Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “The report ‘Inquiry into Health Services for the Developmentally Disabled and Psychiatrically Ill’ (aka the Richmond Review) is published by the NSW Government.”
  In 1983, the seminal NSW Government report, ‘Inquiry into Health Services for the Developmentally Disabled and Psychiatrically Ill’ was published. The NSW inquiry, also known as the Richmond Report due to its chair, David T. Richmond, revolutionised the institutional landscape by explicitly linking disability services to human rights for the first time in Australia and highlighting the critical need for advocacy "mechanisms" that actively allowed people with disabilities to "speak for themselves."
• John Pidd
• Lisa McKoy
• Lisa McKay
• Roisin Johnson
• “Deaf film ‘A Silent Agreement’ is released in 2017”
  The Deaf film ‘A Silent Agreement’ was released in 2017 (written and directed by Davo Hardy). This romantic drama features a profoundly Deaf human rights activist and his filmmaker boyfriend with a speech impediment. It is said to be the first Australian film to feature Auslan as the main dialogue. Some scenes are entirely in Auslan. Screen Australia calls it the “first Australian film to feature Auslan.”
• “A national Disability Advisory Council is established in 1983”
  The national Disability Advisory Council (DACA) was established in 1983. Parliamentary information from 26 July that year reports: “Disabled people will form a significant majority on the new body. Announcing this today, the Minister for Social Security, Senator Don Grimes, said the new Disability Advisory Council of Australia represented an important breakthrough for disabled people. For the first time, an Australian Government will be looking to disabled people themselves for advice on government policy and programs affecting them.”
• “Research project ‘Disability and the Performing Arts in Australia: The Last Avant Garde’ investigates the creative and aesthetic strategies of the Australian disability arts sector”
  A research project beginning in 2016, ‘Disability and the Performing Arts in Australia: The Last Avant Garde,’ investigated the creative and aesthetic strategies of the Australian disability arts sector. The project sought to map “disability arts practice across the nation” by examining “the role of artistic experimentation,” “co-design[ing] accessible strategies,” and raising “critical recognition, employment and funding opportunities for artists.” The project team describes themselves as a collective “of deaf and disabled and non-disabled researcher artists, performers, writers, arts managers and theatre makers.” The work was the result of a collaboration between Arts Access Victoria, University of Melbourne, and University of Sydney. The Australia Research Council provided funding for the research.
• Access Arts
• Miranda Nation
• Gaye Walsh
• Gay Walsh
• “Commonwealth Disability Strategy launched in December 1994”
  The Commonwealth Disability Strategy was launched in December 1994. The strategy was meant to ensure compliance by Commonwealth Departments with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (passed in 1992). The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House reports that “Results have been uneven, especially in employment, but the Act has made some breakthroughs on education and disability access in new buildings.”
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
• "Bree Hadley (2022) Disability and the Arts, Creative, and Cultural Industries in Australia. Australian Academy of Humanities"
  Reads, in part "There are five interrelated factors that support arts workers, arts organisations, and the arts sector at large to develop improved policy, protocol, and training practices."
• “100 disabled people protest outside Parliament House against moves to tax their government allowances”
  On 29 September 1978, 100 people with disability protested outside Parliament House against moves to tax their government allowances. Following the protest, Treasurer John Howard was forced to rescind the decision.
• “Creative Australia releases reports on arts participation, including d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent artists and audiences”
  A series of reports about arts and disability in Australia published in the mid-to-late-2010s are summarised on the Creative Australia website. Sources for the summary include Connecting Australians: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey (June 2017), Making Art Work: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia (2017), Creating Pathways: Insights on support for artists with disability (2018), and Arts and Disability in Australia: Meeting of Cultural Ministers (2018). The overview of this research series demonstrates that disabled Australians’ participation in the arts had increased as access had grown, though equity for disabled artists, especially those with intersecting marginalised identities, continued to face barriers. It reports that work by disabled artists is innovative and transformative.
• “The National Disability Strategy 2010–2020 is launched and, later, Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031”
  The Australian Government launched the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020 in 2011. All levels of government were involved in a united national approach to improving life for people with disabilities, their families and carers. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was an outcome of this process. In 2021, the Disability Strategy Advisory Council was established and the most recent iteration of the strategy, Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, outlines a vision for a more inclusive and accessible Australian society where all people with disability can fulfil their potential as equal members of the community.
• "Accessible Arts - Creative Initiatives, captured 2022"
  Accessible Arts - Creative Initiatives - reads, in part "The unique perspectives and experiences of artists with disability – as well as the intersection of cultural identities across all types of disability – present exciting avenues for new artistic possibilities right across the spectrum of visual, performing, literary, screen and digital arts. We’re here to work with arts and cultural organisations, government agencies and other funding partners to deliver creative initiatives focused on providing development and production opportunities for all kinds of artists with disability or who are d/Deaf."
• "Creative Australia (2024) releases 'Equity: Arts and Disability Associated Plan"
  Reads, in part "The Australia Council for the Arts have released their critical new report Towards Equity: A research overview of diversity in Australia’s arts and cultural sector. This overview gathers published and unpublished data and research on representation within the arts and cultural sector in Australia."
• "Bree Hadley (2017) Disability theatre in Australia: a survey and a sector ecology. Research in Drama Education, 22(3), pp. 305-324.”
• "Jung Yoon (2021) Cultural strategy for people with disability in Australia. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 28(2), 187–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2021.1916003"
  Reads, in part "This paper analyses the first cultural strategy introduced in Australia for people with disability and its evaluation reports. For an in-depth understanding of the cultural strategy, it reviews the literature on disability in historical and socio-political contexts, and on human rights for people with disability. It also discusses three key recommendations identified from the evaluations of the cultural strategy: first, to develop an information hub for the arts and disability sector; second, to facilitate collaboration between Australian governments, including arts agencies and national disability support agencies; and third, to revisit and renew the existing cultural strategy"
• Barbara Doherty
• “Handicapped Persons Assistance Act 1974”
  Compared to earlier decades, the mid-1970s saw an increase in political activity pertaining to individuals with disabilities. The Handicapped Persons Assistance Act (HPAA) of 1974 is one such example, which replaced several policies and funded non-government organisations that provided care and housing. In 1983, the Hawke Labour Government instigated an evaluation of the initiatives created under the HPAA. The HPAA was replaced in 1986 by the Commonwealth Disability Services Act of 1986.
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1994-95"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1994-95- discusses functions, organisation chart, year in review, work to overcome inequities experienced by artists with disabilities with a review of arts and disabilities developing into an action plan by 1997, artform development, main activities of Council and its Boards, and includes financial statements and lists of grants made including grants for programs, projects, creative development of organisations and an international cultural exchange program.