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“In 2003, a demonstration outside Canberra’s Parliament House protests changes to Centrelink guidelines”
In 2003, the Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Disabled Soldiers Association staged a protest outside Parliament House in Canberra, over changes to Centrelink guidelines that could have cost them up to $200 per week in income. “He said in Parliament that our payments are adequate, he's somebody who has never had the time to speak to us,” Association President John Ryan remarked of then Prime Minister John Howard.
"The United Nations makes comments on the rights of people with disabilities."
In 1951, the United Nations made comments on the rights of people with disabilities."The focus of the United Nations on disability issues shifted in the late 1950s from a welfare perspective to one of social welfare."
"The report Shut Out: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia is published in 2009"
In 2009, Shut Out: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia was published. This report was commissioned by the Australian Government as part of the National Disability Strategy. It was prepared by the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council.
"Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons adopted in 1975"
The 1960s and 1970s saw major changes in people’s attitudes towards disability. Stemming from the growth of the human rights movement and the introduction of normalisation theory internationally, Australia signed key human rights declarations of people with disabilities, the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (adopted in 1975). The Declaration argued that disabled people deserve to live lives “as normal and full as possible”.
“Lesley Hall leads a protest of the Miss Victoria Quest beauty contest”
In 1981, Lesley Hall and a group of disability activists protested at the Miss Victoria Beauty Quest (a beauty pagent that was a fundraiser for the Spastic Society in Victoria). The focus on physical perfections was seen “as the norm all must attain if they are to be fully accepted into society”. The protests raised much media attention and marked the beginning of a shift in thinking about the place in Australian society of people with disabilities.
“80 wheelchair users and allies halt Melbourne trams, demanding better access to public transportation”
In a 2000 demonstration organised by the Catch a Tram group, 80 wheelchair users and their allies halted city trams in Melbourne during lunch hours, demanding better access to public transportation.
Ruth Rentschler
Megan Strickfaden
Jess Kapuscinski-Evans
"Bree Hadley, Clark Crystal (2017) Style, stage presence, and the poetic subversion of stereotypes: A case study of Blue Roo Theatre Company. Social Alternatives, 36(4), pp. 15-21."
"In this article, we consider the work of Blue Roo Theatre Company (http://www.bluerootheatre.org.au/), a Brisbane-based theatre company which “creates contemporary performances lead by the artistry, experiences and imaginations of an ensemble of artists with diverse ability and impairment” (http://www.bluerootheatre.org.au/). Writing from a dual insider-outsider perspective – as a scholar of disability theatre and a creator of disability theatre in conversation – we discuss the work done in the training and rehearsal room in the lead up to Blue Roo Theatre Company’s performances, such as the company’s recent sell-out performance of Orpheus and Eurydice in collaboration with Opera Queensland at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts, and the way it creates a distinctive performance style, poetics, stage presence, pleasure for the spectators who come along to witness the results of the work, and sense of community. We document moments in which facilitators, collaborators, co-creating artists, audiences and the media alike feel the physical, psychological, and aesthetic focus and force of voice, movement and character work by people with disabilities. We identify ways in which this stage presence can subvert dominant depictions of people with disabilities as innocent, childlike, or inspirational as significantly as the content of a show. In doing so, we provide insights into Blue Roo Theatre Company’s processes, and the aesthetic results it produces, and contribute to a growing body of commentary around disability theatre and performance, which – though increasingly well understood by those working in the form – clearly can still provide surprises for audiences and commentators anticipating conventional representations of people with disabilities onstage."
Janice Rieger
"Rachel Carling-Jenkins, Mark Serry (2014) Disability and social movements: learning from Australian experiences. Burlington : Ashgate Publishing Company"
Reads, in part "This book provides the reader with a ground-breaking understanding of disability and social movements. By describing how disability is philosophically, historically, and theoretically positioned, Carling-Jenkins is able to then examine disability relationally through an evaluation of the contributions of groups engaged in similar human rights struggles. The book locates disability rights as a new social movement and provides an explanation for why disability has been divided rather than united in Australia.."
"Christopher Newall (1996). The Disability Rights Movement in Australia: A note from the trenches. Disability & Society, 11(3), 429–432. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599627705"
Reads, in part “A recent visitor to Australia from the UK commented to me on their return ‘I looked in vain for the disability rights movement. Can you tell me where they are?’ In essence, the Australia disability rights movement is currently fragmented, predominantly organised around disease labels and seems to have lost ground, compared with the self-help initiatives fostered around the time of the International Year of the Disabled Persons in 1981.”
Inside Out Dance
The Sunshine Troupe
Xanthe Beesley
Tony Dee
Trudy Fraser
Sahaimi Angus
Samara Hersch
Sarah Barton
Sarah Collins
Sarah Whitaker
Simon Abrahams
Simone Flanagan