QTU music activists are everywhere
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128, 25 August 2023, page no.20
Looking around the room at State Conference 2023 – Our Meeting Place, I could not have been prouder to include myself in the large number of music activists in attendance.
This was my sixth Biennial Conference. I remember when I started attending QTU events, which was not that long ago, that there were only two or three music teachers present. The representation across the floor of Conference was phenomenal ─ high school music teachers, heads of department, primary specialist music teachers, instrumental music teachers and instructors, Council Reps, Union Reps, members of Executive and the Working Conditions Committee, Officers, and Organisers of the Union.
You may wondering why this matters. Often, teachers who teach in areas which are a little different or specialised do not immediately come to mind when it comes to asking colleagues to attend union meetings, or become a Union Rep, or proxy for a seat at Council, or even to engage with in a membership conversation. Do not mistake engagement in a specialised field for a lack of interest in advocacy for the collective. Just having an initial conversation about issues which may only affect a minority of people in the staffroom provides the welcoming and collegial atmosphere that QTU membership is ultimately all about.
As a music activist, I wanted to learn more about the Union and about matters which not only had meaning for me, but for the broader membership as a whole. While networking with other music teachers, it became apparent that a proportion of not only specialist but generalist teachers did not know their working conditions. With guidance and support from my Organiser at the time, Kevina O’Neill, we were able to facilitate many workshops. We used this opportunity to have many conversations with teachers around how they could get involved with the QTU.
In this short period of time, the number of music teachers participating in QTU events started to grow, and as a result, the Primary Music and the Instrumental Music Specific Interest Groups have evolved, along with the Instrumental Music Reference Committee, all of which have campaigned and continue to campaign for various issues.
Having experienced being an itinerant teacher in a rural setting and servicing six schools a week, it can feel like you spend most of your life on the road; the actual time spent in a school is precious. However, it is really important to make the effort to become familiar with who your Union Reps are in those schools, so you know who you can go to, should an issue arise.
But as a Union Rep, it's equally important to know who your itinerant teachers are. Over the next few weeks, meet the itinerant or a specialist teacher in your workplace, stop and have a chat. Ask them how they are going or how they are engaging with the students and parents at the school. Find some common ground and make the connection. I challenge you to invite them to the next branch meeting and maybe… just maybe… you will see them standing proudly in the music activists’ State Conference 2025 picture.