interview
Starting With Julius is a non-profit organisation
committed to the equal representation of people with
disability in advertising and the media. In the five years
since it was formed, Starting With Julius has achieved
significant inroads into recasting difference for a world
in which no-one is excluded and everyone belongs. The
organisation has worked with Australian brands including
retail giants Kmart and Target to embed disability into
their regular advertising.
RECASTING
DIFFERENCE
F
ounder and Director of Starting
With Julius is Perth lawyer who belongs and who doesn’t,
Catia Malaquias, who is mother who is valued and who isn’t, and it
of three children, 10-year-old Laura, reflects the way people with disability
nine-year-old Julius who has Down have been treated for a long time
syndrome, and seven-year-old Drea. – segregated and excluded, out of
Catia said after her son Julius was
born, it became obvious to her that
20
“I believe it is a message about
sight and out of mind.
“It is in a very real sense
people with disability were not being ‘discrimination hidden in plain sight’
represented in advertising and were and I felt this was harmful to my son
underrepresented in the media. and to his sisters.
Catia Malaquias and Julius,
photography courtesy
IDPwD, Department of
Social Services.
in a positive and authentic manner in
the media, can provide crucial self-
validation and empowerment.
“As a parent, I want all my children
to be exposed to positive role-
“This troubled me a great deal “For children like Julius who are models with whom they can identify
because the omission of people with developing their individual identities, as well as role-models who can teach
disability is neither accidental nor seeing others who share a similar them about the value of human
neutral,” she said. experience, portrayed or identified diversity.”
interview
linkonline.com.au