Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “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.
• “Access Arts commissions a multi-arts project, Peter Vance performs the song ‘Welcome to My Day’ at the 1999 Wataboshi Festival in Japan”
  Peter Vance was asked by Access Arts to team up with Ant McKenna to compose a song. He then performed ‘Welcome to My Day’ at the 5th Asia Pacific Wataboshi Music Festival in Japan in 1999. Access Arts sent disposable cameras out to members across Queensland; each story became a collage in the State Library foyer as a day-in-the-life of each artist.
• “The Asia-Pacific Wataboshi festival comes to Brisbane”
  Hosted by Arts Access Qld, in 2003, the Asia-Pacific Wataboshi festival was brought to Brisbane with the aim to raise the profile of disability arts. David Helfgott was the ambassador.
• Peter Vance
• Jeff Usher
• "Interview with Peter Vance"
  Peter Vance is a singer, songwriter, musician, performer, facilitator and disability arts advocate. Interview Summary: Peter Vance is a songwriter, performer, musician and singer. Peter suggested disability arts in the last 20 years has become more visible and popular reflecting a positive shift in how society views disability as part of the rich tapestry of human experience. This is reflected in how the arts now tell the stories of individuals with disabilities, not simply as artists with a disability, but as whole people whose varied experiences - visible and invisible - inform and enrich their creative expression. However, there are still challenges with funding and accessibility and ongoing struggles for recognition and support of disability art. Changes in how organisations operate to suit new funding such as the NDIS have potentially limited the spontaneity and personal touch that smaller, community-driven organizations once offered. Peter said it is essential to continue to push for better understanding, support, and visibility for people with all kinds of disabilities in every aspect of life, including the arts, to truly embrace inclusivity.
• "Undercover Artist Festival Program 2021"
• “Arts Access Victoria – Art For Everybody – Promotional Program”
• Sally Newman
• Sebastian Youssef
• Vanessa Star
• Zoe Fraser
• "Tutti Arts - Amalgumation Arts Festival - Promotional Flyer"
  Tutti Arts - 'Amalgumation Arts Festival' 2006 Promotional Flyer - reads, in part "The program starts with the screening of a short comical film entitled 'Wheel Love' by Emma Butler from Launceston. Then follows 12 personal digital stories,Telling Tales, produced by Arts Access Victoria and the Australia Centre for the Moving Image The final film features Bronwyn Hayward from New Zealand, who wants to become a dancer but is told that she cannot because of her disability. The story tells her journey to become a dancer."
• "Tutti Arts - Annual Report 2021"
  Tutti Arts Annual Report 2021 – What Tutti Does, Artists Making An Impact, Music, Performance, Visual Arts, and Film work in 2021, information on digital interactive version of ‘Impersonal Space,’ ‘The Big Tutti Singalong,’ Sit Down Shutup and Watch Film Festival, The Sisters of Invention, Company AT, Supporters
• "Jodee Mundy Collaborations - Imagined Touch - Documentary"
  Reads, in part "When two deafblind women Heather Lawson and Michelle Stevens approached director Jodee Mundy to make a show, they pulled off the impossible. They turned their small community performance into IMAGINED TOUCH, a theatre production that became a sell-out success at the Sydney Festival, going on to win at the Victorian Green Room Awards. This documentary has followed Imagined Touch with cameras from the very beginning."
• "Interview with Jess Cochran"
  Jess Cochran (they/them) is an actor, model, writer and disability advocate. Interview Summary: Jess Cochran is a queer, non-binary, neurodivergent, performing artist, advocate, writer, and consumer consultant with a background in both physical and psychosocial disabilities. Their journey into the performing arts began accidentally with a role in the Awards winning Melbourne Fringe Festival production, Qualia, which opened doors to more local and international Awards-winning work in film and stage. Jess identifies proudly with their disabilities and considers their art both a personal expression and a political act aimed at highlighting the issues faced by the disability community. Jess’s work spans across writing, modelling, and various performance arts, and they wish to see an increase of disability arts representation in mainstream media with authentic casting, opportunities and improved accessibility for disabled performers. Jess is also passionate about highlighting intersectionality in disability arts.
• “Sit Down Shutup and Watch, a screen festival for people with learning disabilities, is launched in 2014”
  In 2014, Tutti Arts launched Sit Down Shutup and Watch (SDSW). SDSW is a collective led by people with learning disabilities; They present a biennial international screen festival which features the work of disabled creators. The committee also hosts workshops and online resources.
• "Bree Hadley (2017) Disability theatre in Australia: a survey and a sector ecology. Research in Drama Education, 22(3), pp. 305-324.”
• Joshua Pether
• Josh Pether
• "Sydney Festival - StickybrickS MEDIA RELEASE - 2006"
  Sydney Festival - StickybrickS 2006 MEDIA RELEASE - Reads, in part "By 2002 Northcott was infamous once again as a seething pit of violent crime, multiple murders and suicides, with residents traumatised and Sydney’s media swarming, ready to pronounce this community a blot on an otherwise perfectly-good-inner-city-real-estate-investment-opportunity. Northcott residents, however, refused to be tarred with the same media brush and began working with national arts organisation Big hART writing, researching, filming, composing, performing, painting and photographing."
• “Arts Access Victoria – Annual Report 2001-02”
• “Arts Access Victoria – Annual Report 2002-03”
• “The Deaf Film Society creates the documentary ‘Our World’.”
  In 1970, the Deaf Film Society created a documentary called ‘Our World’ on the lived experience of people who were d/Deaf. The Adult Deaf Society assisted with the project.
• "Janice Rieger, Jasmien Herssens, Megan Strickfaden, Bree Hadley (2019) International Inclusive Film Screening, DfA Week (with films from Finland, Canada, China and Australia)."
  "The inclusive international film screening included films from Australia, Finland, Canada and China that represent different kinds of abilities, disabilities, inclusion and exclusion through material culture, architecture, urban spaces, landscapes and design. This screening was about access, inclusion and community outreach and included live audio descriptions and Auslan interpretation. The Film screening was separated into two parts with a total of 9 films screened: Part 1: ‘Seeing’ things from a Different Perspective, which included the films: Bakala, Australia (Aboriginal); Eske, (Finland); Musical Notes (Canada); Visitability #1 (Canada) Part 2: Part 2: Temporal and Embodied Encounters: Design, Disability and Slowing Down, which included the films: Smoke Time (Canada & China); Visitability #2 (Canada); Heel of a Time, Canada; Visitability #3 (Canada) ; Wandering on the Braille Trail (Australia)."