A content warning, an Acknowledgement of Country, and an Introduction to the team that made this happen.
Content Warning
We do advise our readers that many of the pieces in The Ability Issue exhibit and discuss ableism and its effects. Ignoring or omitting these issues would only obscure our depiction of disabled experiences, and that is the last thing we want as a platform for amplifying them. However, if you feel discussion of this topic may distress you please put your health and wellbeing first and, if necessary, put down the page.
Acknowledgement of Country
The Ability Issue was largely created, edited, and compiled on the Stolen Lands of the Kulin Nations. On behalf of all the editors and contributors to our publication, we acknowledge and pay our respects to the Wurundjeri, Woiwurrung, Boonwurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wadawurrung peoples as the true Owners and Custodians of this Country. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
We must never forget the pain and injustice that Indigenous peoples have faced as the result of the violence and genocide of the settler-colony of so-called ‘Australia’. We must never forget that Indigenous storytelling and art-making has been created on this land since time immemorial. We must never forget that Indigenous peoples and their art and culture far precede us as inhabitants of a settler-colony. We must make spaces for and champion Indigenous voices, just as we do for disabled voices.
We acknowledge this land, and the sovereignty of Aboriginal Australians has never been ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
The Team
Eleanore Arnold-Moore: Editor in Chief
Madeleine Salisbury: Graphics and Commentary Editor
Anishaa Jeyakumar & Stephen Zavitsanos: Co-Editors
Della Johnston & Jocelyn Saunders: Sub-Editors
Morgan Sheather: Digital Manager