Reflections from inside Australia reMADE: What I'm taking with me
Image by Elin Tabitha (Unsplash)
Introduction
I’m writing to do something we don’t normally do too much, and that’s talk about ourselves as the people here behind the Australia reMADE team. Because after five wonderful years, I’m going to be moving on from my role as Communications Director in this remarkable organisation.
It’s been a rare thing, getting to do this work. I’d come from a campaigning, communications and consulting background, where there was always a moment to win or project to deliver. Here, I got to step back from that, and dive deeper into the questions of, ‘what do we really want for each other, and what systems do we need to strengthen, protect and change in order to achieve that?’ Talk about a dream job.
I felt I owed it to this unique opportunity, to this team and to passionate change-makers everywhere to take a moment to reflect a bit more deeply on what I’ve learned and am taking with me. Consider it my own personal highlights tour of an Australia reMADE so far, an organisation that really does live and breathe its values to the best of its ability (and knowing many of us have worked for noble causes with terrible cultures, this is no small achievement).
Whether you’ve been with Australia reMADE since the beginning or are brand new here, I hope this reflection brings you a dose of energy, insight and inspiration; and maybe more than a few gems to carry with you on your road.
The early days: vision is our foundation
Australia reMADE grew from a series of conversations among passionate civil society leaders from a broad range of sectors and spaces, aware of the limits of operating in silos and determined to raise their heads above the noise and necessary, but largely reactive, campaigns of the day. What were we all fighting for, and was there a shared structural analysis of what it would take to achieve it?
The first task was a listening tour, asking everyday people from around Australia, “Imagine you have woken up in the country of your dreams. What is it like?”
Two things you need to know about this process.
Firstly, I’d sat in on plenty of focus groups, where politicians and others are essentially asking, ‘what do you want for you?’. You get a really different conversation and answer when you ask people, ‘what do you want for you and your community? What do you want for all of us?’
Secondly, no matter how polarising the times might appear, most people aren’t jerks. Learning to listen for the essence of what people want, and the ‘why’ underneath our different views, is important. But overwhelmingly these kinds of conversations are an uplifting, restore-your-faith-in-humanity kind of experience, that reveal how staggeringly similar our hopes, dreams and needs really are. Kitchen Table Conversations are another great example of this kind of process in action.
Vision is something I still believe in, even in times when governments think it safer to appear ‘small target’ (usually something that comes about after years of relentless fear-based politics or messengers who aren’t trusted to deliver change). For vision to work it has to be simple, inspiring and grounded in plain language, not policy wonk hedging or ‘politi-speak’. Nor is vision a lengthy list of boxes to tick or ills to avoid. What can you proudly say, ‘I am for?’ And yes, it must be delivered by trusted messengers, or ideally, co-created with the input of as many people as possible.
I joined the team to help craft that vision of our collective ‘yes,’ the vision of an Australia reMADE, out of the qualitative research conversations with people from all walks of life. Today Australians have endorsed this vision by the thousands, both in our organisations and as individuals, and it’s been celebrated as a model to follow overseas. We’re often asked how we went about it, so you can read more about the making of the vision here.
Later, as the world came through the spin cycle of covid, our team created a video of the same tenor, which I know so many of you have also loved, used and shared in the work you do.
Getting into systems change
Of course, no one builds a bright new world from scratch, and indeed there is too much worth protecting in the one we already have, so as a team we began to unpack what it means to both unravel as we reMAKE.
We knew we needed to better understand and unmask how we got here, but in doing so not get so bogged down that we forget to reMAKE! As Millie writes: “Vision alone is too insipid. Critique alone is too depressing. Together, however, as we unravel and then reMAKE, we can begin to chart energised pathways forward.”
To do that requires a focus on changing systems. We were starting to hear the term ‘systems change’ thrown around a lot more in activism circles; but not finding many useful definitions of what people were actually talking about. So we wrote our own.
We then began identifying and unpacking ten terrains and five drivers of transformation (both the neoliberal drivers of the world we see today, and their opposite), which I highly recommend you explore. Because we truly are more powerful when we understand and express our work as pieces of the same solution, aiming for something whole and real and achievable; not as a competition of silos and resources fighting just to make things less awful. We also looked at pivotal moments in the neoliberal rise to power and influence, such as the Powell memo.
Proposing the Public Good, putting it into practice
As Milton Friedman famously said, ‘only a crisis produces real change.’ Our team used the crisis of covid to ask, “What is our why as a country?”.
This research led to the idea of the public good, which we came to define as building a country where everyone has what they need to care and be cared for, connect to each other and to place, and contribute – locally and nationally – to who we are as a country. We really do believe the public good is an idea that connects and unites us all. Our findings and report have been picked up in language and initiatives around the country, as well as overseas in places like New Zealand.
We further partnered with Women’s Health Goulburn North East to explore Care through Disaster as a form of public good: asking what it would take to build a society where everyone can care and be cared for, and no one is left behind, through the increasing systemic disaster risk? That led to a practical toolkit for leaders that we’ve been so proud to launch into the world.
Looking upstream: reMAKING economics
Along the way we also dived into reMAKING economics: understanding that far from being a side salad to social justice or sustainability, economic systems change is essential to unlocking transformation on everything else we care about. We learned about wellbeing economics, Doughnut Economics, Modern Monetary Theory and so much more.
Without reMAKING economics, we win the culture wars but lose the planet — embracing a version of ‘progressive neoliberalism’ first made popular in the 90s (markets rule, but with more rainbow flags, inclusive language, women and people of colour visible around the table). Season 3 of the reMAKERS podcast was devoted entirely to this topic, and remains one of the most eye-opening educational experiences of my career.
In finally piecing it together and writing about all of this, we talked about why economics matters too much to be left to economists and politicians; the landmarks on our journey to a different kind of economy, and some specific policies worth putting on the map.
The reMAKER Network
It’s been a privilege to explore these big ideas over the years in podcasts, blogs, reMAKER U resources; as well as in gatherings, webinars and catalytic research projects. From the very beginning we’ve operated relationally, within a network of practitioners and passionate change-makers. Our wonderful founders and Associates have been core to what we do.
Across our different sectors, spaces and corners of the country, as I’ve met and spoken with so many different reMAKERs in this network, I’ve found that what draws us together is a kind of defiant optimism; along with a deep curiosity and determination to ensure the wisdom of the heart is not overpowered by the analysis of the head.
It’s in the fight for ‘bread, and roses’. It’s in the celebration of democracy done differently and the confidence that government can do amazing things when it looks through the eyes of future generations, not just the next election cycle.
It’s in the drive to hold up ‘tonic masculinity’ as we urgently tear down its opposite, toxic masculinity.
It’s in the belief that we get to ask, ‘what are budgets for?’ not just ‘who are the winners and losers?’.
It’s knowing that we cannot buy or achieve our way out of systems failure, but we can build the conditions for a ‘healthy me’ to thrive when we raise up our ambition for a ‘healthy we’.
Thank you for being the tribe of Yes, AND; of hope in action; of love as a verb. Of everyone means everyone and a different kind of Yes.
Thank you, for everything.
Here’s to our ordinary paradise.
LILIAN SPENCER
Lily Spencer is the outgoing Communications Director of Australia reMADE. She believes that the secret to change is to, ‘focus your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’
Selected Other blogs by LILY:
If a tree falls in your front yard, who comes to clean it up?
