Letter from our Managing Editor,
Georgia Rose Phillips,
on Tharunka Pink
It was somewhat daunting task, even as a woman, to choose one colour to assign to the Womens’ edition. With the scope and breadth of feminist history, combined with the seemingly infinite number of disparate and exhaustive efforts of activists and allies engaged in the ongoing fight for equality, it was a tricky choice.
With our editorial vision of championing diversity and encouraging urgent and challenging reflections, we arrived at the idea that the Womens’ edition would be assigned the colour pink on the basis of encouraging women-identifying contributors to create work that engaged with the two opposing forces: subverting and reclaiming.
In this edition we have encouraged women-identifying contributors to focus on pink as a metaphor for the things that have been assigned to our lived experience as women. We have encouraged our creators to unpack how they personally, socially, politically and culturally feel towards the very act of subverting and reclaiming of traits, practices, objects, history and the culture of our lived experiences.
In pink we have created a space for women to reflect honestly and openly about their bodies, their experiences and tensions that arise from both within and outside the intersecting cultures they belong to.
So much of maturing and learning to read the world through a gendered lens, I have found, is not only a very deliberate process of learning but also a very concerted process of unlearning and trying to grapple with the emotions that come with realising to some extent that you’ve been exploited in ways that become more layered the longer you preside over them.
However, I have found the bulk of my learning to navigate this has come from listening to other women, to asking questions, to encouraging women to reflect on the more challenging and silenced aspects of their experiences and sitting longer with ideas that are particularly difficult to navigate.
This edition has been deeply fulfilling to piece together. I can proudly say the work from each artist and designer is their own rich and immensely valuable vision. The ideas that were submitted were nurtured rather than unified under one ‘image of of what it means to be a woman’ in order to adhere to our goal of fostering a broader and more diverse culture of acceptance and inclusivity.
Our contributors have covered everything from hidden histories of nuns, the philosophy of rationalism and empathy, and women’s intercultural relationships with religion. We’ve had a mix of memoir, opinion, sketching, poetry and photo essays that are all innovative and honest pieces that challenge us to grow and learn from each other’s experiences in different ways.
I want to dedicate this edition to all the strong women-identifying individuals in our lives, to the ones still learning to be strong, to the one’s who uplift one another rather than undermine; and to the ones who are still finding their voices.
If you can’t get into UNSW and would like to get your hands on a copy of Tharunka pink, send us an email at: tharunka@arc.unsw.edu.au