I, Kylie Bartlett founder of Lead Love Leap and Women of Achievement support the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) Report and Project. It’s time to achieve First Nations Gender Justice and Equality in Australia. Wiyi Yani U Thangani is the first time since 1986 that women and girls have been heard as a collective. Check out the landmark Wiyi Yani U Thangani Report and Community Guide from the link below.

https://wiyiyaniuthangani.humanrights.gov.au/ 

I am a proud supporter of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) Report and project. The report, released in December 2020, is the first time since 1986 that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls have been consulted as a collective about our [or their] rights, needs and aspirations. As Wiyi Yani U Thangani states, First Nations women and girls are strong, brave, determined, and resilient—they have remarkable skills, knowledge and boundless potential. The structural inequalities, poverty, trauma and discrimination that First Nations women and girls live with in Australia today, is unacceptable and must be addressed and overcome.

The Wiyi Yani U Thangani report puts on the table an ambitious and necessary First Nations female-led plan for structural change. My work within and across Lead Love Leap and Women of Achievement supports the Reports principles, key findings, overarching recommendations and pathways forward. I also back the major calls for action to hold a First Nations women and girls National Summit, and from this to develop a National Action Plan. These actions are critical to respond to the priorities set out in Wiyi Yani U Thangani so together, all Australians can achieve First nations gender justice and equality.

It is time to respond to First Nations women and girls’ voices by implementing the Wiyi Yani U Thangani report.

I endorse the Wiyi Yani U Thangani principles and overarching recommendations and encourage you to explore what this looks like in practice too. I pledge to elevate and celebrate the voices, truth-telling and leadership of First Nations women and girls through considered inclusion, representation, and empowerment in my work. The advancement of women in Australia is hollow without the advancement and elevation of First Nations women and girls. I acknowledge I have so much to learn from First Nations women and girls. I am proud to walk in allyship. Now is the time to take action.