Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode, just say play
Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: A special bonus episode of The Front for you today.
Speaker 1: It's the third in a special series of essays penned
Speaker 1: by a handful of extraordinary Australians. We've asked them to
Speaker 1: reflect on the defining themes of the past six decades
Speaker 1: in honor of The Australian's sixtieth anniversary. In today's episode,
Speaker 1: Australian Tamil lawyer and author Shankri Chandren on feminism, womanhood
Speaker 1: and identity growing up between the expectations of her traditional
Speaker 1: Tamil culture and Australian suburbia. Have shared Hunkri Children's perspective
Speaker 1: on what it means to be a woman. That's today's episode.
Speaker 2: As a teenager, I vividly remember my father showing me
Speaker 2: the door of the family surgery. There was a sign
Speaker 2: that bore his name, my mother's and their medical qualifications
Speaker 2: earned despite ethnic conflict, forced migration and the challenges of
Speaker 2: a new country.
Speaker 1: This is Chunkri Chandren reading an excerpt from an essay
Speaker 1: she's written for The Australian.
Speaker 2: He said, pointing to the sign there's space for you two.
Speaker 2: My mother smiled and nodded her agreement. While this is
Speaker 2: obviously a lot of pressure to place on a thirteen
Speaker 2: year old and an approach not recommended in today's parenting handbooks,
Speaker 2: I remember my heart expanding with pride. My parents thought
Speaker 2: I could do anything. In their minds, gender would not
Speaker 2: limit the fulfillment of my potential.
Speaker 1: Born in the late seventies, Schunkri Chandren is the child
Speaker 1: of Tamil Sri Lankan immigrants who came to Australia via
Speaker 1: London and settled in Canberra. After earning a degree from
Speaker 1: the University of New South Wales, Children headed back to
Speaker 1: London and worked as a human rights lawyer for the
Speaker 1: next two decades, formulating assistance for people facing some of
Speaker 1: humanity's greatest challenges. Children now lives in Sydney with her family,
Speaker 1: her husband, three sons and one daughter. These days she
Speaker 1: writes novels. Her third Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, was
Speaker 1: published in twenty twenty two and won the prestigious Miles
Speaker 1: Franklin Literary Award. A year later. Song of the Sun God,
Speaker 1: published back in twenty seventeen, is being given the TV
Speaker 1: treatment in an adaptation starring Bridgeton's truthra children only hope
Speaker 1: they like me. All you have to do this evening
Speaker 1: is remember what it is you're looking for, someone charming
Speaker 1: and handsome. Of course, for all her challenges and achievements,
Speaker 1: Shunkri Chundren says, surviving year nine is up there. It's
Speaker 1: a perfect storm of hormones and gossip and popularity. To
Speaker 1: use her word, it's a shit show. But it's also
Speaker 1: the year when the realization dawned on children that she
Speaker 1: had a foot in two worlds.
Speaker 2: My generation was the first to be raised in the
Speaker 2: refuge of Australian My family was the migrant paradox. Came
Speaker 2: to contribute to their new home, to fit in and
Speaker 2: remain unnoticed. They were also afraid that we would completely assimilate.
Speaker 2: They often clung to cultural practices, including the gendered ones
Speaker 2: that even in Sri Lanka have been changed or discarded.
Speaker 2: We existed in a cultural time capsule.
Speaker 1: Somewhere in the middle was her fledgling definition of womanhood.
Speaker 2: And so it became an unhappy time. It became a
Speaker 2: time where I was almost afraid to go to school
Speaker 2: and unsure of how to be myself because myself was
Speaker 2: so different from the experiences of my friends. Myself and
Speaker 2: my experience of my life was culturally insular and yet
Speaker 2: culturally rich. So we were isolated from in many ways
Speaker 2: from our white Australian friends and the evolutions that they
Speaker 2: were going through. And at the same time, whilst being
Speaker 2: culturally isolated, it was full of my own culture.
Speaker 1: Chankrije hundred believes it's the friendships that survived that hellish
Speaker 1: year that have since helped her define her identity and
Speaker 1: define her womanhood.
Speaker 2: And so these girls that I had such a fraught
Speaker 2: relationship with in year nine, they are also the most
Speaker 2: abiding and deepest friendships of my life and the ones
Speaker 2: that have enabled me and supported me to be my
Speaker 2: kind of woman. And so they accept me for my feminism,
Speaker 2: for my womanhood, for my motherhood, and for my professional accomplishments.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try it to cry because I love
Speaker 2: them so much and I think it's it is incredible,
Speaker 2: and I really I wish one of the many things
Speaker 2: that I wish for my children is that they have
Speaker 2: friends like that.
Speaker 1: The author's upbringing has made her uniquely aware of the
Speaker 1: successes and the shortcomings of mainstream feminism.
