Tangible acts of reconciliation - economic inclusion

January 25, 2023

Underwear for Humanity recognises January 26 as a day of survival and mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people.

As we head towards Survival Day (26th January), I’m reflecting on how we can tangibly and meaningfully contribute to systemic change in our country and take action to create a fairer society.

In Australia, we have the oldest living culture in the world…. yet, Indigenous people continue to face institutional racism, high incarceration rates and lower health and educational outcomes.

You only have to be a decent person to see this and know that it’s wrong. AND, to ask “what are we doing to address it?” ….

Change comes through connection and through hearing Indigenous voices…

I was lucky enough to go to a remote Aboriginal town, Wadeye, in July 2019 and have maintained a meaningful connection to that community. I feel so incredibly lucky to now call many people from there my friends.

In Australia, there is an ongoing feeling of guilt and powerlessness from the non-Aboriginal community.

We know deeply that things are bad, but what can we do? What is appropriate? We don’t want to offend. But as one of my dear Bundjalung friend says, ‘well sister appropriate isn’t bloody working’, it just perpetuates inaction. So put yourself out there and be part of the change.

Economic inclusion is one tangible thing we can do

In seeing and acknowledging that many doors are still closed to Aboriginal people, the responsibility is to explore how we can use our privilege to open them and to pass the mic!

We have a responsibility to make sure that Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander voices are heard and are central to our decision making as a country and a community.

Change comes from tangible actions…

For me, I hate inequality, it drove me to create Silent Arrow and has driven me to create Underwear for Humanity. I simply can’t live in a world without action against injustice.

I was studying sustainability and couldn’t believe that academics have known about the issues and solutions for change - yet they’ve been sitting on a shelf somewhere for decades! So that is how Underwear for Humanity was born.

Our tagline, ‘Kindness in Action’ reflects this drive, to not only talk about making change, but to actually take action. I acknowledge that sometimes that is scary, but there is too much at stake here. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are dying due to racism in this country.

We need Indigenous voices more than we need mine, so what can I do? What is the right thing? And economic inclusion makes so much sense. It’s also something we’ve always done at Underwear for Humanity.

Some steps we’ve taken towards economic inclusion

I work in a creative industry and am old enough to know people, so I can use that. Together with Rebecca Crawley from Thamarrurr Youth Indigenous Corporation (Elder owned), we dreamed up a program idea.

We connected with my friend Dave Giles-Kaye, to help us create the program, Fashion Futures. We were supposed to run the first program in April 2020…fast forward to post-pandemic, and we have now run two programs (in 2022 ).

What is Fashion Futures?

It is a program that exposes young adults from Wadeye to different elements of the fashion industry, with the goal to spark interest and have exposure, create connections, and open doors. If you are from a town with no shops (except one small food supply) it is another world. And if we can support their journey and make it safe, then the world opens with more opportunities.

I personally feel that we all need to do this, we all need to open doors to allow inclusion and opportunities, it is something I am extremely passionate about and motivated to do.

Next steps? Employment, traineeships, and further study if they want it. If that’s not wanted, that’s ok too - it’s just another opportunity for inclusion and choice.

Everyday steps towards economic inclusion at Underwear for Humanity

Where possible we prioritise Aboriginal contributors
We always have an Aboriginal model
We are running a crowdfunding print collaboration (Minyirr) with Blak Lens Incubator, to help Indigenous businesses get started
We pay-the-rent and give 50c to Aboriginal organisations for every item sold
We try to use our platform for conversation and breaking down barriers as well as highlighting Indigenous businesses you can support.

Supporting Indigenous Businesses is Healing

From sitting on Country, we have learned that employment manifests itself differently from the colonial construct of work and that being self-employed allows Indigenous people the freedom to do it their own way.⁠

An example of this is our crowdfunding collaboration, Minyirr. Minyirr began as a conversation about how we could funnel money impactfully to where it was needed to increase choice and inclusion. We know from research , that Indigenous businesses employ Indigenous people - and that by supporting Aboriginal-led businesses, we’re supporting the creation of more jobs. We also know that culturally; it can be unsafe for Aboriginal people to work in non-Aboriginal businesses.

In contrast, supporting businesses who are creating opportunities for someone to safely grow their independence and self-determination, has the capacity to increase choice and inclusion and to heal individuals and whole communities!

As inspiring Indigenous leader Fiona Jose shared with me at the Social Enterprise World Forum: “...this is everybody’s responsibility - we as a country have to lean in. Diversity and inclusion are the only things that will heal us as a country.”

If you’re reading this and wondering what you can do to create change for a fairer world – consider listening, sitting on country, letting go of untrue narratives that the media perpetuates about Aboriginal people, support their businesses (list on our Instagram), find ways to pass the mic and elevate Indigenous voices.

And did you know that many companies are offering to defer this public holiday? You can work and use that day to celebrate another time. 26^th January is not a day to celebrate, unless it is the survival of the oldest living culture in the world.

Kelly (Founder of UH)

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