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photo by Liljenquist Family words by Michael Epis Collection/Library of Congress

Sojourner Truth was born around 1797 in New York state. No-one knows exactly when. For Sojourner – or Isabella, as her mother called her – was born into slavery, being the daughter of enslaved people James and Elizabeth “Betsy” Baumfree. She had about 10 siblings, but never met most of them – they’d been sold. She was, however, present the day her brother, about five, and sister, three, were taken away by their new owners, her sister locked in a box. Her brother tried to hide under a bed.

Orphaned at nine, Isabella was sold, and as she told Olive Gilbert, who transcribed her life story, the sale included several sheep. Her new owner spoke an unfamiliar language – English. Isabella spoke the Dutch of her owners. “The war had begun,” she recalled. To wit: “One Sunday morning, in particular, she was told to go to the barn; on going there, she found her master with a bundle of rods, prepared in the embers, and bound together with cords. When he had tied her hands together before her, he gave her the cruellest whipping she was ever tortured with. He whipped her till the flesh was deeply lacerated, and the blood streamed – the scars remain to the present day, to testify to the fact.”

Isabella was sold again, then again as a teen, to John J Dumont, with whom she passed the next 18 years. Isabella noted events she preferred not to record; others have reported these were rapings by her owner, resulting in one child.

Enslaved people were to be freed in New York in 1827; Isabella took her own freedom, forever after saying she did not run away, but walked. When she returned to reclaim her son, he had been sold, illegally, across state lines. She went to court and had him returned – an unprecedented suit by a Black woman against a white man.

Many adventures followed, going to New York City, worshipping at a Black church, where she warmed to one fellow congregant, who soon died. Only later did Isabella learn it was her sister, the one in the box.

Isabella fell in with religious cranks, one of whom was murdered, over which she was tried – and acquitted. Her son went to sea, never to return.

After a vision, she quit New York to wander and lecture – renaming herself Sojourner Truth. Wander she did, for 40 years, meeting two presidents (Lincoln and Grant) while spreading her ideas – of God’s love, slavery’s evil and the equality of men and women. “I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?” she said in a famous speech, ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’

Sojourner died in Michigan in 1883. Her story lives on. Gloria Steinem considered calling her Ms. magazine Sojourner – and would have, except it sounded like a travel magazine.

The Pride March is a sea of sequins, feathers and rainbow flags as it drifts past Melbourne’s new Victorian Pride Centre.

The centre hums with activity.

The powerful Freedom is Mine photographic exhibition is on display, legendary queer bookshop Hares & Hyenas trades on the ground floor and radio station JOY broadcasts live from the balcony. For Melbourne’s LGBTIQ+ communities, this symbolic space is a haven. Yet marginalised people often struggle to feel safe and included. Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation is hoping to change this. As the largest community foundation in Australia, through the generous gifts of others, they have been able to support organisations like the Pride Centre address discrimination and to foster inclusion, understanding and respect. “As the community foundation for Greater Melbourne, it is important for us to support and participate in collective fundraising for community infrastructure projects such as the Victorian Pride Centre,” says Dr Catherine Brown OAM, CEO of the Foundation. “We hope our work creates a more caring, respectful, inclusive and resilient Melbourne for all people to live safely and without fear of discrimination.”

According to the Pride Centre’s CEO Justine Dalla Riva, “The support of the Foundation has been integral in assisting us to create an exciting, accessible, multifunction hub that will sustain the LGBTIQ+ community into the future.”

GiveOUT, whose annual fundraising day addresses the lack of funding for LGBTIQ+ organisations, is also able to continue its important work thanks to support from the Foundation. “It gives organisations like ours the resources they need to continue their services and programs, and meet the growing needs of their community,” says co-founder Ben Giraud. Many Coloured Sky’s work with vulnerable LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers and international students will also go on thanks to the Foundation. “These people can face complex, intersecting forms of discrimination,” says Karyn Bosomworth, Program Manager at the Foundation. “Many Coloured Sky helps this community find support and employment.” A sense of safety, belonging and trust are essential for a thriving society. And with your help – through planned giving, a bequest, gift or donation, no matter how big or small – the Foundation can continue to support people and communities across the city. As Dr Brown explains: “By giving to the Foundation you are joining a community who is working to make greater Melbourne an inclusive, more resilient and sustainable city for everyone.”

Photo: Victorian Pride Centre, February 2022

There are community foundations across Australia. Find your local community foundation by visiting cfaustralia.org.au

Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation is Greater Melbourne’s community foundation, you can find us here lmcf.org.au