Written by Ange Yang

It is well-known that diverse workplaces strengthen organisations, enhance opportunities, improve productivity, and financial performance.  So how does Australia stack up when it comes to the arts? 

Representation is important, to both the individual, the economy and to society. It's important to the twenty-something year old who, under cross-examination at the family dinner table, is saved from explaining how a writer can make a living by pointing to writers such as Benjamin Law.

It’s the ten year old who badgers their parents to buy a footy after seeing Joanna Lin score her first goal.

It’s the fourteen year old who can pull out his lunch without embarrassment (before returning  the architectural equivalent of a shipping container Australia considers an adequate replacement for a classroom) thanks to the long line of Masterchef alumni including the likes of Poh Ling Yeow, Adam Liaw and Sarah Tiong.

Representation across all forms of media challenge existing narratives on what it means to be “Australian”, offer a new way for communities to connect with each other, and influence the way people perceive themselves.

As is often said, “you cannot be what you cannot see.”

However, such sentiment has not readily translated to greater representation in the arts for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) peoples in Australia. In 2017, the Australian Council of the Arts observed that culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians participated in the creative sector at levels higher than that of the Australian population.

Yet these levels of engagement did not readily translate to greater representation in leadership or off-camera roles.

In their study examining the diversity of arts leadership in Australia, Diversity Arts Australia found that CALD Australians only comprised 9% of leaders Australia’s major cultural institutions and only 10% of CEOs and equivalents across all leading Australian creative sector organisations, despite 39% of Australians having a CALD background[1]. Diversity Arts Australia asserted that this amounted to an under-representation of 29%. Encouragingly, CALD Australians had increased leadership roles in the literature and publishing sector, comprising 14% of leadership positions in the sector.  Perhaps these statistics are not surprising in a context where approximately half of all of the major cultural organisations in Australia had no CALD representation at the leadership level in 2018.

Why is diversity in the arts important?

It bears remembering why representation is important.

As Camha Pham neatly summarised in her article on the lack of editorial diversity in Kill Your Darlings:

For quality diverse stories to be told, the teams working on these stories need to be equally diverse.

In failing to represent and include the diverse voices that make up modern Australia, we risk missing out on opportunities to enrich, educate and celebrate the rich tapestry of Australian society. We miss out on films, tv shows and opportunities - from the writer who signs up for a university course, to the producer on set, to the group of fourteen year olds who use their first paycheck from maccas to take their first date out to a movie.  We deprive CALD peoples the opportunity to share their lived experiences in favour of perpetuating CALD narratives from the perspective of those who do not identify as such. As a result, we risk letting people who do not identify as CALD define the experience of those who do.

We also deny ourselves the financial benefits of mobilising an entire section of the Australian population in an industry that contributed, by some estimates, around $16 billion to Australia’s GDP. Failing to tap into the consumers of this market risks overlooking a significant portion of the Australian community. The financial benefits of this has been recognised within the industry, as illustrated by global streaming giant Netflix’s push to develop and include content in South Korea, to the tune of $500 million. The financial fallout can also be seen through the ever steady exodus of Australian talent moving overseas to seek opportunities unavailable on Australian shores.

What next?

If the arts play an important role in how we see ourselves and what we define as ‘Australian’ then work has to be done both on and off-camera. If we’re committed to improving representation in the arts, we must go beyond merely acknowledging that diverse writers, producers are part of the solution.

Instead, we need to interrogate the structures that act as barriers to representation. As Osman Faruqi describes:

Internships, freelancing and working for free on sets are all too common in an industry that pumps out far more graduates and trainees than there are jobs. And a business model that relies on free labour privileges those who have the time and money to provide it. Overwhelmingly that’s white Australians from wealthy, inner-city backgrounds, and not those from non-English-speaking or migrant backgrounds. The more the industry relies on freelance and short-term work, the more this will exacerbate the diversity gap.

We need to ask who are commissioning works, who are judging works and who are awarding prizes and fellowships. We should ask how these structures shape the value we ascribe to our work. What are we saying is important, worth our attention and #trending?

The arts and creative industries have been ravaged by COVID-19. However, in the wake of the increased focus on discriminatory behaviour following the onset of COVID-19, the case for diversity both in-front and beyond the camera is more evident than ever.

After all, the arts have always explored universal themes of belonging, identity and offered new ways for us to connect to our peers. Arguably, the unity, laughter and sense of community that the arts provide are essential in an age of snap lockdowns and hotel quarantines.

I’m an Asian-Australian creative - where do I start?

Until that broader systemic change occurs, we encourage you to support Asian Australian creatives. You can do so by:

• supporting organisations which promote diversity in the arts (such as Asian Australian Film Forum and Network and Diversity Arts Australia) 

• supporting publications which focus on diversity on Australia (Somekind Press, 4A Papers, Liminal Magazine)

• identifying the individuals and organisations who are funding and producing the media you consume, and asking whether their work reflects a genuine commitment to promoting diversity in Australia.

Show that this work is important by expressing your support, by dedicating your time, your Friday evenings, your pockets, your likes, shares and reposts. Your support will ensure that there’s a foundation upon which systemic change can occur in due course.

References 

McKinsey & Company (May 2020) Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters, accessed at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Featured%20Insights/Diversity%20and%20Inclusion/Diversity%20wins%20How%20inclusion%20matters/Diversity-wins-How-inclusion-matters-vF.pdf 

Australia Council for the Arts (2017) Making Art Work: A summary and response by the Australia Council for the Arts, Sydney, accessed at: https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/making-art-work-throsby-report-5a05106d0bb69.pdf

Diversity Arts Australia, BYP Group and Western Sydney University (2019) Shifting the Balance: Cultural Diversity in Leadership Within the Australian Arts, Screen and Creative Sectors, Sydney, accessed at: http://diversityarts.org.au/app/uploads/Shifting-the-Balance-DARTS-small.pdf

Camha Pham (28 August 2020) ‘Where are all the editors of colour’ in Kill Your Darlings, accessed at: https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/where-are-all-the-editors-of-colour/

Bill Brown (2020) Art vs Dismal Science, accessed at: https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/P901-Art-vs-Dismal-Science-WEB.pdf

Lucas Shaw and Shirley Zhao (25 February 201) ‘Netflix Plans $500 Million Spending in Korea to Crack Asia’ in Bloomberg, accessed at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-25/netflix-plans-500-million-korea-budget-this-year-to-crack-asia  

Isabella Kwai (January 2019) ‘Why Asian-Australian actors are making it big in Hollywood but not at home’ in SBS News, accessed at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-asian-australian-actors-are-making-it-big-in-hollywood-but-not-at-home

Osman Faruqi (2016) ‘Media and Diversity in Australia’ in Meanjin Quarterly, accessed at: https://meanjin.com.au/essays/media-and-diversity-in-australia/

Briddle, Gary and Lo (28 October 2020) The experience of Asian-Australians during the COVI19 pandemic: Discrimination and Wellbeing, accessed at:  https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/2020/11/The_experience_of_Asian-Australians_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic.pdf

Janet Wilson & Chandani Lokugé (2016) Introduction: Realigning the margins: Asian Australian writing, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52:5, 527-532, DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2016.1235572, accessed at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17449855.2016.1235572

Footnote

[1] Note that the authors used the term “CALD” to refer to first, second or third generation migrants or members of ethnic communities.