What’s cultural safety have to do with editing?
Editing is a relational process between the author and the editor and many other people – it’s more than grammar and technical editing. It’s respecting your cultural voice in decisions about language use, document structure, writing style, and grammar.
I argue that including your cultural values at every point and in every pathway of editing is necessary so that the power of your voice shines through your published writing. As an editor, I will ensure your cultural voice is respected and valued.
My educational qualifications — Bachelor of Science, Master of Public Health, and Doctor of Philosophy — mean that I provide rigour and academic quality to my editing process. My cultural qualifications — First Nations Australia, British Convict, Latvian Immigrant, and Scottish Free Settler — mean that I bring multiple cultural views to our editing relationship. I also practice what I teach as shown in my cultural safety publications (see ORCID ID).
A culturally safe editor respects your cultural voice and enhances your values, ideology, family, religion, and beliefs through your powerful writing.
“Never have able wordsmiths – the minders, or keepers, of language – been more needed” (Australian Standards for Editing Practice).
Mark encourages First Nations writers to enter the Newcastle Short Story Award: https://hunterwriterscentre.org/newcastle-short-story-award-2021/
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