The bold and the backlash: when marginalised voices are heard in neoliberal land

The hierarchy in our educational institutions and services often mirror societal attitudes towards power and whose voices are privileged or ignored. Historically, those with power feel uncomfortable when marginalised voices are heard. There is a lot at stake when power is threatened and new voices demand changes within society. This discussion paper explores various instances of where that has happened and the backlash faced by those who are given a chance for their opinions to be heard or those who assist them to voice their narrative through research and reporting. Using publicly available data and our own experiences, we examine incidences where society has listened to children, the victims of sexual abuse in institutions and Indigenous Australians. For people to reach their potential, their voices need to be heard in matters that affect them, according to the United Nations Human Rights Declaration (United Nations, 1948). Using discourse and narrative analysis, the authors discuss the cost of exercising those rights within a neoliberal context and examine how this influences peoples’ agency as they face media backlash, online trolling and death threats. Despite this, when marginalised people are bold enough and are allowed to tell their stories, societies, educational institutions, and services have the chance to adapt and improve. This will interest those who educate and research with marginalised people or who study social and institutionalised power.