Speaker 2: It's actually hugely validating for me writing this essay, but
Speaker 2: then having other people, particularly I think women from migrant backgrounds,
Speaker 2: read it, and I would love to engage with them
Speaker 2: in a conversation about it, because I often feel that
Speaker 2: my own experience is ignored, and more so than that,
Speaker 2: I think the experience of vulnerable women, more women that
Speaker 2: are far more vulnerable than me, is also completely ignored
Speaker 2: from that public narrative and that public debate, and we
Speaker 2: end up relying on fascinations women to advocate and to
Speaker 2: do such heavy lifting, up expecting every woman of every
Speaker 2: subgroup to do the heavy lifting and to do the
Speaker 2: advocacy for their group, and at the same time don't
Speaker 2: necessarily give them the platforms from which to advocate, because
Speaker 2: those platforms for feminism and for women for womanhood are
Speaker 2: already occupied and dominated by a certain kind of woman,
Speaker 2: and therefore a certain kind of feminism coming up.
Speaker 1: What's Star Wars got to do with feminism? The Australian
Speaker 1: has been asking the tough questions for the past six
Speaker 1: decades and subscribers get breaking news, lively commentary and in
Speaker 1: depth analysis. First check us out at the Australian dot
Speaker 1: com dot au and we'll be back after this break.
Speaker 1: Chankri Chandrin is a serious Star Wars fan. There are
Speaker 1: four references to the iconic Space opera in the essay
Speaker 1: she's written about feminism, womanhood and identity for The Australian.
Speaker 2: If Princess Leiah could lead a rebellion, so could I.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty impressive average for a two thousand word
Speaker 1: essay that's not actually about Star Wars, but it does
Speaker 1: serve a purpose. Her fandom is an important part of
Speaker 1: her identity and it punctuates important points about womanhood and
Speaker 1: the ways it intersects with her Tamil culture.
Speaker 2: My husband, who undoubtedly married me for my mind, my
Speaker 2: skill with a lightsaber, and my charming sense of humor,
Speaker 2: did not enter our marriage with Tamil expectations of Tamil women.
Speaker 1: I did. Becoming a wife and better mother has prompted
Speaker 1: Shannkri children to reevaluate certain aspects of her culture that
Speaker 1: don't gel with her personal definition of womanhood.
Speaker 2: Over time, I've lent to deprogram and delete some of
Speaker 2: these expectations of myself so that I do not pass
Speaker 2: them on to my daughter.
Speaker 1: Her daughter children rights is encouraged to attend temple on
Speaker 1: any day of the month, except when a new Star
Speaker 1: Wars film is released. In many Tamil temples around the world,
Speaker 1: women are prohibited from worshiping while they're menstruating. But that's
Speaker 1: not a restriction Shunkri Children feels is necessary for a
Speaker 1: daughter who's engaged with her culture.
Speaker 2: Women bleed and therefore we can conceive if old Hindu
Speaker 2: men want more Hindu babies, then the singularly female ability
Speaker 2: should be deified, not used to degrade us.
Speaker 1: Chankri Chandren's daughter, born and raised in Australia but immersed
Speaker 1: in her parents' Tamil heritage, has piercings, she has a tattoo.
Speaker 1: She dresses in a way that's both on trend and
Speaker 1: self expressive. Children writes that in her day this would
Speaker 1: have triggered a nationwide auntie alarm.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, So the auntie alarm in the Sri
Speaker 2: Lankan thumb Or community in Australia and probably everywhere in
Speaker 2: the diaspora is absolutely incredible. It is a network of
Speaker 2: aunties around the country and around the world who know
Speaker 2: what you're doing at any given time, and so if
Speaker 2: you break any social more, be aware that they will
Speaker 2: be on the phone or now the internet immediately to
Speaker 2: alert everyone and anyone that feels they have some parental
Speaker 2: responsibility over you, whether they do or do not, and
Speaker 2: they will intervene in your life or alert the necessary
Speaker 2: Sri Lankan thumb will Auntie the next one over to
Speaker 2: intervene in your life and to in their minds, save
Speaker 2: you from irrevocable disaster, or just to make sure that
Speaker 2: you stay on the straight and narrow as every Sri
Speaker 2: Lankan thumble girl should.
Speaker 1: Children doesn't begrudge the auntie's well intentioned meddling, but she
Speaker 1: considers her daughter's modern, unconstrained expression of femininity to be
Speaker 1: a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: When I look at my child, I am instead relieved
Speaker 2: because I know her well enough to know that she
Speaker 2: respects her body, she is comfortable with how she looks,
Speaker 2: and I am inspired by her self expression. It has
Speaker 2: been wondrous for me to see the confidence and with
Speaker 2: which she has embraced her own identity and her place
Speaker 2: in the world, and the curiosity with which she approaches
Speaker 2: the world and the way that she recognizes that her
Speaker 2: place has value and that she is important, and she
Speaker 2: is comfortable with her body in a way that I
Speaker 2: don't think I will ever be comfortable with my body,
Speaker 2: and she asserts that comfort and confidence and expresses herself
Speaker 2: beautifully whilst simultaneously respecting herself.
Speaker 1: You can read Chunkri Chandren's essay on feminism, womanhood and
Speaker 1: identity right now at the Australian dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Kristin Amiot with support from
Speaker 1: Bianca far Marcus