Charter | WE INSIST!

WE INSIST that all cultural and educational institutions conduct an equality audit, undertaken by independent ABAR experts, to review their policies, processes, structures, staffing, and resources for bias and inequality.

WE INSIST that all platforms of historic, scholastic, and governmental learning and information create and make public annual ABAR mission statements.

WE INSIST that, as part of ABAR action, all cultural and educational institutions commit an ongoing annual budget to the work of ABAR, with dedicated staff members and regular review processes to monitor and assess efficacy and impact.

WE INSIST that ABAR initiatives are led by BIPOC organizations and individuals, and that these organizations and individuals are fully recognized and remunerated for their work.

WE INSIST that all cultural and educational institutions commit to include ABAR education as a core part of the syllabus, to include exploration of both individual and systemic biases as well as the history, legacy and contemporary incarnation of racism both domestically and globally, and to do so with an intersectional approach which recognizes the struggles and the dignity of all oppressed groups and peoples.

WE INSIST that all educational programs ensure that learning materials, created by BIPOC as well as other traditionally marginalised voices, adhere to ABAR principles and equality and diversity standards.

WE INSIST that a Black Public Arts Fund be established, to be facilitated by BIPOC ABAR experts, with a commitment to explicitly serve and respond to the needs BIPOC and low income students, as well as any groups or communities who traditionally face under-representation and / or barriers to participation in educational opportunities.

WE INSIST that every cultural and educational institution ensures their ABAR is done in partnership, both with BIPOC ABAR experts and grass-roots local community organizations; establishing ABAR alliances, collaborating with local activist groups and ensuring the work is inherently always open to and in consultation with those it seeks to uphold.

WE INSIST that every historical site and institution, both educational and governmental, publicly acknowledge the ways in which they have perpetuated, propagated and exploited racist structures and systems; moving to end racial gaslighting and work instead toward transparency, culpability and repair.

WE INSIST that within these processes space is held to recognize, witness and validate the trauma experienced by BIPOC, supporting healing justice for individuals alongside the institutional work of ABAR.