Community Activism and Creative Practice in Australia: An Interview with Paula Abood

Authors

  • Paula Abood Author
  • Jumana Bayeh Macquarie University Author
  • Sahar Amer University of Sydney, Australia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24847/44i2017.140

Keywords:

community activism, creative practice, interview, Paula Abood, Arab feminist, Arab Australian, marginalized, women

Abstract

In this interview, Paula Abood discusses how her activist work in the community sector is intrinsically tied up with her creative practice. Describing herself as a secular Arab feminist, Abood’s public activism is deeply informed by Spivak’s important question “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Abood acknowledges that “speaking out” is a complicated political act, because it entails speaking on behalf of otherized women who are often silenced and marginalized within Australia. Alongside this interview, a sample of Abood’s creative work is included, which reflects both her theoretical interests and her activist work.   

Cover image:  Jerome Pearce

Author Biographies

  • Paula Abood

    Paula Abood is a community cultural development practitioner, writer, and educator. She has worked with diverse communities in capacity building projects across Western Sydney for thirty years and has written for performance, radio, publications and film. In 2007, Paula completed a doctorate on race, gender and representation of Arabs in Australia, and was awarded the Western Sydney Artists’ Fellowship for the blogging project Race and the City. In 2013, Paula was the recipient of the Australia Council for the Art’s Ros Bower Award for lifetime achievement in community cultural practice. In 2016, Paula produced and directed the theatrical work, The Cartographer’s Curse, to mark the centenary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

  • Jumana Bayeh, Macquarie University
    Jumana Bayeh is Lecturer at Macquarie University, Australia, and an Honorary Associate of the Department of Arabic Language and Cultures at the University of Sydney.
  • Sahar Amer, University of Sydney, Australia
    Sahar Amer is Professor and Chair of the Department of Arabic Language and Cultures at the University of Sydney, Australia.

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Published

2017-07-14 — Updated on 2017-07-14

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2017): Special Issue: Arabs in Australia: Local Concerns and Transnational Contexts

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Paula Abood, Jumana Bayeh, Sahar Amer

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The content of this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.