made myself feel seen because I had spoken out loud about what those experiences look like. So I think it starts there, but as you were saying it, it's really important to also get involved in spaces and groups that further that interest. So for me, I took a gap year, also had no idea what I was doing. I just really kind of wanted to make friends. I had moved to Melbourne, didn't have a single friend. And I started doing a couple of hours a week at Oak Tree, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. And I saw for the first time an organization that was led by young people. The CEO was 25 years old. They come back from uni and haven't do stuff on their Mac and it was really chill, but to see young people as a forefront of that movement, I think really opened my eyes to what lay ahead. So I would really recommend just finding something that you're interested in and curious about and really engaging with that and trying to understand more about it. That's an awesome piece of advice. And I think similar to both of you, I mean, I actually tried to find what I was passionate about because teachers would always say, find your passion and then the social change will come. And I found that was horrible advice. And actually I was more stemmed on by the things I hated. I really was just really driven by that. So I think that that can also be a great door. Latoya, over to you. Yeah, I echo those completely. It's about community. For me, it's also about needs. And a lot of us here are researchers and we go out and do the needs assessments. But for me, I was called by elders in the community that I was growing up in in Gardenland when I was about 20 and I had just started university back in 2012, 2013. And they wanted to put together what they called at the time a freedom movement and take that to Imbarwa, Alice Springs and consider how we could look at Aboriginal governance nationally around treaty. And so I was part of organizing those kind of resistance, that resistance movement and looking, yeah, I guess more widely about what the community needs were at the time. And so I remember also at that time being told the same thing of, you know, you've got the influence, you've got capacity, you've got education. I left school at 15, I think, but I somehow ended up at university still, which was a turning point for me and a wonderful thing that's happened in my life that's brought me to PhD. But with that influence, I remember starting to look at Q and A, somebody had to mention it. And I submitted a question to Q and A and part of that question was, is it time that we call on international aid to get support around the high levels of incarceration and deaths in custody? That was two years before my brother died in custody. And so for me, activism, I came to activism through the need, not knowing that it was my own need. So my, I guess, point there for young people and all people really, don't wait until it happens to you. Get mobilized beforehand and then you'll find that your community will be much stronger when it is happening to you. Take a little bit longer, I've been watching lately and really sympathizing with a lot of our older communities who are aging and who are really left and discarded, particularly older women who can't get employment, who are becoming homeless as a large demographic there that are being left behind. And so likewise, don't wait for it to happen to you. We will all likely get old if we're privileged enough to live past 30 in my case and my brother's case. We will all end up with various disabilities and various issues that we're going to be facing. So care now and support your elders and your communities, but also, yeah, what's impacting you and your environment that you're in right now? Thanks so much, Latoya. And I guess, you know, for me, I want to move into this space a little bit more. So since, I guess, the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report was released, there's been roughly 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody, 500. For you, I know that this has hit home, particularly personally. And I guess I wanted to know, you know, how does it feel to be advocating for issues that have been around, you know, since you were born or long before you were born and how do you keep your voice at the forefront to be able to continue to advocate for change that's needed? Yeah, massive question. To start, I guess, even in Aunty Matilda's case and a lot of our elders' cases, you know, how are they still advocating against child removals and the stolen generations when more children, Aboriginal children today are being removed than at any other time in history, including colonization. So since 1788, you know, how do we mobilize around issues that are so long? How do we maintain hope? And I think it does come down to the everyday, the, you know, conversations like this, the meetings that are just wonderful and beautiful when you see the humanity in people that keep you moving forward. But it is around legislative change in my life at least, that after five years, we saw the change, the first national ban, sorry, the first state ban on spit hoods in Australia last year, which is how partially my brother passed by the restraint of a spit hood in custody. And so, you know, having those moments of achievement keep me going forward. But, you know, it is the exercise of sovereignty. It is the exercise of power and places that would rather not have us seen. It is the visibility on the street. It is a Black Lives Matter movement. And yeah, the mobilizing of young people as well that keeps me moving forward. Maintaining a voice in public space, I push my way through. I mean, I was invited today, but I probably would have just shown up anyway and said a few words. You know, just not being scared to be present, knowing that power that we each hold, whether you're Black or white or, you know, other, as I think