<aside> 📝 This is an ongoing and active document which will be updated as we educate ourselves further, flesh out initiatives and cycle through the changes that come with them. The Black Lives Matter movement has been a catalyst for us to become more accountable publicly and within the team. This document is becoming the blueprint for our studio to start publicly acknowledging and committing to not just this cause, but the many others that we care so deeply for. As we continue, we will keep you updated on our progress in this commitment to live and breathe our values.

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<aside> 🖤 All studio locations where we're privileged to work have this in common: sovereignty over that land was never ceded. We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners throughout the various locations in Australia and the US where this document was created. We pay our deep respect to indigenous elders past, present and emerging.

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Acknowledgement

As a venture design studio, we have not done enough to interrogate and break down the ways in which we uphold biased structures, including that of white supremacy.

The design industry is in many ways a microcosm of our socio-political systems, which are grounded in systemic racism. Our systems and processes, users and audiences that are prioritised, the words and images we use to communicate, and our modes of efficiency, are all intertwined and reflective of upholding standards of white supremacy. The racial and gender makeup of our industry reflect this as well. Our studio's racial composition, specifically, doesn't yet reflect the world we sincerely envision and want to help create.

With studios in both Australia and the US, we are uniquely positioned to reflect upon the intersections of systemic racism that proliferate between our two countries. The privilege of this opportunity places even more of a responsibility on us. We're responsible to do far more for our BIPOC communities which have so tenaciously shaped the land we stand on, and the culture we partake in and benefit from.

We are committed, as a group, to not only clearly identify how we may be actively anti-racist, but rethink how anti-racism can inform our work. We commit to continue to recognise how we can serve those who have long been neglected by our industry, and oppressed by our white, heteronormative society at large. We commit to peeling back the layers of white supremacy that we uphold and enact upon others, and to actively fight against this violence with our intentions, our voices, and our actions.

Approach

In order to make the most of our positions, skillsets and proactive tendencies, we begin with an analysis of how each of these things intersect with our privilege. We hope that this will begin to shed light on how we've fallen short through our own respective lenses in the past, and what we can start doing now to turn that around.

Getting deep into our respective lenses necessitates specificity with each of our roles within the company. We are probing what **we do by looking critically at how we do it, and to what consequences. Below, we grapple with a few role-specific questions that are just the very beginning of the long road ahead of questioning, and unravelling:

We're also committed to helping facilitate a baseline of fundamental awareness within our team about the intersecting issues that got us where we are today. We won't be approaching this issue with blinkers on. We know that a comprehensive understanding of the roots of racial inequity is necessary, as well as the connection between all other systemic injustices including environmental racism, social, psychological, economic, gender, sexual identity and beyond. None of these issues exist without the others. We commit to improving our ability to see the forest for the trees and using that to do what we do, better.

Commitments

Collectively, we need to continue to devise both short-term and long-term ways in which we, as a venture design studio, can directly and effectively address racism and injustice.

1 — Learning & Unlearning

Our first step in our commitment to further educate ourselves is the creation of an organised, internal space for doing so. It's a living document prioritising BIPOC authorship, where our wider team can collaboratively contribute to and learn from. We'd love to share this link with any other organisation who is looking to create their own – get in contact at [email protected]. Having multiple, accessible channels of learning and sharing will allow us to engage in proactive discussions around anti-racism, abolishing white supremacy and how we can be effective allies. We will assign roles and assume mutual accountability for our anti-racist journey.

2 — Partnering Looking at the work we take on and how we can proactively seek even more projects that not only align with our values, but challenge our world views in a positive way.

3 — Volunteering and Showing Up

Real change can happen when we organise and show up, but we know that these things take time. We recognise the importance in empowering members of our team to attend protests, meetings, and events that require in-person participation and advocacy. We want Josephmark to be a place where our team feels welcome to show up and speak out, together.

4 — Donating

5 — Creating a Better Workplace

6 — Recognising

Looking forward

We're in the midst of the most impactful civil rights movement of our era. Equality as an outcome requires us to address multiple lenses of discrimination, including but not limited to race, gender, ability, economy, environment and many others. Not to mention, the intersections between any number of these things. Though this page focuses on race, approaching our work with intersectionality front-of-mind is important to us.

This document is the first draft of one chapter in the work we're undertaking, and that which we have ahead of us.

📩 We welcome and encourage feedback to [email protected]