What is #OwnVoices and why does it matter?

Image: The background is has partial sprays of text and patterns in teal and black. In the middle of the image is the text question, ‘What is #OwnVoices and why does it matter?’ Text beneath this says, ‘www.asphyxia.com.au.’

When I decided to make Piper, the main character in my book, Future Girl (in Australia) / The Words in My Hands (in North America), Deaf, I did so because I was hungry to read books and watch movies about Deaf people. As a Deaf person, it is deeply disappointing to me how rarely we are represented in the media. I almost never get to read stories that depict my own language (Auslan), my culture (the Deaf community) and in which characters go through the same struggles and tribulations as I do. Imagine that you are a white non-religious hearing girl from Australia, and the only books and movies you have access to were created in Saudi Arabia and depict Muslim men carrying out traditional practices. While you might be very interested in the culture in Saudi Arabia and enjoy watching Muslim men in their everyday lives, you might share that hunger I feel to see representations of yourself and your life in the media.

As well as deciding to write the book I wanted to read, I also wanted to write a book that would depict Deafness in an authentic, non-romanticised way. I am fed up with unrealistic media that sends poor messages, such as the picture book Boy which features a Deaf child (I wrote a review of that here) who is routinely excluded from his community and yet somehow magically becomes a hero for completely unrealistic reasons, and the movie MVP: Most Valuable Primate which features a little girl and chimp who sign to each other… using gibberish! Yes – made up sign language! These portrayals of us and our language promote messages that it is fine to make a mockery of our language (imagine a kids’ movie in which all the spoken language was pure gibberish and it was promoted as being an example of English!) and that Deaf people will remain serenely unbothered in the face of the worst exclusion. People consume this media and think it’s ok to behave like that towards us!

The #OwnVoices movement was started by Corinne Duyvis in 2015 when she tweeted a request for book recommendations about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group. Like me, she wanted to read authentic depictions of characters, culture and experiences. The movement has since taken off and gotten the attention of publishers worldwide, who are now prioritising #OwnVoices books and advertising them as such. This is a wonderful and exciting dimension for the book world. Hopefully soon we’ll see #OwnVoices movies too.

The #OwnVoices movement is there to specifically hold up marginalised voices, but it has sometimes been misrepresented to imply that all people should only ever write about their own experiences. If you are writing about something you haven’t personally experienced, how do you know if it’s okay for you to write about this or if it is something that should be left to an #OwnVoices author?

Start by asking yourself this series of questions:

• Is there a privilege imbalance between me and my protagonist?
• If no, go for it! If yes, ask yourself: Am I the right person to write this book? (Considering this will take space away from a writer from that underprivileged group, and there’ll be a risk of inadvertently misrepresenting that group and perpetuating damaging stereotypes.)
• If yes, what will my book give back to the underprivileged group in return for me having benefited by using their stories, besides the tired argument of ‘exposure’?
• Also, how extensive will the consultation necessary to achieve authenticity without lived experience be – and am I passionate enough about this project to put in that enormous extra effort and take on that extra responsibility?
• Would it be appropriate to name the consultant as a co-author, depending on how much their advice changes the content of story?
• Do I have permission, if relevant, to write about this topic? (See AIATSIS Ethical Publishing Guidelines for more on this.)

If you feel it is appropriate to forge ahead with a non-#OwnVoices topic, the most helpful thing you can do is to engage someone from the relevant culture or who has been through the relevant experience as a consultant, and be aware that you need to give something back. It can be tricky to even realise that you need a consultant for certain topics, so learning to identify them is a crucial step for those of us involved in writing, publishing and creating movies and other media.

Unfortunately, due to our tight schedule, we did not put in our request to the Wurundjeri land council for advice and permission soon enough. The land council needed enough time to take the relevant text and image to a regular meeting of Elders. Because we didn’t have this check done, we cut it from the book. This was a real wake-up call for me, to realise how switched on we all need to be.

As it happens, I have been hired a few times now to do sensitivity checks regarding depictions of Deaf characters in books and movies. I have ended up writing pages of material for my clients, to explain the background of why their characters/scenarios are unrealistic and to make suggestions for how to improve them. In each case, my client was stunned by what I came forth with, having had absolutely no idea that these background issues existed nor that they were accidentally putting forth a poor message about Deaf people. I was extremely glad they had asked my advice and pleased to see new authentic representations of Deaf characters going out into the public realm.

In terms of ‘giving something back’, I realised that what the writers and filmmakers had the opportunity to do was present authentic, realistic information about Deafness to the mainstream public in a way that is actually helpful for us. You may know that I am an advocate for open captions on films, and I reject the current model of ‘captiview’ as providing sufficient access to films for deaf people. One writer included a scene of a deaf character going to a film, and I felt that by not addressing access she was presenting a message that it’s okay for deaf people to go to films knowing that they will not fully understand. While this does happen in real life, it is better to show the struggles deaf people experience with films, to help raise awareness. I suggested she rewrite the scene including a battle with the captiview device – which she did. The result is a scene that forms part of the activism I am involved with – attempting to abolish captiview and move towards open captions. In this way, the writer was giving something back to us, by helping a cause that is valuable for us. The scene abolishes the widely-held idea that captiview ticks off the access requirement for deaf people.

The worst thing you can do is to consult and then not take on the advice given! I recall one time a journalist emailed me specifically to ask how I wanted to refer to my ‘impairment’ (even though during the interview I had used the word ‘Deaf’ multiple times). I replied that I wanted to be described as ‘Deaf’. The article was published describing me as ‘hearing impaired’! Why bother asking? Sometimes the advice is much more significant and can mean a complete overhaul of everything you intended for your story. This has happened in cases I have consulted on, so I can understand how tempting it is to disregard the advice and proceed as originally planned. If you are tempted to do that, you could consider this as a red flag that you are likely not the right person to write this story. You might also want to consider whether the consultant would appropriately be named a co-author of your work, if their contribution has resulted in significant changes to the content of your story.

My novel, Future Girl / The Words in My Hands is an #OwnVoices book which explores Deafness and Deaf identity, drawing on details of my own experience trying to make my way as a Deaf person in a hearing world. If you’d like to read it, you can get your copy here if you’re in Australia, and here if you’re in North America.

You might also like my post, How to Write about People who are Deaf or have a Disability.