Cathy Ronalds

Marie-Hana, from the series ‘femininity’

"I was raised in Maori culture in a small town in New Zealand. I was youngest of 11, motherless at a young age, and grew up feeling isolated even though I was raised by community. Throughout most of my life, I witnessed and experienced alcoholism, violence and the disempowering of women. Women suffered in silence, alone.
 
I’ve lived in Australia 20 years. I feel more at home here, healing with my community of women.
 
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi. Engari, he toa takitini.
My strength is not the strength of one.
It is the strength of many." Marie-Hana 

Karleen Minney

I SEE YOU TILDE.

As a mum I worried that, though my trans-daughter has transitioned into a wonderful woman, the world would not see the amazing person she is, but be caught in appearances and expectations of societal 'norms'. Through her journey and by her side, her girlfriend is another incredible person that sees her, that knows her, and adores her, champions her strengths and helps make the road smooth. Unencumbered by defining labels of female, lesbian or trans-woman they are simply two souls that  truly see each other and live a life of equality, respect and love.

Annette Ruzicka

If Hayley asked me...

I was heading out of a remote community in the Kimberley and was asked to give a lift to a young Ngarinyin woman. Her name was Hayley and she was accompanying her sisters who needed to see a doctor in Derby.
The 600km trip flew by. We went swimming at a gorge - which happened to be Hayley’s ancestral lands, had lunch at a roadhouse and blasted 90s music.
When I more recently saw the images of people scrambling up Uluru before it’s closure I felt a deep sense of shame.
We have so far to go when it comes to respecting and embracing indigenous culture.
During my day with Hayley if she had asked me, please don’t climb there or don’t take a photo of that – I would of course, have respected her wishes. She represents what it means to connect with our First Nations people; respect, equality and growth.

Aku Kadoga + Juno Gemes Collaboration

Victoria Reid

“Your daughter is being ambulanced from her English class, a fellow student pulled her chair out from under her and she can’t get up.” She was admitted to hospital overnight for pain management and mental health assessment due to ongoing verbal and physical bullying. The same boy sent her to hospital yesterday, he’d kicked her broken arm. He wasn’t reprimanded,
his mates sided with his story, only one of my daughter’s friends corroborated her story. I refused to send her back, we began homeschooling.
Equality should mean equal: opportunities; safety and belonging; empowerment; and high quality education, especially for girls.

Belinda Pratten

Water Sisters 2019

Lee: “I learnt I had to earn respect in her community.”
Lavinia: “…and I had to learn what respect meant, out of my community.”

Tracey Nearmy

When water should be the great equaliser, but it is being denied to communities in western NSW.
Prolonged drought exacerbated by demands on the water resources in the Murray Darling Basin region by irrigators to the north and cities to the south and west means the Darling River (Baaka) and the Menindee Lakes system are running dry.
The effect of the prolonged lack of water for the communities living along the river and lakes and the environment is having a devastating impact. Large fish kills in the Darling River last summer and reports of wildlife dying of thirst along with a suspicion of the quality of the water that is left is taking a large toll on the mental and cultural health of the communities that rely on these ecological systems. The towns of Menindee and Wilcannia have run out of drinkable water and rely on charity donations of 10 litre boxes of water and rain tank water for potable uses.

Zorica Purlija

Unfettered 2019

My project titled: Unfettered explores the theme of fathers raising daughters ... the premise being a father who gives freedom and unconditional love brings up women who know they’re equal to men, confronting societal norms seen to affect children after the age of six. The Bronte sisters and Judy Chicago had a father like that.
There seems to be a correlation between fathers raising primary and high school aged daughters with changing attitudes towards women and equality between the sexes, coined the Mighty Girl effect, found by sociologists.
“Understanding the malleability of attitudes towards gender norms is important for tackling gender inequality at its roots.”
Just as I’ve interrogated motherhood myths in my 2000 ‘Shedding Skin’ series, I feel I'm making speculative notions of how a father/daughter relationship effects female development, specifically in the way she relates to men. The focus of this body of work responds to research that suggests a heterosexual woman’s ability to develop healthy relationships with male partners is affected by her father’s presence in her formative years. Sourcing images from my own archive, I have used collage to explore the perceived voids and places of distress that occur in the female psyche when the father daughter attachment is insecure.

Tracy Lee Hebden

A message from the female body
I am NOT responsible for your uncontrollable sexual urges.
I am NOT responsible for your disgust on seeing it in public being used what it was designed for (feeding a baby).
I am NOT responsible for you raping someone.
I am NOT responsible for the moral destruction of society.
I am NOT responsible for your hatred for women.
I am NOT responsible for your shock at seeing the naked female form.
Let us create a new narrative around the female form and stop censorship on social media!

Ela Phan

Hi my name is Ela and I’m 11 years old. I like playing video games and love photography and art. I like taking pictures to inspire people that might want to have a try. I like taking photos of my family and friends because they’re an inspiration to me! This year for “Equality” I chose to use my teacher’s notes and papers to represent how they indifferent their salaries can be even though they share the same work and roles.

Virginia Star

My mother Daphne Hughes is 87.
She grew up in a time when being a female did not present the opportunities it does for young women today.
When an opportunity did present itself it was nigh impossible to accept, as her life where my mother could realise her dreams would not allow for this to happen.
Daphne was a beautifully talented opera singer and was offered a place in the Australian Opera but due to having five children and a husband she could not accept.
Life for women has evolved and now there are fewer boundaries to womens achievement.