Musical Equality And Sustainability With VICKI GORDON

Interview by Kris Peters
Since the Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA) inception in 2018
almost 2000 individuals have been recognised with a nomination,
with 1946 nominations from 2018 to 2024. Designed to provide an
outlet to celebrate and reward women in the Australian music
industry, AWMA has become a vital platform for recognising the vast
contributions of First Nations and culturally diverse artists,
musicians, technicians, photographers, journalists, leaders,
artists with a disability and music practitioners from every corner
of the sector.
To be held on October 9 at Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane, this
year's ceremony features a spectacular line-up, including KATIE
MILLER HEIDKE, MISSY HIGGINS, BABYSHAKES DILLON, and recently
appointed AWM Chair SARAH MCLEOD.
Founding Executive Producer and Program Director Vicki Gordon
explains: "Our inaugural AWMA in 2018 paved the way for some of the
most important change the industry has ever seen, igniting
collaboration and support nationally for female and gender-diverse
artists and music practitioners, First Nations and Multicultural
artists and artists living in remote and regional areas. As we head
into our sixth year, we are proud of the change and the shift AWMA
has enabled - but there is so much more work to be done.”
With the AWMA's drawing near, HEAVY sat down with Vicki to discuss
the Awards, covering everything from the past, present and future
of this wonderful initiative.
"Things are pretty intense at the moment," she smiled when we asked
how preparations were going. "We're just under four weeks out from
delivering the conference and the awards ceremony, and there are a
lot of moving parts. It's become massive; a really, really big
event. There's a lot going on with organising the artists and the
programming for the awards ceremony. (Things like) the finalists,
the conference programme, the speakers and the facilitators."
We ask Vicki to go into more detail about the AMWAs, including what
motivated her to establish the awards in 2018.
"I've worked in the music industry for a long time," she measured.
"I've been a label manager, an artist manager. I've had the
extraordinary opportunities to work with First Nations artists for
the last three decades, right across this entire country, and I've
been a video producer. I've worked in lots of areas, and in my time
in the industry, it was always so obvious to me that women were
really absent, particularly in a lot of the technical and
production areas. I have been observing that for a long, long time.
In the early 90s I established the Australian Women's Rock
Institute, and that was way before Australian Women in Music
Awards. I set that up primarily to address the status of women in
the music industry, which was pretty appalling at that time."
In the full interview, Vicki outlined the extensive preparations
for the event, involving a large team focused on artist programming
and conference logistics. As a not-for-profit charity, the event
relies heavily on ongoing fundraising efforts and collaboration
between a number of sectors, which she explained in greater
detail.
Vicki also mentioned her proactive approach to planning for the
2026 awards, highlighting the cyclical nature of organising such
events. She shared her long-standing commitment to addressing the
underrepresentation of women in technical and production roles
within the music industry, which led her to establish the
Australian Women's Rock Institute and the awards themselves.
The conversation also touched on the importance of gender equality
in the music sector, with Vicki emphasising the need for continued
advocacy and research. She introduced the Women in Tech forum,
featuring Brittany Long as a speaker, and addressed concerns about
inclusivity for male attendees, affirming that their participation
is welcome. The inclusion of heavy metal and associated genres in
AWMA was discussed as well as Vicki's vision for the future of the
awards. 
The discussion included details about ticketing for the awards and
conference, as well as highlights of the event, such as the unique
black carpet event and the awards ceremony featuring notable
performers and more.


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