‘It’s The Crest Of A Wave That Indigenous Women Grew’: Amy Thunig On Australia’s Fight To Protect Women

As a university researcher undertaking a PhD in education, Amy Thunig has a lot to say when it comes to consent education.

Australia's on the cusp of reform when it comes to how young people are made aware of consent. In February, Education ministers around the country unanimously committed to mandating holistic and appropriate consent education in every school, for every year, from foundation until year 10 – effective as of 2023.

According to Thunig, it's not just sexual consent in high school that needs to be incorporated into the new curriculum.

"What's really important and highly valuable is that consent education will be starting at kindergarten, because consent isn't just about sexual touch," the Gomeroi woman tells Refinery29 Australia.

"It's about touch. It's about our bodily boundaries. It's about autonomy. It's about understanding the way that we exist as whole people and that we actually have rights around our bodies, and children have rights.

"I think that children generally can be erased, ignored, disrespected and treated as not quite developed people, rather than as whole people and whole beings even at a young age."

Thunig says instilling this awareness in children from the age of five or six is crucial. It's important for them "to know that from their head to their toes, they say what goes — it's their body."

"I think a healthy and strong foundation for sexual safety and enjoyment and fulfilment in adulthood begins with really being empowered to say no, and to understand your right to boundaries from childhood, all done in an age-appropriate manner, obviously."

This is one of the various aspects of consent education she'll be shedding a light on this coming weekend at the All About Women Festival's 'After Consent' panel. In conversation with Bri Lee, Saxon Mullins and Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Thunig and the group's discussions will navigate recent changes to consent legislation at a time when sexual harassment and violence towards women and children is being spotlighted more than ever.

The nation watched on as thousands of women took to the streets at last year's #March4Justice rallies, soon after reports of sexual assault and harassment at Parliament House came to light, including former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins' alleged rape. This year's #March4Justice2 rallies took place last month virtually and in person, and earlier this week the 'Safety. Respect. Equity' campaign was released, featuring Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Chanel Contos and nine other female change-makers calling for political reforms to protect women and children.

Thunig says being "really happy and pleased with the fact that these conversations are happening " is "very complex".

"There's just been this what looks like a very sudden upswell and momentum in this area," she says, explaining it's also reminded her of the continuous work First Nations women have done in this space years earlier.

"#MeToo came off the back of [US activist] Tarana Burke. And you know, what we're seeing right now is the tip of a mountain that is layers and layers and decades and 230+ years of Black women, Indigenous peoples fighting and working to point out to the invaders/colonisers that they are on stolen lands. And that on these lands — which have been home to community for millennia — tradition here isn't patriarchy. Many of our nations are matriarchal, or a variation of that."

Thunig says it's important for Australians to recognise this recent wave of activism, that's notably been led by white women in mainstream media, is in addition to the work done by Indigenous, Black, people of colour and disabled communities.

"Violence against women and gender diverse people is not the norm for Indigenous peoples. And the success and the visible success of very powerful, brave white women who have become the faces of this movement — which I fully acknowledge is a vulnerable and very difficult position to embody for them — isn't work that stands alone.

"That the work that came before them and that continues simultaneously is by disabled women, Indigenous women, older women, women who are not created physically in a way that the society says, 'they're stunningly beautiful' and so it's very complex to be really happy and pleased with the fact that these conversations are happening publicly in mainstream media and amongst politicians."

Emphasising there's "no shade" directed at women such as Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame and that it would be "incredibly difficult" for them to speak so openly about these issues, Thunig highlighted the discrepancies in how media and society approach movements depending on who's identified as leading them.

"It's also yet another reminder that many of the causes that my community have been fighting for generations are only of interest to the broader society when a white face is suddenly picked up and attached to it.

"So in terms of celebrating the momentum, when I think of that momentum, I can't help but acknowledge that it's the crest of a wave that Indigenous women grew."

On a more personal front, what Thunig looks forward to celebrating is the release of her book, Tell Me Again, later this year. While a significant amount of her work to date has been linked to academia, this book will delve into raw recollections of Thunig's upbringing and personal challenges.

"It's a weaving of the difficult and the delicious parts of childhood and growing up," she says of the collection of personal essays.

"It highlights how I experienced and perceived the world as a kid who was often treated as invisible which is probably in contrast to how people might expect my childhood to have been, because obviously, I'm pretty visible now," she continues, referring to her television appearances, university lecturing work and social media presence.

"I was treated like I was invisible as a kid by people outside of our family because I grew up in a family where it was a criminalised family. There was incarceration. There were a lot of long, long term issues with addiction."

But amidst tragedy and darkness was "still a beautiful childhood in so many ways" so essentially this book, which Thunig insists is absolutely "not trauma porn", will be "surprising and hopefully enjoyable" for readers.

Amy Thunig will appear on the After Consent panel with Bri Lee, Saxon Mullins and Lucia Osbourne-Crowley at the All About Women Festival at Sydney Opera House on Sunday, March 13. The panel will navigate recent changes to consent legislation and the implications for sexual freedom.