DLI Host Oration 2024

Disability Leadership Oration 2024

 

Christina Ryan:

Thank you Yenn.

 

Welcome everyone! I too would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the land we are on.

 

This is our second Disability Leadership Oration. What began as a wild idea early last year has now become a major event on the IDay calendar. This event is about disabled people driving the agenda, not being the agenda!

 

There are many people we would like to thank who helped us to get here, but first a few words about who we are:

 

The Disability Leadership Institute is a tiny social enterprise. We are completely self funded by membership and training fees. This Oration is fully funded by sponsorship. The DLI is all disabled people, and we draw on our large network of members, all disabled folks, to bring in extra team members as needed. We believe in paying disabled people properly.

 

The DLI is not a lobby group, and we do no systemic advocacy, but we recognise that we are in a unique position to talk about disability leadership and the experiences of disability leaders, so sometimes we do that.

 

The DLI has become the largest professional network of disabled people in Australia, with a few international members as well. When people want to find disabled talent for their organisation, we have become the organisation that provides the connection to highly qualified disabled people across an incredibly wide range of fields, industries, and career stages. Our National Register of Disability Leaders has been the source of numerous board, CEO and commissioner appointments over the years.

 

The DLI focusses on getting on with disability leadership. We are the only specialist disability leadership development organisation in Australia, and one of only a few in the world. Disabled people are the largest minority group in Australia and on the planet. There are over 1.3 billion of us globally and around 5 million in Australia. Like all diversity groups disabled people need specialist programs and resource allocation to achieve the equity goals that will ensure our full economic participation, and a presence in decision making rooms. We won’t achieve those outcomes unless there is a long-term commitment to making them happen with dedicated resources.

 

Disability Leadership is not currently a policy priority of any government in Australia. It is only mentioned once, in passing, in the National Strategy, and has no KPIs to make it happen. There are some weird assumptions about disability leadership: apparently disability leaders are only interested in disability related work, all things to do with disability are government funded, and disability equals charity. These assumptions are all incorrect and undermine disability equality and they must change.

 

We live in a world where disabled people are still seen as being part of the narrative, not the drivers of that narrative. Our visibility in the public domain is most often centred on telling the stories of our lives, usually to inspire others or give them hope.

 

It is time for us to drive the story, not be the story.

 

The Disability Leadership Oration is about disabled people sharing our expertise and our vision for the future. It is about us centering what we think is important to the society that we live in, and sparking a broader conversation about how a more equal world might look. This is about us coming into the room and being part of solutions, rather than having solutions designed and delivered for us.

 

This year the Oration is being delivered at the National Archives of Australia. A beautiful heritage building that houses so much of Australia’s history. We are here today to contribute to that history, and for disabled people to rightfully take our place as a visible part of that history.

 

We have a few people to thank:

 

We would not be here today, having this event, without the support of the Achieve Foundation, who came on board to support the Oration when we first had the idea, and who have been behind us all the way. A massive thank you to Kirsty Nowlan and her team for believing in us and for continuing to champion the prominence of disabled voices.

 

This year we have also been joined by the National Australia Bank as our accessibility sponsors. I particularly want to thank DLI member Briar Harte and the team she is part of at the NAB.  Thanks to the NAB we are able to run the livestream and all the accessibility features that are so necessary for our disability community.

 

This year we are again supported by our friends at the ABC as our broadcast partners. The ABC has recognised the importance of disabled voices owning our own narrative and has made the Oration part of their annual IDay programming schedule. This year the Oration will feature on the Big Ideas show on Radio National on 3 December, before being added to the massive ABC podcast library. We are so grateful for the ABC’s support and enthusiasm, it makes a huge difference.

 

I would like to mention the DLI’s members right around Australia who have backed this event from day one and provided ideas on what the Oration should look like, on who should be our Orator, and who to speak to or connect with to get things done. Many DLI members are here with us today from all over the country, both in person and online, some have travelled a fair distance to get here. There are also DLI members here volunteering as part of the bigger DLI Team making things happen. We love our members!

 

Thanks also today to the team from Patorama who are doing all the tech wizardry to make sure the livestream actually happens. They have been a joy to work with. Thank you to Pat and his team.

 

Finally, I must thank the fabulous Debbie McKenna who has worked hard behind the scenes to make today happen. The DLI Team is so lucky to have Debbie with us. Thank you for your outstanding work and patience, including squeezing just one more person in when we really were full.

 

This Oration is a testament to disability leadership. We don’t have formal government support or funding, or policy, so disability leaders across Australia have simply got on with making disability leadership happen on our own terms, in the way that we think is most effective. We’ve built professional networks and developed training and support that our disability community wants. There is still a very long way to go, we have just got started, but most importantly we are making a difference!

 

It would also be remiss of me to have an IDay event without acknowledging the other big IDay thing that the DLI does; the National Awards for Disability Leadership. When the government pulled out of the national awards a few years ago, disabled people stepped in. As part of a collective of national organisations we redesigned the Awards to be by and for disabled people and to recognise the things that matter to our community. I would like to congratulate all the Finalists announced recently and look forward to the big announcement of the Recipients next week on 3 December, IDay.

 

Thanks once again for being here, for your support of the Disability Leadership Institute and for being part of the Disability Leadership Oration 2024.