Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Saturday 04 November
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location
Plenary 1 at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf Victoria Australia
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In February 2012, an unarmed African-American high-school student, Trayvon Martin, was shot dead in Sanford, Florida. His death was a flashpoint in American race relations, sparking protests across the United States and the beginning of a totally new kind of civil-rights movement: #blacklivesmatter.
The movement – founded by Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi and Alicia Garza – fights for justice and dignity for black people. Diffuse, inclusive and multifaceted, #blacklivesmatter has built momentum online and, crucially, on the ground. Its activists have enjoyed wins in court rooms, in the media, on the streets and in Barack Obama’s White House. The message has resonated across the globe, with large turnouts for rallies not just across the US but also in Brazil, Australia, South Africa and other countries.
In Australia to collect the Sydney Peace Prize, two of Black Lives Matter’s founders and leaders – Cullors, and Toronto BLM Chapter co-founder Rodney Diverlus – will talk with Jack Latimore about the achievements and broader goals of #blacklivesmatter … and how we can translate the lessons of the movement to face and fight entrenched inequality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.
Presented in partnership with the Sydney Peace Foundation. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Opal Tometi and Alicia Garza will no longer be appearing.
Featuring
Patrisse Cullors
Patrisse Cullors is an artist, organiser, freedom fighter, Fulbright scholar, public speaker, and NAACP History Maker from Los Angeles, California.
Patrisse has always been traveling on the path to freedom. Growing up with several of her loved ones experiencing incarceration and brutality at the hands of the state and coming out as queer at an early age, she has worked tirelessly for law enforcement accountability across the world, focusing on addressing trauma and building the resilience of the communities most affected.
Rodney Diverlus
Rodney Diverlus is an organiser, dancer, and choreographer/curator. Born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Rodney first moved to the United States as a refugee, but ended his migration journey in Toronto, Canada. There his work is anchored an artivist framework of transformative art and community organising practice.
In 2014, Rodney co-founded Black Lives Matter – Toronto, the first international iteration of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. As a lead chapter organiser, Rodney's works clusters on campaign development, communications and media relations, action coordination, and internal chapter management. BLMTO is a force in shifting public policy, implementing legislative changes, and challenging the cultural myth of Canadian benevolence as means of masking systemic anti-Black racism.
Currently, he is the Lead Canadian Organiser with the Black Lives Matter Global Network, in which he supports Canada's local chapters and organisers in developing strategy, infrastructure, and initiatives specific to the Canadian context.
He has served on the executive committees of various not-for-profit boards of directors, including as Secretary for the Ontario Youthline, Vice-President Equity and President of the Ryerson Students' Union, and Chairperson of the Palin Foundation. He was a commissioner with the Canadian Federations of Students – Ontario. There, his work was anchored in addressing access to education issues for communities from the margins, strategy and campaign development, post-secondary policy and reshaping the Federation's social justice infrastructure.
His writing has appeared in Canada's largest national publications including Toronto Star, THIS magazine, Huffington Post Canada, Now magazine and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Our School, Our Selves. He recently contributed to Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis to be published by Oxford University press.
An ardent artivist, Rodney toggles between his community organising and his work as a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, movement curator/choreographer, writer and arts educator. He uses his body and voice as a site to host and interpret text and rhythms, weaving in ancestral and diasporic narratives. His work draws on and weaves in a distinct movement aesthetic rooted in jazz, Afrikanic approaches to movement, and contemporary sensibilities, spoken word/oral traditions and digital media.
Rodney's work as an organiser and artist grapples with the visions of a decolonised and globalised Black diasporic existence, peppered with critical deconstructions of blackness, Caribbeanness, queerness, migration and the decolonial process. His work envisions a world where all Black lives are free.
Jack Latimore
Jack Latimore is an Indigenous researcher with the Centre for Advancing Journalism. He is currently involved in the development of several projects aimed at improving the quality of Indigenous representation and participation in the mainstream media-sphere. His journalism work has appeared in Koori Mail, Guardian Australia, Overland and IndigenousX.