On Thursday 28th of January, EYST Wales held a joint conference in collaboration with Women’s Equality Network Wales, Disability Wales and Stonewall Cymru. The conference was titled ‘Race, Anti-Racism and Intersectionality: We Are All Allies’ and was attended by over 200 individuals. The conference welcomed key influential speakers and politicians from around the UK, as well as panelists from each of the 4 organizations.
Opening remarks were delivered by Rocio Cifuentes, EYST Wales CEO, where she highlighted the role of last year’s events in putting Race in the spotlight. Ginger Wiegand who is EYST Wales’ Policy Lead then highlighted some of the main achievements of the All-Wales engagement program.
Colin Heyman, a practitioner in the field of Equality, Diversity & inclusion in the past 20 years, then delivered an important talk on being an ally. Ourania Vamvaka, LGBT+ researcher at Cardiff University, spoke about her research on the experiences of LGBT+ people seeking asylum in Wales.
The conference then followed with a panel discussion on intersectional allyship, chaired by Rocio Cifuentes with Catherine Fookes, WEN Wales / Iestyn Wyn, Stonewall Cymru / Rhian Davies, Disability Wales.
The Keynote speech was delivered by Marsha De Cordova MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Women & Equalities, who spoke about the importance of solidarity and allyship for fighting injustice in this moment.
'I believe that working together as allies in our fight for justice, we each have a vital role to play'. Marsha De Cordova
Rachel Clark delivered a talk on the importance of education in conveying messages about intersectionality, racial equity, solidarity and allyship. The All-Wales BAME engagement team delivered their pledges and reflections on the conference (Lenaine Foster-Bennett, Amr Alwishah & Rahila Hamid).
Lastly, closing remarks were delivered by the Right Honourable Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales, who highlighted the importance allyship in shaping our identities, especially in light of current pandemic.
Find out more from this report and see some of the main video highlights on our twitter https://twitter.com/AllWalesEY...
We Are All Allies EYST Conference 2021 FINAL
Colin Heyman Allyship Presentation
