Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “Australia Council releases its first Disability Action Plan”
  In 1996, the Australia Council for the Arts released its first Disability Action Plan.
• “1993 welfare report includes people with disability as one of four foci”
  ‘Australia's Welfare 1993: Services and Assistance’ was the first biennial report to include information on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Statistics on people with disability was one of four main areas. https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/aa045df7-78e3-465e-b4b5-079b6ae6ace8/aw93.pdf?v=20230605150811&inline=true
• “Advocates fight for accessible public transport”
  In 1994, Maurice Corcoran (a wheelchair user) lodged a complaint about the South Australian government ordering 50 new buses that were not accessible. The Australian Human Rights Commission successfully negotiated for all new buses to be fitted with ramps. Then, in 1999, a protest about the lack of public transport options for people with disability saw Citizens for Accessible Public Transport block traffic in Sydney’s city centre.
• “Disabled actor and writer Heather Rose stars in ‘Dance Me to My Song’ (1998)”
  The 1998 film ‘Dance Me to My Song’ stars Heather Rose, who also co-wrote the film. It is about a woman with cerebral palsy, whose carer resents the job. The dramatic tension rises when the two women both take an interest in the same man. The Rolf de Heer-directed film is significant for casting a disabled actor at a time when authentic disability representation was rare, not to mention Rose’s contribution to the screenplay. ‘Dance Me to My Song’ was selected to feature in the Cannes International Film Festival in May 1998. The documentary ‘Heather Rose Goes to Cannes’ (1998, Christopher Corin) follows Rose’s journey from Adelaide to Cannes.
• "Dr G. Yunupingu plays keyboards, guitar and percussion on Yothu Yindi's 'Treaty'"
  Geoffery Gurrumul Yunupingu, an indigenous Australian from the Gumati Clan on Echo Island, was a blind musician, singer and song writer. As a child taught himself to play a guitar "upside down". He started as a guitarist, key board player and percussionist for the pop/rock band Yothu Yindi who had the international hit "Treaty" in 1991.
• “‘Arts and Disability: A Research Report’ published in 1995”
  In 1995, ‘Arts and Disability: A Research Report’ was published. Des Walsh and Juliet London were commissioned by the Australia Council to prepare the report. However, they found little information that was relevant to the theme of the report. In addition to a review of existing literature, they met with people involved in arts organisations, disability organisations and organisations dedicated to both, as well as funding bodies. Walsh and London outlined the different ways that disabled people interact with the arts: as artists, consumers, and through art therapy. They also recognised the “negative or unduly limiting notions attached to arts in relation to disability” (12). Overall, they found “no conclusive evidence […of a] widely shared, articulated concept of a ‘disability arts’ movement in Australia” at that time. The report was intended to inform meaningful policy going forward. They made recommendations related to buildings and physical barriers, leadership, education and training and action plans.