Matilda would say. Yeah, just having, being there, putting yourself there. And I know that a lot of the time, particularly as women and gender diverse people, particularly shout out to our trans sisters as well, who are just as much women as, you know, everybody else is a woman, you know, considering holding space also for other women, women from diverse backgrounds. Yeah, these are some of the most pinnacle things that we can do knowing that in other ways they're so rejected from these spaces. So I'll pass that on. No, thank you so much. And I think you kind of go to this sense of, well, there's a difficulty and perhaps uncomfortableness to push past and also get yourself out there and heard, but also how fundamentally important it is. Yasmin, for you, you've mentioned that speech you gave when you were in high school around Islamophobia. Since then, you've advocated for a number of different causes and topics, including women's empowerment. Can you talk to us about the importance of intersectionality in all that you do? And what you see is perhaps the biggest gains, but also the areas that we really, really need to improve on still. Yeah, I mean, the lives that we live are intersectional. So, you know, you were talking about trans women and I think a lot of issues with, often even during Inshash Women's Day, we make it seem like it's just an empowerment thing, but it actually needs to have a conversation about the systems and the structures around us and the way that they interconnect and interlock with each other to oppress women and gender diverse people. And in fact, you know, frankly, all of us in different ways. I talked about my mum's experience and back then in high school, I would talk about racism, but now looking back, I realized that it's an intersection of things like sexism, racism, and also the fact that we didn't have much money growing up. There was, and that isn't something that can be separated and divided and analyzed on its own, it could be, but it wouldn't actually represent what was happening. And it isn't just her, it's happening every single day. So when we talk about gender inequality, it isn't, frankly, it isn't accurate to just treat the experience of women as a whole. And in this movement and something that is really important is to recognize that we can hold privilege and oppression depending on the circumstances in which we were born and in which we grew up. So to realize that the space that we hold and even me while I feel really fortunate to do media work, I certainly do not speak for the experience of every woman and every young woman and even every young woman of color. So in our work and in this movement, it's so, so, so important that we have to think about the diversity of who we are because we are standing at various intersections of wherever we are. So I think to see this issue in its holistic nature means that we aren't just treating something, we're saying that's a gender issue, that's a youth issue, that's a race issue, they are all connected. So to see it, I think, as a connected system is one way that we can think about doing things differently. I love that, yep. And just normalizing the fact that we've got a, you know, sure we may focus on gender as a predominant force at some times, but to be able to do that in a way that recognizes that actually that's pretty diverse and differently experienced. Varsha, for you, I guess you've been on a journey around climate justice particularly, but also mental health advocacy, but you've been noted to not call yourself an activist. Walk us through that, what is that for you? How do you describe yourself and kind of talk us through the power of words here? Yeah, so I'm still quite conflicted on it. So initially I was suddenly termed an activist and I was like, I don't know what that is. Like I've literally just joined a climate justice group and I've helped organize a strike. So that makes me an activist. And all of a sudden it's like this level, the expectation that you place on yourself of, oh, but I don't have as many followers as this activist or I haven't been doing as much as this activist there or I haven't been in the movement long enough. And then you also have the other side of where people will just come to one meeting and all of a sudden they're an activist. And I was kind of like, I don't want to be part of this almost elite group of people because to me it's really off-putting to have to reach a certain standard to be something. Like I think anyone can be an activist if they wanna be. Speaking up about an issue is not what defines that for me because I work with so many amazing people every day and they're probably not noted as an activist because they're behind the scenes. Just because I've had the chance to do some media, it's like, oh, okay, she's an activist now. And that's always felt quite uncomfortable. And then I was like, I'll call myself an advocate then. I don't really know what that means either though. What does it mean to be an advocate? And then I think I've just come to a realization that getting caught up in the semantics of things sometimes is not the most helpful. And yeah, I think I've just been like, if you wanna call me an activist, go for it. To me, I'm just a human. And I work with amazing humans that probably are not called an activist for whatever reason, but we're all doing the same thing. We're all part of the same fight. And yeah, so I don't know if that really answered your question. I like that, because I think goes to what we were talking about before, which is around redefining leadership, right? I mean, ultimately, labels that are put on us aren't always helpful. And I think you made a great point around the elitism about some of these terms that actually there's a whole lot of leaders within our community who've been doing the ground work for so, so long. They may not have the awards, they may not have the