Spreading the News

On: September 17, 2024 in , , , , By: ACRATH |
Kyla Raby

Kyla Raby knows modern slavery inside out. She can talk with great authority to her peers and networks, who also know modern slavery inside out. But try telling a mate about the vulnerabilities facing cleaners, fishermen and women in the garment industry – in 3 minutes. It’s a challenge Kyla took on and has led to the development of a series of social media resources she has published through a project called Everyday Slavery.

Everyday Slavery, a two-year project funded through an Australian government grant, is producing sharp, factual and easy to understand YouTube, Instagram (IG) and Facebook videos and posts about different areas of modern slavery. They are perfect information resources for those who are new to the topic. They are also great resources to use in a presentation. Many of the Instagram posts ask a simple question and then answer it in clear and evidence-based text or 90-second reels, while the YouTube videos explore a topic in more detail. Topics include:

  • What can the community do to help prevent and address modern slavery?
  • The Slavery in Every Day series which includes episodes on the risks of modern slavery in coffee, clothes, seafood, chocolate and electronics

Kyla is doing the project while on maternity leave from the Australian Red Cross where she is the lead on human trafficking, forced marriage and forced labour. She’s also doing a PhD exploring modern slavery in global supply chains and has recently co-published a book with Nerida Chazal called, Modern Slavery in Australia. Kyla is also a member of the ACRATH – Flinders – UniSA joint project team, Educating for Change.

“The idea for Everyday Slavery came from a lot of the focus group work I have done for my PhD where I spoke with consumers about modern slavery. My early findings showed a real disconnect between what we buy, the services we use and understanding any risk of modern slavery,” Kyla said.

Kyla has deliberately used clear, but catchy language in the 3-minute videos to try and move away from the combative phrases and words so common in the human trafficking lexicon. She believes some language can create a distance between the reality and the reader/listener. Through the videos she hopes to connect the story of modern slavery with our lives and our economy.

Importantly, Kyla hopes the Everyday Slavery videos and other resources will increase awareness of the issues and encourage people to take action to address modern slavery as well as advocate for change, particularly in supply chains of goods and services.

“It’s challenging for people who learn about modern slavery risks in clothing production and try to shop ethically as they often have a lot of difficulty tracing the supply chain of products,” Kyla said.

“Unfortunately at the moment, there are no laws which prevents goods made with modern slavery from being imported into Australia and sold to Australian consumers. These types of laws exist in other jurisdictions like the US, Canada and the European Union and what we are seeing is that a lot of the products banned from the US are being dumped into the Australian marketplace.”

Everyday Slavery has also published a ‘Spotlight Series’ highlighting the work of leading antislavery stakeholders as well as various interviews with stakeholders discussing issues in the modern slavery space, including people with lived experience of modern slavery and labour exploitation, Professor Jennifer Burn AM, Director of Anti-Slavery Australia who explains the My Blue Sky website, and Grace Wong, International Justice Mission who offers a snapshot of online sexual exploitation of children. Everyday Slavery also provides information about referral pathways for people impacted by human trafficking and modern slavery.

Kyla has already exceeded her target of reaching 10,000 people through Instagram and is well on the way to achieving her target of publishing 50 YouTube videos and 200 Instagram and Facebook videos and posts before the project funding concludes in June next year. She plans on continuing the project beyond that point to try to reach as many people as possible to help them explore modern slavery issues.

To follow along and support the project you can:

All of the videos and posts made to the Everyday Slavery social media accounts are publicly available, so you are welcome to re-share and use them in your work.

You can contact Kyla at everydayslavery@gmail.com with any questions or for more information. To buy Modern Slavery in Australia: https://store.lexisnexis.com/en-au/products/modern-slavery-in-australia.html

ACRATH

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