My MEAA story: Kimberley Wheeler
A founding member of Musicians Australia, Kimberley Wheeler is a singer, songwriter, composer and bass player
No-one thinks they need a union until they are faced with the kind of crisis a union helps address.
The music business is often a dog eat dog affair where workers, especially women, are pitted against each other for limited opportunities and low pay. For the last two decades the music industry has been a poorly supported, unsafe, and underpaid industry. It is a slow burning crisis, but if we work together we can make it better for us all. I wanted to do something about that and in 2018 went to the inaugural Australian Women in Music Awards in search of like minded people, and in search of answers. This is when I joined MEAA (Musicians Australia) and the MA Leadership Team. As part of the leadership team we developed a plan to address the lack of award rates and fair pay for music acts.
The Musicians Australia ‘Campaign for $250’ is a push to create a payment minimum for funded gigs and events. It is only a start, but I have been able to take the idea to meetings with the Arts Minister and other state and federal political leaders to promote it. It is going well so far and I been able, with my colleagues at the MEAA, to start a foundational campaign to improve music industry pay rates throughout Australia.
With COVID, I lost all my gigs. My first solo CD was released during the long Melbourne lockdown, with no tour, and only zoom and telephone media appearances. During 2020, my weekly Musicians Australia meetings were a mental health lifesaver. The connection with like minded folks in a similar situation was so important. Also, to collectively be able to reflect and plan, to garner a little hope that we can regroup, reinvent and make some change for the future.
Alone we have the volume of only one voice and access to a smaller variety of ideas. And alone we are more vulnerable to the whims of other parties. Also, arts workers are not always great negotiators or good advocates for their own situation. MEAA unites and amplifies the call and needs of those in the arts. Each sector of the union adds to the weight of MEAA and its ability to engage a level of resources and weight that would be harder for those individual sections and impossible for individuals.
MEAA has their head and their heart in the right place. The union is working hard to make the industry a better, safer, and more rewarding place for all musicians. By joining, you help MEAA to create real change that will lead to better, safer, more lucrative gigs, and you’ll have someone at your back when you need it.
