What kind of power would you like?
Healing - being able to channel the natural energies from the earth and her elements, through magic, alchemy, telepathic/intuitive communication with animals, spirits, sprites, gnomes and fairies and skilled medicine making. Having the ability to use that power in destructive ways -and not (but often being tempted).
Timetravel (only if I could take companions with me and regenerate like the doctor)
Immortality (only if I had a community of other immortals across the world who I could check in with)
How would it manifest? What would enable it?
My natural inclination and interest would inspire a wise elder to mentor me as a young person. I would hone my craft through practice and experience, meeting others with healing gifts (becoming a member of a circle of healers who meet regularly to support each other), meditation, communication with the natural world around me and reading old hand written texts found in caves and under wooden beds hidden behind forgotten doors in woodland cottages. Love would strengthen me and I would live for many years beyond a normal life span. I would also become part of the community leaders’ council, offering my perspective as healer – which is a highly valued and recognised skill and asset. I would be seen as strong, revolutionary, determined, brash, thoughtful, reasonable, mysterious, wild, passionate, warm, intuitive and giving.
Who is your favourite superhero/person/public figure, contemporary or imagined?
Characters and communities from classic feminist speculative fiction texts such as The Wanderground and The Kanshou by Sally Miller Gearheart. Daughters of a Coral Dawn by Katherine V Forrest and The Hadra by Diana Rivers. Maryanne from Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (among many other Austen characters), Kay from The Night Watch, Sarah Waters…
What do you admire most about Frida Kahlo and "Freda" Josephine Baker?
I don’t know much about them. Frida Kahlo is in a book I read my daughter called amazing babes. She loves the Frida picture and calls her “the painting lady.”
What do you think of when you think of them?
I read a hilarious article a while back about Frida K that was written while she was a younger woman, comparing her ‘dabbling’ in art with her husband’s ‘great’ work. She must have had a sense of humour to put up with such ridiculous articles, or got steaming mad sometimes!
What would you change in Melbourne? Australia? The world?
Working in government makes me think automatically about policy and budgets; the way our communities money is spent and government workers time and energy is channelled this way and that. I would re-direct things so that we had a focus on sustaining and enriching our natural environment (and so many things that go along with that). We made real change to increase and support gender equity (and the many things that go along with a more feminist and collective community), and then recognise the fluid nature of gender and sexuality anyway and stopped working with such rigid binaries.
Are there any other issues that are important to you? Locally? Globally?
GLBTIQ rights and respect, food production (biodynamics), Ayurveda, sharing women’s stories - collective wisdom, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood as a natural physiological process.
Do you feel like change is possible in these areas? How?
Yes! Consciousness raising, open hearts, by understanding the micro and macro and intimately interconnected, therefore if I want to see change out there I must live the change within also, proclaiming the Goddess and setting intention, influencing government direction, supporting others to live an intentional life, acknowledging reality, the here and now, what is…
Do you think your ideas could change anything?
Uhuh. That is why I work where I do, talk as much as I do and have a daughter who can show me so much more.
Are you comfortable speaking your mind/putting ideas into the world?
Yes.
Do you consider yourself a feminist? Womanist? Why/why not? What does this mean to you?
Yes certainly.
The practice of feminism for me is gender equity, which is the process of being fair to women and men by recognising diversity and disadvantage and directing resources and services towards those most in need to ensure equal outcomes for all.
Ideologically I identify as an eco-feminist. In the past I’ve danced with the ardent fierceness of radical separatist feminists but ultimately I don’t want to send all men to an island and throw away the paddle.
Feminism as a concept is a simple handle to explain my values and beliefs and so gives meaning and sense to my motivations and actions. I can say to you, I’m an eco feminist and so you will automatically (or after googling) realise I believe in the divinity in nature, I’m probably enviro conscious, ‘earthy’ and try not to use too much plastic, possibly vegetarian, listen to female musicians, go to music festivals, ride a push bike, that sort of thing. Of course I’m so much more and full of contradictions and dichotomies, but those things are a way to get started to find out more. I also love pop TV shows like Charmed, Vampire diaries, Gossip Girl, British period dramas, Dr. Who, Six Feet Under, Orange is the new black… I love gossip and chatter, fantasy (expressed in all sorts of ways), indulgence and laziness, reading, random unplanned adventures and knowing the end of the movie before I watch it.
How often do you subconsciously/consciously think about your desired superpower when you dress on a daily basis?
Ha, all the time! I used to work in a great office with awesome women and everyday would come in and tell them a story I made up about my outfit that day and what character I was ‘playing’ at. The work was emotionally and intellectually challenging and the women were super comrades and it all fitted.
I include smells into my outfits for strength and super awesomeness – such as mandarin for job interviews. I often channel dress like I’m from an imaginary world - post apocalyptic, women only worlds, other planets, worlds from books and TV and my imagination that I have built up over years and years, London in the 1940’s (oddly specific time I’m into), adventure wear, ready for anything wear (but for example I rarely to never wear a shoe with a heal because to me it doesn’t fit in with any of these dreamscape environments, but I’m not entirely practical either because I often wear long skirts)
I like to dress seasonally, so match my colours to the colours outside, and imagine I’m part of the garden. I think my clothes are all about expressing my super strength, but I often laugh thinking how untraditional/conventional/stereotypical my outfits are and how they are truly a dialogue with myself because I’m sure most other people don’t look at my choice of clothes and think – super powerful strong, means business etc… esp in the workplace which is full of a lot of regular older white men, who I imagine think women ought to be dressing more to their (men’s) taste, in order to be successful and so on.
