Create a power map

Privilege Wheel

A two-page worksheet that helps to map power and privilege for an individual or organisation and compare it to the wider community.

Cultural Authority and Consultation

Discussion of cultural consultation and the importance of finding the people in the community with the relevant cultural authority, and the processes they must undertake to provide solid cultural advice. Focused on First Nations but includes good principles for consultation in other cultural communities.

Power Dynamics

Designed for US municipal government and artist collaborations, this tool sets out questions to identify what each partner brings to the project, including convening power, knowledge power, decision-making power and financial power.

'Being good partners means striving for conditions in which power is shared, and addressing incidents of imbalance or misuse of power. It means examining situational power, for example that each partner has its own capacity, resources, relationships, or influence.'

Vetting for stereotypes: meet publishing's 'sensitivity readers'

Discussion of sensitivity readers, who read manuscripts to give feedback on stereotypes, biases and problem language for authors 'writing cross-culturally'. Some claim these readers are censoring authors. Others say sensitivity readers allow publishers to release books by authors writing cross-culturally, rather than stories written directly by writers of colour, and that sensitivity readers are used as shields if there are criticisms.

Exploring my Power and Privilege

Exercises developed for Canadian high schools to explore power and privilege, including the Power Flower (power mapping exercise), Equality vs Equity and the Paper Basket Exercise. Links to resources and background information.

Equity in the Arts Toolkit

A toolkit created during a convention of arts leadership bodies and local artists in California's Eastern Coachella Valley, a community that is 98% Latino, with many monolingual Spanish speakers. Provides a framework for arts project design that makes participants, power and beneficiaries explicit.

Why cultural appropriation isn't cool

This five-minute read lays out cultural appropriation in plain English, including what it is, what it isn’t, why it’s a problem and how power plays the crucial role.

What I do as a sensitivity reader

A discussion of the work of a sensitivity reader, and the way it fits into the broader context of editing for accuracy.

'For example, I might explain that putting a space in ‘Chinese Australian’ and ‘trans man’ helps affirm those identities as part, not whole, of someone’s character, compared to ‘Chinese-Australian’ and ‘transman’. I might notice that the portrayal of a cultural activity is off: Australians talk about going ‘to the footy’ but not ‘to the ball game’.