Vidya Makan, who played Catherine Parr in the recent Australian production SIX: The Musical, has just released a new song on YouTube called I Need You To See Me, performed by 101 CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) and BIPoC (black, Indigenous and People of Colour) artists.

Featuring music and lyrics by Makan, the song is a call to arms from Australian performers who habitually find themselves marginalised, addressing the inclusion and visibility of voices who are underrepresented or misrepresented our stages and screens.

“We hear the same rhetoric repeated over and over again when casts or projects are announced and there is a continued absence of diverse representation. It’s always pushed back on the marginalised communities themselves. We ‘aren’t out there’ or ‘didn’t show up’ – a common refrain that gave rise to last year’s #justnotthatmany visibility campaign. Or worse still, the suggestion that we are not good enough,” said Makan.

So she decided to turn to song, with lyrics such as: “Let’s step into tomorrow, Let’s not repeat our past, No longer will I rub rub rub off my skin. No longer do I scrub scrub scrub to fit in. We know you’ve got to be taught to hate, But also you’ve...