spotlight, they may not have the media coverage, but what makes them any less powerful or important to the movement. So I really love that point you made there. Also love it, could you tell us more about the Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity group and movement that you're part of? And basically, why is it important for you to have diversity of representation, particularly when it comes to climate justice and climate change? And we've got to take climate action. I think anyone who's been in Queensland or Northern Rivers right now would agree with that. Please. All right, so Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity, it is a mouthful, I will just call it Sapna, but Sapna is, it actually means a dream in Hindi and in the language that I speak Canada, we say Schwapna, so there's kind of like different variations of it, but this was an organization that a fellow few South Asians and I founded in 2020. So kind of Black Lives Matter protests happened and I think at that point, the whole issue of racism kind of came up again in the media, like it's obviously been around for ages, but at that point, I think it really hit me that I'd been in the climate justice space for three years. I'd had the absolute privilege to talk about climate justice on a public platform and I'd never once mentioned that I was a South Asian woman and I'd done tons of media training, I'd done all of that and nobody had ever mentioned to me like, hey, maybe you should talk about your perspective as a woman of color or like, how does that affect you? And it was only after reflecting on it that I was like, oh, okay, so I've actually been in this really woke movement of climate justice that has colonial underpinnings and for a few South Asians and I, we realized that this needed to change and that change could only be brought by actually holding and creating space for South Asian representation because even last year after the IPCC report was released, Scott Morrison went on to say that, unless China and India make a difference it won't matter what Australia does. And the thing is, we don't really need, I don't think countries like India and China or any countries in South Asia need the support of other countries to come and say, you need to be switching to renewables and tell Adani to go back to where he came from. That isn't climate justice. What climate justice is is recognizing that countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh don't really have the means for renewable energy right now. They don't even have electricity in some towns, how can we ask them to have renewable energy? For those countries, it's about community-led solutions. So it means looking at issues of caste, of gender because those are things that are really prominent there. And that's what kind of made me realize that this space is so important. So SAPNA has been doing tons of research. It's not just action after action and like mobilizing people as important as it is. And I've been in those kinds of groups before. I've realized the importance of research. It's about researching things like the Chipka movement in India, which was there since the 1970s. And it sees amazing women who literally sacrificed themselves like they were surrounding trees and it was all nonviolent protests because they didn't want these trees to get cut down. That is what environmental justice means to me. It means understanding that solutions are based in context. You can't just stick a band-aid on it and say that we're gonna fix the climate crisis now. It's really about looking at context and people and women and the effect that people of color have from climate change. Well, thanks so much for sharing that. I was just gonna say, yeah, that context piece is so immensely important and we were doing a deep listening tour throughout rural and remote Queensland last year all around climate justice. And it was the exact same messages that we were kind of hearing from the communities on the ground as often they were already problem solving. They often already knew the big issues. They didn't need to be lectured about them and they didn't need necessarily the kind of whatever I'm in the cities were kind of saying about their communities. But without that context, without actually being able to be there and tie in the way, as you said, gender class, you know, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, you know, all the ways in which that relates and comes to be the lived reality of our adaptation and action around climate change. I mean, it's quite a different story, I think. Thanks so much for sharing a little bit more there. For you, Yasmin, you talk a lot about leadership. You demonstrate leadership through every movement. And I guess through that, there's a bit of a focus on, well, being able to influence and I guess have others listen to you, but also for good leadership ultimately is to be influenced by and to listen to others. What would kind of be your advice, I suppose, for the leaders out there, whether that's informal positions of power or not, around some of this, I guess, listening and being influenced by? And additionally, I know that in the last 24, 48 hours, the safety, respect and equity campaign has been launched. Could you tell us a little bit more about that too? Yeah, sure. So it essentially started from Zoom meetings, but I and alongside other women launched a video, which is essentially calling for the safety, equity and respect of everyone, but in light of last year, for women and gender diverse people. So essentially trying to sustain the momentum of everything that came off the back of last year. And in this conversation, there's so many ways that we can address this problem. There's so many, we just talked about intersectionality, there's so many different facets from the poverty, the fact that women are disproportionately more likely to experience poverty, the fact