Trigger Warning: This post contains reference to racism and ableism within the organisation.
We, the committee of Baby Wearers Western Australia Incorporated (BWWA), are committed to building an inclusive community, where all peoples are made to feel welcome and supported, where cultural knowledge is respected, and discrimination is called out and removed immediately.
To move forward in this spirit, we need to first acknowledge the mistakes of the past.
In the past, BWWA has (by ignorance, entitled blindness or by inaction) allowed black, indigenous and people of colour to be marginalised, cultural wisdom to be dismissed and their contributions to be belittled. For this, we apologise.
BWWA’s own past guidelines have been based on very generalised safety limits in Western designed and marketed carriers, without regard for traditional generational knowledge, or consideration of varying physical abilities, with discriminatory ableism.
Particularly, this discussion of back carrying, has led to discrimination; racism and ableism, and extremely hurtful responses from within the organisation, and on in our social media and physical spaces. For this, we apologise.
These discussions were unintentionally shared from an outdated resource this week and are not in keeping with our current knowledge of cultural inclusivity and population diversity within our babywearing community. For this, we apologise.
By both action and inaction. We have caused offence and harm. We cannot undo that. We truly apologise and we are working to prevent any repeats of these previous events.
We look forward to continuing education, promotion and facilitation of safe baby wearing in the Western Australian community.
The Committee Baby Wearers Western Australia Incorporated