It has been thought that we imagine nations as communities because we perceive deep commonality with our fellow nationals, despite us never having met.
Much as we may see the nation as an imagined community, we may see universities the same way. More than ever, the university community resembles a diaspora. We are peppered across the globe, we zoom into classes from the confines of our bedrooms and most of our fellow students remain strangers to us. However, we too must find spaces of commonality. We must seek communal scenes and common experiences that remind us that we belong to a network of people bigger than ourselves.
These shared experiences may be fleeting. It may be the tentative seconds before a zoom class pondering the age old question - to camera on, or to not camera on. It may be scrolling through Unimelb Love Letters, eyes always peeled for a name you know. It may be feeling a void of motivation, struggling to make the university experience feel real or meaningful through the abstraction of a screen. It may be wondering why our mid-semester break comes three-quarters of the way through the semester, because we could really use that break right now. However, our moments of commonality do not have to be so fleeting.
We believe that student media should be one of these communal spaces. An immovable landmark in this imagined community where everyone is welcome, no contribution too big or too small and no contributor too far or wide. Whether it be an article, a podcast, a video or a story, media should be a vessel of the voices of our community. A safe space to share our own thoughts and engage with each other’s. We have a vision of a media department that is completely oriented towards community engagement and representation.
The sharing of ideas, experiences and creativity make this imagined community feel more tangible.
As Gary Foley says, there are seeds to be planted. There is work to be done. We understand all these creative expressions take place on stolen land. We are on a constant journey of educating ourselves, listening, and improving.
“When we refer to a ‘sea of whiteness’ or to ‘white space’ we are talking about the repetition of the passing by of some bodies and not others.” Spaces then accommodate for these repetitions, repetitions of characteristics and needs of White bodies. This can be seen in the 150cm median line of gallery wall hangings, it can be seen in the romanisation and mispronunciation of non-English names, it can be seen in student media where certain forms of writing and ways of speaking are exulted. It can be seen in the constant need for diverse people to ‘mask’ themselves.
The People’s Press is committed to diversifying student media. We are committed to creating equitable, accessible, and representational structures, for neurodiverse students, students living with disabilities, for multilingual and multicultural students, for BIPOC and POC, for LGBTQIA+ students.
This is not to invalidate or reduce current platforms and contributors, who are breath-taking and awe-inspiring. This is simply to say we can open up our arms wider in welcome to diversity. This zine is one of our first steps forward to that goal.
