TO BECOME
Time For Change: Inspiring Women We Love
by Lucy Siddall
This year, NARU Studios is celebrating Valentine’s month in a new way.
Every week in February, we’ll tell you about a person we admire. A person doing bold and brilliant things. A person whose love, commitment and dedication to their art is a thing of beauty.
Alice Aedy
Alice Aedy is a documentary photographer and filmmaker focused on telling the stories of those living on the frontline of the refugee and climate crisis and the fight for women’s rights. She’s also a co-founder of Earth Rise, a media studio dedicated to creatively narrating the story of the world’s battle against climate change.
What sets Aedy’s work apart is her unique ability to compassionately tell the stories of those whose lives most of us cannot imagine living. Her work looks at the blunt edge of reality, but unlike most, Aedy doesn’t turn away. She looks directly at what it means to be a human in some of the most challenging places on the earth and intimately connects the viewer to her subjects, no matter where they are.
We all share a common bond, the human condition, and her stories encourage us to look beyond our own cultures and borders and recognise our shared existence. Aedy’s photography and filmmaking sometimes tell heart-breaking and inconceivable stories, but she does so with elegance and beauty.
The viewer leaves the world she has created, moved by the realisation we’re more similar than we realise and, on occasion, optimistic.
Discover her work here.
She looks directly at what it means to be a human in some of the most challenging places on the earth.
Aditi Mayer
Aditi Mayer is a speaker, content creator and activist trailblazing the way for transparency within the fashion industry.
Since the Rana Plaza clothing factory collapse in 2013, Aditi as been committed to campaigning for garment workers’ rights and understanding the colonial roots of the fashion industry. The focus of her work is to highlight sustainable makers and brands from underrepresented communities in the fashion world.
Mayer’s work shines a light on how fashion disproportionately impacts communities of colour whilst simultaneously using her platform to present a diversified voice and elevate the profile of small sustainable and BIPOC brands worldwide. Businesses that infuse style and sustainability whilst also ensuring ethical manufacturing practices.
Importantly her work is also about how sustainability isn’t just about what you spend. A narrative that focuses on a purely consumer solution alienates many people. Instead, she’s shifted the conversation from one where the responsibility is on the individual (and their unique spending power) to one where sustainability is a movement led by communities and citizens with the power and ability to enact change globally. One where all are involved, not just
those who can ‘vote with their money’.
Discover more of Mayer’s work here.
Tori Tsui
Tori Tsui is a climate justice activist, writer, consultant, and speaker who eloquently talks about something rarely discussed - the impact of climate change on our mental
health.
Her view; collectivism over individualism. Her belief; we must navigate eco-anxiety not just as individuals but as a whole human race. Individualism got us here, to the climate crisis as it’s currently known, in the first place, and it is community and collectivity that will get us out.
She wants us to expand our thinking to actively include those in our communities who are also suffering. Tsui encourages us to find solutions for our worries, fears and concerns. Why? Because embracing the notion of a shared struggle is comforting, it’s hopeful and reminds us we’re not alone in times of crisis.
Her debut book ‘It’s Not Just You’ is a meditation on climate anxiety, and if you’re looking for a voice that shares your views and suggests a path forwards or even just a place to find a moment of solace, her writing is the perfect tonic.
It’s Not Just You.
The climate crisis is making us all unwell.
But Not Just You.
The climate crisis is affecting certain communities disproportionately.
And it’s Not Just the climate crisis…
Discover more about Tsui here.
She wants us to expand our thinking to actively include those in our communities who are also suffering.
Aja Barber
Aja Barber is a writer, stylist and consultant who has built a career questioning how consumers can be more sustainable and how can the fashion industry be more equitable.
Barber’s work addresses the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry, past and present, and highlights how this cannot be resolved without addressing its historical roots in colonialism. She also tackles the significant issues of racism, inequality and privilege in the modern fashion industry.
The core ideal in Aja’s work is that the fashion industry must end the onslaught of destruction it is wreaking on the planet. However, this requires both greater government regulation and individual demand for change. One will not be successful without the other.
A published author, Barber’s book ‘Consumed’ looks at how the fashion industry’s uncomfortable history got us to where we are today. It also explores how we can reclaim our power, unravel ourselves from consumer culture and live with compassion rather than consumption.
If you want to learn, understand and be a better consumer, buy and read her book.
Discover more about Barber and how to join her Patreon here.
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