Anti Racism PLEDGE

D6’s Anti-Racism pledge has been produced as part of the ongoing review of the organisation’s Equality, Diversity and Equity Policy and Action Plan. It is a direct response to the amplification of the Black Lives Matter movement globally and the deep inequalities that the cultural sector must address with urgency, honesty and care. We aim to review each pledge annually, creating space for reflection, response and action on a more regular basis.

BUILDING EQUITABLE ORGANISATIONAL AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE  

• We will ensure our Equality, Diversity and Equity Policy is a live working document, for all staff, board and associates. All paid staff, freelance professionals and members of the board will be informed of the procedures for reporting racism within the workplace  and/or on behalf of the organisation. 
• We commit to recruiting external consultants and/or practitioners to support D6  (staff, board, artists, selected partners and volunteers) to reflect on its ambition, leadership role and practice, to recognise and articulate unconscious bias and to support the collective development of further anti-racism actions. 
• We will ensure anti-racism is central to our sector-targeted and co-designed capacity building and training opportunities developed through our programmes.
• We will seek avenues for self-education, shared learning and participation in anti-racism work via external opportunities and collaboration.

 
CHALLENGING POSITIONS OF POWER AND PRIVILEGE IN THE SECTOR  

• We will continue to create spaces for difficult and critical conversations that aim to platform diverse voices and practices; facilitate deep listening and challenge positions of power and privilege through art.
• We will ensure we create time and spaces to care for and listen to artists and volunteers we work with, who may be experiencing oppression and racism in the cultural sector. We will seek suitable ways to support and/ or enable their course of action within our capacity and role.
• We commit to taking an anti-racist agenda to spheres of influence at a regional, national and international level.
• We will respectfully challenge partnerships, networks and membership bodies that uphold oppressive and racist systems and disrupt strategies and procedures across our regional, national and international work.
• We commit to gathering evidence and opening up dialogue with funders and other stakeholders around structures that uphold racist systems that obstruct our ability to work with others.

 
A FAIR AND REPRESENTATIVE CULTURAL SECTOR   

• We commit to resourcing recruitment procedures to ensure greater time, research and processes are in place for paid and voluntary opportunities to reach a border and more diverse professional and citizen base.
• We commit to seizing opportunities to further resource D6’s Associate Artists’ programme. The current cohort represents a range of lived experiences and professional practice at the intersection of colonial heritage, displacement, migration, social justice and identity politics, working with D6 in a paid capacity to influence, reflect and cast a critical eye on organisational practice, research and the development of programmes. 
• We commit to working collaboratively with artists and partners who have lived experience of forced displacement and migration to support the development of bespoke professional pathways and dissemination of practice on their terms.
• We will continue our research and test out how we position D6 to lobby for change to create improved, accessible and anti-racist professional pathways with artists who have lived experience of forced displacement and migration.

This pledge will next be reviewed at D6's Board meeting on 26 January 2022. 

Please visit Culture Against Racism to find out more about the work and actions in our region.