Changing The Game with Wilson Casado - Yola Bakker

Yola Bakker is a “Creative for Change”, employing her talents across several industries in projects like PODscape and Take2 4you, through which she seeks to bring in new diverse perspectives from the ground up.

The daughter of an Indonesian immigrant, Yola grew up in Darwin where she would develop the artistic talents that she uses today in the promotion of diverse perspectives deeply rooted in intersectionality.

She was also kind enough to accept being a guest in the Changing the Game Podcast where we got to discuss not only her background but also her multifaceted work in the promotion of diversity and intersectionality.

The Extra Mile

My talk with Yola started with her reminiscing about her childhood in Darwin, and like so many guests admirably do, recognising the privilege she had growing up in an environment with access to good education and living standards.

However, she also takes a critical stance in her education that mostly taught her to “read and write”, while her critical thinking abilities were developed not in the classroom, but through Yola’s creative pursuits.

Studying classical ballet and traditional Indonesian dance, she learned from a very young age about the power that movement and words had to stir peoples emotions and the immense potential it had as a driver of change.

There is certainly something to be said about the role schools play in the development of critical thinking capabilities of younger generations.

There are some modern schools that recognise this role and foment creative activities for the development of critical thinking, but sadly they’re still a minority just like the students with the foresight that Yola had.

The Resource industry

Being such an artistic individual, it would be hard to imagine Yola working in the resource industry of all places. Yet that is exactly where she is. And she is the first women employed by the wester mine worker’s alliance.

She explains that her current goal within the field is to re-unionise a series of 20 mining sites where companies have been given free rein to operate as they please, sometimes ignoring proper compensation and safety protocols.

So my first question was inevitably what an artist would do working for a union, to which she answered:

“I recognised that it was really important for diverse individuals to strategically place themselves in industries or in spaces where they wouldn’t normally find themselves, there in lies the problem at the moment.”

The problem to which Yola refers is the fact that on a national or even global scale, “we’re siloed into working in fragments where you belong in this industry, this is your expertise.”, a problem she hoped to address through “crosspolination”.

Yola knew that she could bring something different into the resource industry space, so she went for it, going out of her comfort zone in order to create the change she wanted to see in the world.

From her current position she uses her talents to share stories that change the way the public tends to see unions, what they stand for and demonstrate that there are interests in both sides of the fence (workers and companies) that are conducive to a common cause.

The First Woman In the Alliance

My second question had to do with Yola’s experience as the first woman hired by Western Mine Worker’s Alliance and she responded by recalling their initial conversations which entailed the issue of representation.

“There are 40% of women in all minesites now and lots of sites are looking to heavily increase that and are actively doing so. So it was important a woman that members were able to access, and also I think women bring a different perspective and energy.”

Yet she also told me that in a sense her work was not all that different in helping women deconstruct certain behaviors and ideas imposed upon them by the patriarchy and helping them shift their perspectives.

Yola does this by fomenting the same creative exercises that have given her the possibility of questioning the status quo around her, by enabling these female workers to express themselves through art she teaches them to speak their minds.

Intersectionality

Another important aspect of Yola’s work involves creating within marginalised groups a deeper sense of feeling comfortable in one’s own skin while not feeling obligated to accept certain stereotypes and norms of society.

She then spoke of how she has been trying to pass on these values to her children so that they understand the relations between individual and institution, and how they don’t have to accept the rules presented to them.

One of the ways in which she does this is by exposing them to her work as much as possible so they can see how their mother stepped away from the game she was dealt and not only created her own path, but opened a new one for other women as well.

This last concept, as you may imagine, being essential for those looking to change the game.

Being able to look at the unfair rules being imposed upon you and say “I’m not playing” is not only a phenomenal exercise in individuality but also an invitation for others that have been similarly wronged to do the same.

The more people say “I’m not playing”, the more will the game be forced to change.

Conclusion

It would be fair to say that Yola Bakker has one of the strongest personalities I’ve ever seen. She has the same strength that is shared by most visionaries.

That is the strength to go off the beaten path, to ask the inconvenient questions that most people would censor themselves from even formulating in their heads and finally, the strength to refuse conformity which is so needed today.

With this strong and courageous spirit in mind, I want to propose a new mental exercise: What are the unfair rules with which you and those that share in your identity are expected to go along? What can you do to reject them?