Silencing Women’s Voices ~
and other colonisations on Medium
Image ©Narelle Carter-Quinlan (Author) 2022
WARNING: please do not ‘Listen’ to the audio if that automatically appears for you; I am Australian. I am also Female. Read on . . .
Yesterday I chose to enter the sandfields of Medium again.
After a two year absence.
I shared a long piece (a ‘7 minute read’) on the reciprocity in nature and its relationship with Money. That’s over on my Patreon account, in the Public section.
Why am I even telling you that latter piece?
Because there, you can read my piece sans the invasive insertion of a male American voice, silencing my own; my Female Voice, an Australian Woman.
Women’s voices have been silenced long enough.
So have the voices of those speaking indigenous language of Country in the lands they walk.
Your act here Medium: nothing short of colonisation.
I reached out, contacted Medium since I couldn’t find a way to silence this insidious intrusion. Alas. It turns out I cannot, as I was informed by a helpful reply. I’m grateful a Medium rep replied to me. I’m grateful the reply was prompt. I’m grateful it was courteous. And: I do not find the experience of grace in my body for this act of ‘voice-over’. You do not get to speak for me!
I deleted the piece.
And then I realised the obvious: I need to speak here.
The Voice is a sacred instrument. It carries frequency, resonance.
The Voice, in fact, carries transmission.
My Voice, echoes with the lands I walk, of my people.
It sings with the sands and the waters and the salt, the humidity and the winds of Country. Country, is alive. Country, is sentient. Country, is a form of co-creative consciousness. It rings right through us, through our bodies, through our very presence here, on earth.
Can you hear it?
You might . . .
if that Voice is not
Stolen.
Even the act of Listening is sacred. We call it dadirri — ‘listening deeply’.
To be still and to be in communion with All Things. All presences.
To know them, as part of you.
One.
Listen . . .
Narelle Carter-Quinlan is the Founder and Steward of The Saltwater Songlines Project. She walks coasts, makes images and films, and facilitates eco-relationship in place. She writes about that. You can read more about her work via her online portal at www.embodiedterrain.com
You can join her community, marinate in her short films, receive weekly meditations of the body in relationship with Place via that website and on her Patreon account. Be welcome xo
Image ©Narelle Carter Quinlan 2022
