Alana Johnson from Voices for Indi is the special speaker at Outside the Square
this month. Hear the story of how the kitchen tables of Indi are
amplifying their voices across the Indi electorate, to Canberra and the
nation.
Recognising that the quality of rural life and the style of rural
politics is about networks and relationships, Voices for Indi wanted to
kick start new conversations, to involve more people, to share ideas and
listen to each other, to behave civilly regardless of political
persuasion and with a common concern for the future good of our
communities and our country.
From the simple origins of just
talking about politics around the kitchen table with friends and family
and work mates and neighbours, the voice of the people has been
amplified across the nation.
Kitchen Table Conversations create a
vehicle or a place that is not only welcoming and safe, because it
doesn’t matter what your party politics are, but you are there because
your ideas are going to be heard and valued.
The ‘kitchen table
conversations’ took many forms as some met for coffee, others for a
birthday lunch, after yoga, for dinner and a good wine, at a health
centre, at cafes, at a Civic Centre, in staff rooms , at U3A, at the
pub, camping in the Stanley forest, as student leaders, as Indi expats
in Melbourne.
When the Voice 4 Indi group was ready to engage
with people across the electorate, Mary Crooks, the architect of the
Kitchen Table Conversation model as used by the Victorian Women’s Trust
for two major community-based projects, seemed an obvious choice to
assist us.
