Diverse voices to explore inclusion at Surf Coast forum

THE Surf Coast will next month host a unique all-day forum that aims to interrogate the concept of inclusion: what it means, how it is interpreted and who defines it.

The event, Being the Other: Inclusion Unmasked, will take place on Friday, November 8 at the Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club from 8.30am, and feature a series of thought-provoking conversations with professionals from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

It will be presented by Track C Consulting, a Geelong-based firm established in 2019 by lawyer, human rights advocate and author Pirooz Jafari, that aims to bring critical conversations to the Geelong region.

Being the Other will be the fourth forum organised by Mr Jafari and the first to be held in the Surf Coast.

Mr Jafari, who migrated to Australia from Iran in the early 1990s, said inclusion is a word that is overused and frequently misunderstood, and despite the evolution of diversity, equity and inclusion definitions, policies and laws, there remained a large group of people who have been “othered” by systems and the community.

“We need to understand what it means and how exclusive it is to use the word inclusion,” he said.

“The minute we say, ‘I’m an organisation’ [or] ‘I’m a person and I’m going to include you in the conversation’ [it] means that I’ve already claimed the space and I’m deciding to let you in – or not.

“We really need to deconstruct the idea of inclusion. Who sets the space? Who sets the parameters? Who creates the space to begin with?”

The forum will begin with a panel of local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and Elders, led by Traditional Owner and academic Professor Wendy Brabham, who will discuss the impact exclusion has had on the First Nations community.

Award-winning speculative fiction writer and psychiatrist Grace Chan and Mr Jafari will then discuss what exclusion looks like in both the literary space and the medical profession, while anti-racism scholar Dr Nilmini Fernando will decode diversity, equality and inclusion policies, and identify the intersections between racism and inclusion.

The forum will then conclude with a panel discussion with representatives from different professions and perspectives.

Mr Jafari hopes people will walk away from the forum with “lightbulbs in their heads”.

“I want people to walk away really interrogating the idea of – and tearing it apart and deconstructing the idea of – spaces, policies, structures that are created.

“What we want, and what we would really like to see, is people coming and actively engaging with this dialogue, because I don’t think we do enough talking around it.”

Group discounts are available, as are student tickets, at significantly discounted prices.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, head to trackc.com.au/forums