that older women are most at risk of homelessness to conversations like the consent education of young people. We saw it being mandatory, implemented and said it was mandatory, but what is that actually going to look like? Are we going to be teaching young people about power structures and inequality and deepening that conversation to spaces like the workplace? So are there going to be strong rules against sexual harassment and assault and for it to be treated with the dignity, for survivors to be treated with the dignity that of course they deserve? So to raise awareness of these issues and as part of the group, I am really conscious to be bringing that intersectional background with every single conversation that we're having. That's something that myself and other diverse women in that group are constantly raising. So that's something that we hope to continue that conversation and lead to further debate. In terms of what politicians can, but sorry, what decision makers can be doing, I think it's to really, to truly to value our experience and our lived experience. And there's been so many rooms that I've been part of where young people, for example, are put into the space just to be there and we're given the opportunity to say something, a message of hope and then what happens next and we don't have input into the concrete solutions. And it's really, really essential that decision makers are willing to overcome, I think the belief that older generations know all and to actually realize that this is issues in front of us is holistic. So a lot of the time I think even people in power can feel quite defensive when challenged about the position that they're in. But again, to overcome that and to be willing to listen and learn and while I think we're all working together, I am really inspired by the younger generation. I think we are realizing again that these kind of movements have to involve every single one of us. So to continue to push on despite the barriers is something that we'll just have to continue to do. So to be in spaces where our voices are valued and heard is really important. And it's my hope that decision makers create consistently more spaces for young people to have that voice in power. And if they don't, any words of wisdom or advice for how to elbow your way in? Say, screw it, elbow it anyway. You know, it's, I think if we've seen by people like Grace Ham and Brittany Higgins, they've spoken so bravely and so powerfully about something that was never in there, something that they'd never asked for and decided to speak up anyway. And I think it's really exposing the leaders that turn away. So to those leaders, I say, watch out. You're exposing your misogyny and we see you. We see you. We see you. Powerful words. Latoya, I know you spoke before a little bit about the campaign, Band Spit Hoods. But for our audience here who may know a little or maybe a lot, can you walk us through what that campaign is, what it means to you, how you came to it and I guess what have been some of the big achievements so far and where do you hope it to go or similar movements? If I don't approach this now, I think I won't. So I want to do some calling in. I did see that gender equity group launched two days ago and it's still very white, the women in it and that was being called out on Twitter by the black community, by the Aboriginal community and others and I commend that call out or call in whatever people like to situate that as because again, last year these conversations were being had and the way I came across lovely Brittany Higgins, shout out, was through an article that I wrote in the Guardian about Aboriginal women's deaths in custody and that at any point there could be a white female police officer standing on that frontline as part of giving evidence in a death in custody in quest the next day. So how do we look at women's representations, particularly white women's representations in the death in custody of black women in Australia and these are kind of some discussions that definitely to start being had around the intersections within the movement and as Kimberly Crenshaw herself has been doing some work around that actually intersectionality as a basis was for black women and women of color, not actually for white women, if you wanna have a suss about that, Kimberly has been going around doing talks across Turtle Island, America and so just how we actually use these methodologies as well and use these theories to our advantage and needs a bit of a think and how we practice those and so even though the awesome professor, distinguished professor, Larissa Burrent, who I love and adore and I get to work with is part of the gender equity group that was launched two days ago. Yeah, it would be really awesome, really, really cool to see lots of color amongst that group. So I just wanted to say that here today. Thank you. Yeah. But well done, obviously. Yeah, long way to go. But the one thing I love then about the ban on spit hoods and the hashtag ban spit hoods collective is that we are a group of black, so Aboriginal women and people of color. I think there's only two people of non-Aboriginal descent in our group and that was formed last year during my brother's coronial inquest. So that's still going. We're still yet to have the report almost six years this September since his death. So coronial inquests take such a long toll, particularly on the families of Aboriginal women who have died in custody. And so, thankfully, with the ban on spit hoods, it actually started by a woman, Connie Benarros, who was part of SA's best candidate in South Australia. It's part of the Xenophon team back then. She put in two bills that actually got voted down, sadly, after Dondale. And we all saw the Four Corners, I hope, report into the disgusting and terrible violent treatment of Dylan Voller with the spit hood and in the restraint chair. Just two weeks ago, the