#WIMBELFAST #IWD2021 CONFERENCE PANEL ONE ANNOUNCEMENT
Panel One, clockwise from top left: Lilian Seenoi-Barr, Rachel Powell, Anna Lo, Stacey Graham, & Elspeth Vischer.
Hello everyone.
The first panel at the Women in Media Belfast IWD conference is: Where are the women? Marginalised women's voices in the media.
Who is platformed by the media? How are those relationships handled? What is working well? What can we do better?
We have a fantastic line up of five formidable women.
1) Elspeth Vischer is a freelance filmmaker from Belfast and a member of the LGBT community.
She is making a feature-length documentary as part of her Creative-Practice PhD in Film at Queen's University 'Let Us Be Seen, Analysing and Documenting the Development of Grassroots Feminism in Belfast’.
“Working in the visual arts often means having to confidently promote yourself and your work to engage an audience online and at events.
"In Belfast today, our mainstream media too often still reflects a stigma attached to sexuality and a stark under-representation of queer female voices.
"More visibility to all types of female-identifying individuals is needed in our local industry to enable a positive effect in the types of content audiences have access to and to better reflect society on screen.”
Click here to visit Elspeth's website
2) Anna Manwah Lo MBE was born in Hong Kong, and came to live in Northern Ireland in 1974.
Initially, she worked for the BBC in Belfast as a secretary and a freelance contributor for the Chinese Service. After qualifying in social work in the University of Ulster, she worked in social services and Barnardos before becoming the director of the Chinese Welfare Association in 1997.
She was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007 - the first parliamentarian of her background in Europe - and retired in 2016.
The Blackstaff Press published her autobiography - The Place I Call Home - in October 2016.
Anna was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Open University in 2018.
"I am glad to see broadcasters from ethnic minority backgrounds being platformed more in recent times as it is important to see the diversity in the whole of the UK.
"Northern Ireland is sadly lagging behind. We need to see more women."
Click here to buy Place I Call Home
3) Rachel Powell is a disabled woman from Keady, Co. Armagh.
She is the Women’s Sector Lobbyist with the Women’s Resource and Development Agency and the Chair of the Women’s Policy Group NI.
“Disabled women are the experts in their own struggles relating to both disability and women’s rights – yet, too often we only see disability being used by those who want to restrict abortion access.
"The disabled movement is broad, and disabled women in particular face some of the greatest barriers in our society.
"We should be at the forefront of discussions about disability at all times, not just when disability is being used to push political agendas – nothing about us, without us’”
Click here for more about WRDA
4) Stacey Graham is from the Woodvale area of north Belfast.
She is a loyalist activist, feminist, mother, and Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) equality officer, working in the community for the Greater Shankill Alternatives SAFE project.
Communities in Transition, funded by the Northern Ireland Executive, tackles big issues such as moving people away from paramilitarism, anti-social behaviour and community safety issues.
Stacey was part of the Woodvale Community Response, from the beginning of the pandemic, responding to the needs of the local community.
Flowing from that, the Woodvale Partnership is being developed at the moment.
Stacey loves the following quote from Madeleine Albright: 'It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.'
Click here for more about Alternatives
5) Lilian Seenoi-Barr has over 20 years’ experience of working in the community sector and is the director of the North West Migrant Forum.
A former chair of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) for Derry City and Strabane, she holds degrees in Community Development and Social Policy, and Community and Youth Work Studies.
In both Kenya and Northern Ireland, Lilian’s work has focussed on human rights and social justice. In the Northern Ireland context, Lilian has sought to build trust and understanding between minority ethnic communities and traditional communities.
Lilian has a specific interest in the participation of minority groups in public life, the ways that government and communities deal with cultural diversity, and the role available to minority groups in policy-making.
“We are not an addition to society. We are part of society.
"I want a vibrant and open society without discrimination where we all accept and respect each other’s human rights."
Click here for more about the NWMF
How’s that for a fab five!
#WIMBelfast co-founder Amanda Ferguson will be chairing panel one.
We have two further panel announcements shortly...
Please join us on Zoom on March 8th.
Individual, group and solidarity tickets are live now: Click here
Thank you.
