International Women’s Day is all about celebrating women and their achievements. There are some amazing initiatives being run by women throughout Australia, and at AAP, we want to shine a spotlight on these initiatives and their founders, who are pioneering innovative and exciting projects in their fields of expertise. We’ve collated 6 Australian-Women led organisations that you just need to know who are challenging the status quo; and trust us, you’ll be better off after checking them out.
Amplify Bookstore
Finding it difficult to diversify your bookshelf? Amplify are doing just that- amplifying BIPOC authors and books, so that people can find the characters and stories where their voices are being represented and reflected. Founded and run by Marina and Xuan, they are challenging the publishing industry head on! They offer a wide selection of books from all walks of life, including pre-loved and book boxes.
A book club dedicated to telling Aboriginal stories written by the original story tellers. Started by Wirundjeri and Wailwan woman, Teela Reid, and Gumbaynggirr and Barkindji woman, Merinda Dutton, this book club was started in response to the isolation due to the pandemic. Both women are passionate about blak literature and wanted to create a safe space to celebrate Aboriginal stories and Aboriginal voices. Outside their lives as lawyers, they host their book club via Zoom but also propose the idea of having ‘mob street libraries’ to share books within the community.
South Asian Today
Australia’s first media organisation for South Asian women and non-binary people. Founded by Dilpreet Kaur Taggar, this platform empowers storytelling and representation for South Asian narratives, pushing to defy boundaries with their team of creatives and writers. Whether it’s politics, identity, relationships, beauty or pop culture, this space isn’t afraid to tackle it!
https://www.southasiantoday.com.au/home
Women of Colour are often given a lack of acknowledgement to be involved in theatre productions. Slanted Theatre is giving an opportunity for emerging young Asian Australian creatives to tell stories that they’d like to tell and showcase them to a local audience. Women are often featured in productions but also behind the scenes, directing, writing and producing.
Shapes and Sounds
In 2019, Asami founded Shapes and Sounds to create a platform to talk about Asian Australian mental health and wellbeing. Since then, she’s hosted webinars, interviews, run online programs and developed the Asian Australian Mental Practitioner List. Issues of racism, identity, culture and more affect our mental health throughout our lives, and this platform has created a strong community to discuss those in-between spaces.
https://www.justshapesandsounds.com/
A fiery podcast tackling issues from mental health to Black Lives Matter to career choices. These women, Tiana and Thuy, don’t hold back when speaking their minds and their opinions. Their flashy feed reflects their podcast in an earnest and authentic way to talk about issues that delve deep into the Asian experience.
asianaustralianproject.com 
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