Northern Territory reported that this is still going on by Northern Territory police on children as young as 12. We know that the age of criminal responsibility in Australia is 10 years old. So we know that things like spit hoods and restraint chairs can be applied. And chemical restraints, as Aunty said before, the sticking of the injection in the bum, these are chemical restraints that are used also on children. And so that includes young girls and women as well in these discussions of violence and state violence. So we wanted to think in the ban on spit hoods, how we can, one, ban spit hoods nationally, of course. Two, have a conversation about women's movements and black women's movements and leadership. And three, have a wider discussion about state violence in Australia and racism. And so I think that so far we're achieving those things. Again, we achieved the first essay ban through women's leadership in an essay on spit hoods. And there are organizations in groups, various groups coming together to form a ban spit hoods collective. But my hope for that is that it turns into a wider discussion around police brutality, deaths in custody, and use of force in Australia to join on to much wider global movements. As we know, my good friend, Patrice Cullers, who I had the benefit of being hosted by, who started the Black Lives Matter movement, was with her in 2019 in LA, and we had discussions around these, when she came over for the Sydney Peace Prize as well, we had discussions around how we can build the global movement and that solidarity because obviously there's also, with the Black Lives Matter movement, how do we see blackness and indigeneity and how do those two intersect? But yeah, those conversations are continuing to be had, but I'm really, really interested in how we can cross borders, particularly colonial borders to have those discussions and united solidarity for those. And it is my hope that wonderful groups like yours that have just launched will look at state violence as an issue of violence upon women in Australia and those policing systems. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Latoya. And I always love events like this because whether it's in the audience or on the panel, you just see the connections start to be made and how we can all partner up together. Last question for all of you, 30 seconds. Give us, you know, your dream. What do you wish we weren't still talking about one year from now because we will have achieved it? Basha, can I throw it to you first? OK, I don't think it's what we're talking about, but how we're talking about it that I want to see change, I guess. It's more that I don't want to have to keep fighting for a space for women of colour, for Indigenous women. I think this should just be normalised. It shouldn't be something like, wow, they're actually being diverse. So I just want to see diversity being normalised. It shouldn't be a shock. And yeah, I just think intersectionality, justice, all of those things, having substance behind those words. Thanks, Basha. Yeah, I mean, I'm really interested in political representation and whose voice is in the room. And I want us to go beyond just saying women should be in the room. And just like you're saying, saying also, what about diverse voices in the room? So we often talk about female leadership, but as someone who is a woman of colour, I'm saying, well, what kind of women? And we see a lot of white women in these spaces. And yes, female representation is so important, but I really want to see a kind of nuanced conversation about whose voice gets to be heard in those decision-making spaces. So I want us to be framing that in a more inclusive way and to be demanding for representation for all of us, because I think in a healthy democracy, that is what that should look like. Thanks so much, Yasmin. And what about you, Latoya? Final words. It's a hard one, right? We want to see the decolonial decay of so many structures and institutions across this place. But my heart just coming from pride on the weekend, of course, is with Black trans women, particularly in all trans women who are being murdered and killed right across the world and in Australia as well. And so I'd love to see a full panel that we would all show up to of trans women speaking on events like this and also just, yeah, the advocacy against the murder of people who deserve to live and have so much to give. I went to the ball and there was a voguing and it was like the best, most wonderful creative thing that I think that everybody would benefit from being part of just the joy. So yeah, I really value times like those and people who can do that and pull it off where I come. Perfect, and I think it's no coincidence that Mardi Gras was on the weekend and International Women's Day is now. I mean, it was Black trans women of color who first kind of pushed for a lot of the pride movements both in Australia and in the US. Thank you to this wonderful panel who have been just so brilliant and I think given so many insights and generously of their time to our audience. Before we give them a final thank you, it's my absolute honor to introduce the former Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable Julia Gillard, our Founder and Chair of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership to share a few words to you for this event. I'm sorry I can't be with you, but joining would have meant getting online at 2 a.m. in London. But I did want to send a message to say I have been so inspired by the leadership of young women who are taking Australia's gender equality conversation further. I hope the event goes really well today and it's a fantastic sharing of views. You give me a lot of optimism for the future. Brilliant and that's all from us folks. So can I please ask our wonderful audience to give our brilliant speakers a big round of applause and thank you for being here.