1 Jan 2020 DRAFT

Meaningful Action: The Rally by Matt Ball
As we dreamed up what meaningful action might actually look like, we continually
sought to avoid limiting our ideas and choices. Stephanie and I discussed how we
could bring the richness, knowledge and learning of ReAwaken to an ongoing conversation
and statement. How we could connect with people who may not have attended
the 5 days of ReAwaken was a focus Quickly we realized that we had many
brothers and sisters in marginalised communities. And there it was…. a rally.
The next time we spoke to PJ and Oryx for our weekly/fortnightly organising catch
up we shared the idea of a public rally, and inviting community groups to joins us.
The excitement of the idea was vibrant. As the Healing Voices movie says we could
‘bring mental health out of the shadows’, and we had come up with a very visible
and powerful way to do so to end the event. Better still it gave us the opportunity
to make a connection on a wider scale with other groups.
Although the initial idea was a march from Victoria square to parliament, we instead
met on the steps of Parliament and handed over the ReAwaken Manifesto to Katrine
Hildyard, Member for Reynell, SA. Katrine has been a supporter of the community
screenings of Healing Voices, speaking at events and more broadly supporting the
community conversation for change. She agreed to meet us on the Parliament steps
without hesitation and we duly arranged for buses to take willing attendees to the
parliament for the rally.
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