Speaking up, privilege and art as a form of activism with Shaun D'Souza

Make Some Noise

Today, on Make Some Noise, Karly chats with Shaun D'souza; an LGBTIQ+ artivist and youth worker. Shaun is a non-binary, bisexual, patriarchy smashing person of colour and migrant from India who has been thriving in Brisbane for the past two years.

Their current projects include advocating against trans and gender diverse homelessness, creating accessible and safe spaces for people from minority groups for creative expression and exploration and occasionally getting a good night of sleep.

If you'd like to explore and educate yourself further on all things gender diversity, you'll find some great links and resources below.

In this conversation we explore;

2:30 - Shaun introduces themselves and explores the terms that make up their identity (including but not limited to; LGBTIQ+, youth worker, artivist, non binary, trans, bisexual, person of colour) and how artivism plays a role in their life.

10:00 - Shaun explores the pros and cons of living in Australia as a minority and the discrimination they can experience.

20:00 - Shaun explores creativity and how it's always been a part of their life. They talk about art as a form of healing.

26:40 - Karly and Shaun dive into the concept as art as a form of protest and activism.

32:00 - The concept of safe creative space and it's role in bringing people of minority together. We explore why privilege is not a bad thing and how we, as people with privilege, can be facilitators of change.

If you'd like to learn more about gender diversity and how you can be a better ally:

Here you'll find an article from Shaun on how to be a better ally to gender diverse people of colour.

The book we chat about can be found on Booktopia, Amazon and Audible (no affiliate links used).

And check out this amazing vid Trans 101 - The Basics; from Minus18.

You can connect with Shaun on instagram and check out their episode of Queer Stories podcast on Spotify or here.