True colours: Thami Dish knows what it means to be perceived as dramatic, loud or difficult. But rather than apologising for those qualities, he sees them as another way of insisting on being heard. Photos: Supplied
With a sleeping baby on my back, I wait on a Google Meet call for Thami “Thami Dish” Willis, the founder of the Feather Awards. I am anxious because if the person on my back wakes up, they will want to chime in on the conversation. We know that in a professional setting, that would be unacceptable. But what option do I have when it is just us, every day from dusk till dawn?
After a while, she does what I expected — wakes up. I apologise profusely and am met with the most understanding response.
“Children are expressive; we call them too much. And it isn’t that. All they are doing is trying to find a way to have their voice heard.”
He knows what it means to be perceived as dramatic, loud or difficult. But rather than apologising for those qualities, he sees them as another way of insisting on being heard.“Don’t shut me out,” he says. “I may not sound the way you want and there isn’t a perfect time, place, setting or way of doing it. We’re here now. Let’s do it.”
That philosophy has shaped the Feather Awards as a platform not only to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual and more (LGBTQIA+) community but also to spark meaningful conversations.
And 18 editions later, Thami Dish is as passionate about the issues affecting the LGBTQIA+ community as he was in 2008, when the first instalment of the Feather Awards went live. But the story of the Feathers started long before 2008.
At 21 years old in 2006, Thami Dish was sitting with Baby Joe Correia, a television personality and later, the co-founder of the Feather Awards. The conversation quickly moved to what was missing from the culture, especially for queer people.
Queer people were visible, he says, but there was something missing in the way they were being represented. There were glamorous events and queer personalities who occupied public spaces. Thami Dish wanted something that could bring that visibility into a platform of its own.“It took a couple of years with Joe giving me a stipend of R2 000 every month to try to find sponsors. I knocked on every other door and it was a tough one to do,” he says.
Joe and Thami Dish were working at the SABC at the time and would bump into each other in the corridors, never missing a chance to talk about the Feather Awards, perhaps not realising that those conversations were keeping the dream alive. “I then left the SABC and in 2008, I went independent. I started working for myself and then, in between working for myself, I started taking on gigs. I was starting to make some kind of income and money from those gigs. I didn’t have so many responsibilities at the time and I decided to get in touch with Joe: ‘Let’s do this, Joe.’”
What followed was an unlikely coalition of relationships, goodwill and people willing to contribute what they had. Seemingly, people could recognise the meaning of such a moment in history. The village that is often spoken about when we speak of support made sure that the Feather Awards took off at the speed it did.
Thami Dish admits that the awards took a while to reach a mainstream audience. They had to think strategically to ensure that the platform was not known by only the people it served and celebrated but that it reached a broader audience too.
“I needed to launch this thing that would become as topical as all the other award shows and that would spark dialogue and conversation. And so we did that. Julius Malema was the president of the ANC Youth League. I remember taking a huge, yet calculated, risk and we nominated him as Drama Queen. By its definition, it was anyone who’s topical, who is a point of conversation.” That did not go well. Malema turned down the nomination, saying: “I didn’t study drama and I am not a queen.”
“The conversation was: ‘Somebody called the president of the ANC a Drama Queen.’ And it became: Who called him that and why? That was a place and a platform for us to be able to be known. It was our launching. We were launched.”
Almost two decades later, the Feather Awards are an event on the calendar that cannot be missed.
The man behind the awards is mellow and leads a simple life. A good conversation with a small group of friends is how Thami Dish spends his downtime. It is far removed from the world that he has created for others to enjoy.
His activism remains present even in the quieter parts of his life. He talks about cultivating relationships with allies, bringing them into his world and making sure they understand queer lives beyond the assumptions that can come from distance.
For Thami Dish, the work is not only about creating visibility. It is about creating people who will act when he is not in the room. “I need people to be guardians of our hearts, not to harm them,” he says.
There is so much thought that goes into the categories as well as the nominees. This year, Banele Ndaba, Siya Bunny and Kagiso Mogola are nominated in the Best-Styled Individual category. Under Hunk of the Year, there is Sdumo Mtshali, Vuyo Biyela and Teddy Geldart (DopeZuluboi).
Nominees under Musician of the Year are Thando Zide, Manana and Zee Nxumalo. Nominated under Best LGBTQIA+ Youth Initiative is Other Village People. Social Media Personality of the Year nominees are Primo Baloyi, Grace Mondlana and Coachella Randy. Drama Queen of the Year nominees are Credo V Daniels, Mel Viljoen and Limpopo Boy. The queer coming-of-age film Black Burns Fast is nominated under Media. These are just some of the categories and nominees that will be celebrated.
The most special award this year is the Maria McCloy Award. It has been changed from Designer of the Year to the Maria McCloy Award to honour the legacy of the late Maria McCloy, DJ, publicist, fashion designer, cultural connector, mentor, champion and friend, who died earlier this year at the age of 50.
Thami Dish says McCloy represented design, culture, fashion, furniture, textiles, jewellery and the preservation of heritage. She represented an approach to creativity that was expansive and rooted in identity.
“Not only is she a recipient of that award now but the name has been officially changed to forever be the Maria McCloy Award.”
The impulse to keep people alive through memory, recognition and storytelling sits at the heart of Thami Dish’s work. It explains why he continues. It explains why, after everything the Feathers have demanded of him, he can still talk about the future. And it explains why the 18th edition is not the ending of a story.It is another beginning.
The work is ongoing through year-long programmes run by the Thami Dish Foundation. The Feather Awards do not just run for a night. They are an institution that celebrates queer people loudly, unapologetically and on its own terms.