Our people are an organic network of feminists from the Majority World, with expertise in strategy development, facilitation, collaborative research, and writing, all doused with a generous spoonful of feminist mischief.
Here are a few of the visionaries, magicians and pirates who calibrate our ship and steer us through intergalactic imaginations and possibilities.
South Africa
Hi, I’m Christy, a South African feminist who thrives in conspiring with others to name and dismantle systems that harm us, and imagine and build systems that return to us our inherent capacity to be conduits of love. As the founder and director of Moon Tide Collective, my role is to create an enabling environment for teams, organisations and broader ecosystems to make sense of a given moment, experiment playfully with ideas, and collaboratively design strategies that liberate. My superpower is giving folks in the room permission to express their inner rebel, to make the fire in which we sometimes need to sit feel good, and to pull us through our complexity towards what truly matters.
Right now, my heart projects include:
Malaysia
Hi, my name is Zana, and I am based in Malaysia. I wear many hats, but I am mostly a writer and a coordinator working with civil society organisations in the digital rights space.
My superpower is softness. I feel deeply, and in today’s world, where many pernicious forces seek to divide us from our communities, I want to lean into softness and care for each other as passionately as possible. Currently, my heart projects involve being part of initiatives that champion social justice and liberation in digital space through a combination of values, practices, sites, and narratives, guided by the principles of a movement called Design Justice. I am particularly interested in exploring the social and political implications of the Internet and ICTs, especially when approached through feminist methodologies.
My work that I am especially proud of:
Kenya
I am Nancy Chelagat Cherwon, also known as Chelwek, a mixed media creative working between digital media and graffiti murals to inspire social change within vulnerable communities in Kenya and beyond. My work is deeply rooted in the people of African soil, their resilience, vibrance, and stories, as well as the brilliance of feminine thought and the enduring relevance of African spirituality.
Through murals and illustrations spread across several countries, I continue to showcase the African essence in ways that feel honest, bold, and alive. My art is often eccentric and symbolic, founded on African mysticism and spirituality while unapologetically espousing liberating feminism. I see art as both a mirror and a portal: a reflection of who we are and a space for imagining who we can become.
I am inspired by life itself. My work embodies the life-giving essence present in every being in the universe, translating it into visual forms that speak to me about cosmic greatness and our shared creative responsibility, both for those living now and for generations to come.
My superpower is nurturing life through my gardening skills as I am big on organic farming and culturing kefir.
My current project is focused on designing a sustainable farm with cottages for artists to come and work in residence.
India
It seems to me that the proverbial “they” reduce everything to three key points and that this is somehow a marker of intelligence or competence. In an attempt to meet this standard, I will describe myself in three words: feminist, fighter, mother.
I am an African feminist, an admitted legal practitioner and a mother, who is passionate about human rights and using the law to create a world that is more just. My legal experience relates to employment law; constitutional law, particularly the right to equality and non-discrimination; immigration law; citizenship and statelessness, as well as refugee law. My specialisation is policy development, having advised and drafted policies for various organisations related to child safeguarding, harassment and SGBV, whistleblowing, anti-discrimination and employment equity and diversity.
My superpower is my fight. The ability to stand for what I believe in even when it is difficult or inconvenient. Currently, my heart’s project is decolonising the law and centralising Indigenous human rights legal practices and accountability mechanisms in an attempt to make the law contextual, compassionate, and human centred. And perhaps while doing so, to remember to also laugh along the way. Joy is an act of resistance too often forgotten.
South Africa
My superpower is connecting people I have worked with with other wonderful people that I have worked with. I have gotten better and better at partnering organisations and collectives that I have worked with partners that they deeply align with their work. An example of this was bringing together the Open Book festival team with the Climate Lounge team. These teams are both passionate about the power of art and literature to shift power dynamics and spur on narrative repair.
Narrative Justice has been central to my work. My sweet spot is work that brings storytelling and social justice together. Another project that I worked on this year was an AWID Climate Disaster game which reimagined how we can communicate research outcomes. By building a game from research interviews, the game became an informed output that can be used in workshops and educational spaces.
A current heart project: I am a first time Director of a climate justice oriented documentary about a South African scientist who is also a traditional healer (spiritual healer). I’m deeply interested in people and projects that bring together elements or knowledge systems that people think are
oppositional. Science and indigenous knowledge systems have often been painted as contradictory, but connecting these ways of knowing will usher in a world that feels more humane and where human beings get to be more whole. Hopefully, it will also usher in a world where human beings are in right relationship and in a just relationship with our environment.
