Siren #140: Siren’s first field trip, back to the barre + we want to hear from you!
A Women in Sport Collective
We love working with people we love!
Last year, Siren co-founder Kasey Symons was awarded a Michael Gordon Fellowship from the Melbourne Press Club to share stories from Australian Netball Diamond #105 Sharon Finnan-White’s First Nations Academy of Excellence.
We’ve covered the important work of Finnan-White before as she established an academy to support First Nations netballers through elite pathways to drive more Indigenous representation in elite netball. The Michael Gordon Fellowship is allowing us to continue more storytelling about the impact of FNAE and investigating what facilitating culturally safe environments in sport means for First Nations athletes.
The Fellowship also enabled Siren co-founder Kirby Fenwick to travel to Townsville recently with Kasey to visit Sharon, meet her athletes and partners and see firsthand what she is doing to change the game for First Nations netballers.
We cannot wait to share the stories and voices from this field trip with you all!
This experience was a special one. Not only did we get to meet the amazing Sharon Finnan-White in person (spoiler, she is very awesome!), it’s the first time Siren has been able to travel interstate for a project!
We were also able to fund longtime Siren contributor Kel Rowe to photograph and film—big thanks to Kel for being part of this with us! And to be able to do all that to work on a story that is so important to us, and as independent creators, was a great achievement.
We want to thank the Melbourne Press Club for their support, and of course Sharon and her athletes for welcoming us to their beautiful Bindal and Wulgurukaba country.
Stay tuned for their stories making their way to you soon!
We’ve been busy!
While we can’t share too much about exactly what we’re doing right now we can tell you that we’re collaborating with the wonderful team at ABC Sport on some fantastic resources for emerging sports media superstars.
We cannot wait to share that with you so stay tuned!
This is exactly the kind of work we’re leaning into at Siren. Creating resources. Creating opportunity. Creating community. And all in service of challenging the status quo of sports media.
This is work we’re passionate about but it’s also work that takes time and resources. If you can, we very much appreciate your support! You can do that by supporting us over on Patreon.
What support do you want as you build your sports media career?
Yes, we’ve been busy creating some fantastic resources through our partnership with ABC Sport and we’re keen to do more but we need your help!
We've got lots of ideas gleaned from our own experience but we're keen to hear from you. What kinds of resources would be helpful and/or useful for you as you build your career in sports media? Are you looking for tips and tricks, practical how-to guides, insights into interviewing or finding stories, tips on research or maybe something else?
In this issue
We’re always interested in work that asks us to consider what we think of as sport and who we think of as an athlete. So we are thrilled this month to bring you a story from Tahlia Sinclair that does just that. We also have the latest from our ABC Sport partnership and we have a round-up of great stories by women in sport.
Back to the Barre: How Zara Lim found her love for ballet again
Tahlia Sinclair speaks to former Australian Ballet School student Zara Lim about finding her way back to ballet through teaching.
All the latest from the Siren Sport X ABC Sport partnership
Read all about Lauren Robinson's unexpected journey to becoming a wheelchair basketball coach from Jo White.
Jo also hosts a great basketball podcast—Pause Beyond the Court which is all about how to encourage young women to get the most out of participating in sport. Be sure to check it out!
Women in Sport IRL!
While Kasey, Kirby and Kel were in Townsville working with Sharon Finnan-White, they were also able to catch up with one-half of The Netty Life podcast, Kate Cornish!
We love connecting with women in sport content creators and it was just so cool to go somewhere new and be able to find friends—how awesome is the women in sport community?? Very, obviously!
We’re thrilled to see Kate Jenkins AO announced as the new Chair of the Australian Sports Commission! And congrats to Liz Ellis AO for being elected as Chair of Netball Australia—we love seeing these awesome leadership announcements, more please!
Everyone is following the Caitlin Clarke effect in the WNBA, but as Katie Barnes writes for ESPN, she's not the only factor for this recent growth. Brigid McCarthy also looks at the impact of poor reporting when it comes to women’s sport, and how old-school male sports journalists need to lift their game
Put June 4 in your calendars! We can’t wait to watch this!
Speaking of marking your calendars - the countdown is on for The Ladies League to open in Sydney! Congrats to all involved in making this dream come true for all of us!
In the space of nine days late last year, Lions forward Dakota Davidson went from thinking she’d done her ACL, to a maiden All Australian guernsey and a second AFLW premiership. Siren co-founder Gemma Bastiani writes for AFL.com.au.
Catherine Ordway and Ginger Gorman unpack sports’ response to the gendered violence crisis in their article for The Conversation, ‘A minute’s silence is fine but when it comes to violence against women, being quiet isn’t enough.’ Siren co-founder Kate O’Halloran also wrote on this issue for ABC Sport.
And speaking of great work by Kate, check out her amazing profile on boxer Marissa Williamson-Pohlman!
In Melbourne? Be sure to check out this event!
