Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 04 December
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Hanging upside-down from monkey bars, doing handstands, turning cartwheels – for years schoolyard play for young girls has involved pointless fussing with uniforms. Skirts or dresses aren’t always practical for girls.
The question of school uniforms has featured heavily in the headlines this year but, in terms of gender expectations and kids, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. In what other ways are entrenched ideas around gender limiting all our children and affecting their sense of themselves and their potential? And how can adults counteract stereotypes and be aware of their own biases when talking to kids – in the classroom, at home, on the sporting field and in the playground?
In this conversation, we’ll discuss recent and potential changes in policy as well as day-to-day tips for avoiding the traps of gender expectation. Join us for a practical, clear-eyed conversation about helping kids to be themselves.
Featuring
Sami Shah
Sami Shah is a multi-award winning comedian, writer, and journalist. Sami is a lecturer in journalism at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism, and is the Ambassador-at-Large for PEN Melbourne.
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Nelly Thomas
Nelly Thomas has been described as one of Australia’s most natural comedians. An award-winning performer, she was listed as one of Australia’s 'most innovative thinkers' in the Age's The Zone and was featured on the ABC’s Big Ideas: The Smartest Stuff on TV, Radio and Online.
Nelly is a regular guest on ABC Local Radio and Radio National and writes extensively in the print and online media, including as a columnist for New Matilda.
She has published a memoir, What Women Want (Random House, 2012) and has just released her first children’s book Some Girls (Piccolo Nero, 2018). Some Girls is an early childhood book aimed at fulfilling one of Nelly’s life-long passions – instilling confidence in little girls through challenging gender and other stereotypes. An accompanying book for boys is due out in mid-2018.
Nelly has been a stand-up comedian for 16 years. She stumbled into comedy after winning the Triple J Raw Comedy competition in 2003. Since then she’s done all the things comedians normally do – toured Australia and overseas, established a Melbourne Comedy room and performed at hundreds of gigs and a couple of dozen festivals. She’s also directed shows by some incredible comedians including Maria Bamford, Candy Bowers and Stella Young.
But alongside her normal comedy work, Nelly has forged a specialist career in comedic health promotion and is highly sought after as a health promotion speaker and MC. It is here that she can combine her comedic and communication skills with her passion for health and well-being; as understood in a whole-of-society context.
In 2016 Nelly was very proud to be named an Ambassador for Jean Hailes for Women’s Health – Australia’s leading women’s health organisation.
Nelly lives in Melbourne with her partner Lachlan, their two daughters, a grumpy poodle, a stupid labradoodle and one very resilient goldfish. She is a devotee of terrible reality television and was once an under-13s Girl’s BMX Champion.
Ro Allen
Ro Allen is an experienced and longstanding advocate for LGBTIQ Victorians and has held leadership positions in the community and government sectors.
Ro has been a member of three Victorian Government LGBTI ministerial advisory groups and chaired the ministerial advisory committee on LGBTI Health and Wellbeing between 2007 and 2009.
Ro is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and a former Chair of the Adult, Community and Further Education Board, the Victorian Skills Commission, the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVIC), and the Hume Regional Development Australia Committee.
As founding CEO of UnitingCare Cutting Edge, Ro established Victoria’s first rural support group for young LGBTI people, giving Ro a deep understanding of the issues faced in rural and regional areas.
Alyena Mohummadally
Alyena Mohummadally is a Pakistani-Australian queer Muslim woman who spent many years as a community legal centre lawyer before recently retraining as a primary school teacher.
She is currently writing a cookbook on modern Australian cuisine with a Pakistani twist, and her two young sons are her favourite people to cook for.
She founded the Queer Muslims in Australia Yahoo Group in 2005 and has been published in journals, books, articles, spoken at conferences, workshops and has had documentaries made on her queer Muslim advocacy. Alyena had a long tenure on the Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council Inc.