Inside each one of us in the disabilities community, there are two Owlfies. One Owlfie is loving, compassionate and wants everyone to flourish. The other Owlfie is angry, cynical and deals with ableism with extreme prejudice. The first Owlfie is nourished through acts of solidarity, through reducing stigmas and through the building of our community. The second Owlfie though, is warlike. He is fuelled by our anger at being denied equal treatment. He is fuelled by our fury at being expected to do double the work and being patronised as we do so. The Owlfie that wins out is the Owlfie you feed.
Throughout our term this year, first as committee members and later as Officers, both Owlfies have gorged themselves. With tireless help from our committee and our student rep on council, Sameeksha, we have built a strong community of disabled students. Many of whom, including us, felt they didn’t belong beforehand. Both the Disabilities Lounge and our online spaces have become spaces where we can feel safe as ourselves and drop our masks. In all the activities we have run during O-weeks and through the semester we have focused on building the feeling of safety, trust, and relaxation for fellow disabled students. Our Sensory bottle making sessions and ‘Candy and Colour’ at the Rowdy were both great successes for this end, as was the Arts collective that we began in semester two.
As for feeding the mascot of vengeance, our department has had plenty of fights on our hand this year. We have felt a shameful lack of communication from the university on policies and plans that affect our community directly. Our community has spent an enormous amount of time and effort telling the uni about our experiences as disabled students. A lot of the time this means telling of the trauma we have experienced and the ableist attitudes we face daily. Just about every disabled student that I have ever talked to about this says that they put themselves through this so no other student has to face what they have. When we do speak, the people in the room are always very caring and apologetic to our plight. Sadly, that is usually where it ends. Action is much more difficult. We are sick of producing trauma porn for the uni to flaunt. No more consultation for the sake of it. We have proved time and time again that we can work better than most if we are just given the tools we need to do so.
Having said that, there has been progress. We feel as if the involvement our community had in the creation of the Disability and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) was tokenistic at best. However, through all of us pulling together, and with the colossal effort and razor sharp intellect of Bridie Cochrane-Holley, we have been offered a seat on the panel of the SEDS review.
By far the thing that has fed good Owlfie the most for us, however, has been the incredible support from our department and our community. Madeleine, Eleanore, Anishaa, Alyssa, Morgan, Matt, Della, Sameeksha. We couldn’t do any of this without you. We would have burnt out long ago without you all carrying us through and, most importantly, being our friends through it all. Our department only runs because of all our passion and dedication. Maybe we can even do that next year without burning out!
Nothing about us, without us!
Alice Zhao and Adam Whitehead