Last Sunday, 9 August, Prima Nota was grateful to take part in a Listening Circle facilitated by Behishta Anwar as part of the Australian Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace and Security.
It was a valuable opportunity to sit around the same table with women from different communities and hear perspectives shaped by very different experiences, concerns and realities.
Perhaps one of the most important things we took away from the conversation was this: we do not have to agree on everything.
We may understand events differently. We may have different priorities, different experiences and different ideas about what needs to happen next. That is not only normal- it is part of any honest community conversation.
What matters is remembering what we share.
Across our different communities, we ultimately want peace and security for women and children, safety for our families, and communities in which people can live without fear.
At a time when we are seeing increasing division and polarisation, opportunities to actually listen to one another become even more important. It is much harder to reduce another community to a label when you have sat across the table, heard their experiences and recognised the concerns you have in common.
For us, that is what community cohesion has to involve: not pretending that our differences do not exist, but being able to bring those differences to the same table while continuing to work towards a shared goal.
A sincere thank you to Behishta Anwar for bringing us together and creating the space for such an open conversation, and to ARA – Australian Refugee Association for their warm hospitality.
And thank you to all the women leaders who shared their thoughts and experiences. Listening to one another was, in itself, an important part of the work.
