Walking the lines: What activism means to me
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 131 No 4, 26 June 2026, page no.18
Being an activist is not easy. In fact, even calling myself an activist was not easy.
For a long time, I resisted the label. It felt uncomfortable, loaded and not quite me. But over time, as I came to understand what activism means to me — and what it can mean to others — I have grown comfortable with it. I now wear that label proudly.
For me, activism is about standing up for what you believe is right. It is about living your ethics and standing up for those who need your support.
It is also about lines.
- There are lines I will not cross.
- There are lines I will defend if others cross them.
- There are lines I carefully balance on as I walk my professional journey.
- And sometimes there are blurred lines — moments where the system itself is unclear or under strain.
My activist work sits squarely in those spaces.
The Queensland Teachers’ Union’s (QTU) campaign, Music for Every Child, Every Week, has been running for several years. It is built on a simple belief: music education offers unique cognitive, social and emotional benefits for every child, and every child should have access — not just the elite, and not just those in schools that happen to have it on offer. Access to quality music education every week delivered by a qualified music educator should not be a matter of postcode or luck.
The campaign has more than 420 people subscribed to a dedicated email list. The QTU’s Primary Music Specific Interest Group (PMSIG) includes representatives from across the state — from Brisbane and the Gold Coast to regional centres like Kingaroy, Cairns and Mount Isa — and has met with MPs, gathered pledges of support, launched an online petition and seen the wording Music for Every Child, Every Week in Queensland state schools delivered by a qualified music educator appear in both Australian Labor Party and Liberal National Party policy.
These are real wins and they matter.
But like any long-running campaign, there are peaks and troughs. With the current teacher shortage, advocating for music teachers can feel difficult when schools are struggling to staff classrooms. At the same time, arbitration may mean many of our conditions feel fluid and uncertain. These are blurred lines, and they are not easy to walk.
Early in the campaign, in 2019, we conducted a survey to better understand what music teachers were experiencing across Queensland. The responses were not dramatic, but they revealed consistent patterns.
One teacher wrote:
“I refused to do arts, so my fraction at the school was reduced by half… I reduced my teaching fraction and left the school.”
Others described music programs being diminished due to “timetabling reasons”, specialist roles replaced with generic “arts” positions, and fears that leadership changes could dismantle established music programs.
These are not isolated stories. They reflect blurred lines between specialist and generalist, between curriculum integrity and convenience.
Sometimes it feels like we are starting again — returning to MP visits and awareness campaigns. But when we look around, we see teachers who once felt hesitant now advocating confidently for their students and their profession.
Our Union is us. It is not an external body. It is a collective “we”.
Music specialists are often seen first as “non-contact providers”. While non-contact provisions were important for classroom teachers, they also shifted how specialist teachers were perceived — sometimes reducing us to timetable solutions rather than educators.
This is where another line appears — the one we must draw ourselves.
- We must believe that what we do matters.
- We must know that we are professionals.
- We must recognise the value of our work, even when the system forgets to.
Activism is not about being loud or reckless. It is about knowing where the lines are, holding them, and helping others realise they are allowed to stand there too — because when we stand together, those lines become harder to ignore.