Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “Australia Council grants funding for projects about disability or for disabled participants throughout the 1970s”
  The 1974/75 Australia Council annual report states $1,350 in funding granted to Spectrum Films (NSW) to "develop a screenplay for a feature film of the social pressures on a deaf mute”, as well as a $4,500 travel/study grant to Lloyd Nickson (QLD) "to attend summer schools in children's theatre and theatre for deaf children (USA and UK) for six months". In the same year, the Council reported Bryan Gracey as one of numerous individuals in receipt of Experimental Film funding for his short film ‘The World of a Blind Child’ (1975) about the emotional and physical difficulties 10-year-old Peter faces and how he navigates his disability. In the 1974/75 financial year, Australia Council’s crafts board awarded $1,288 to the Wheelchair and Disabled Association (NSW) for "Jewellery making tools and equipment". The 1979/1980 Australia Council annual report describes the following funding: "As in previous years, a grant was given to the Braille and Talking Book Library for its Braille Book of the Year.”
• "Kath Duncan, Gerard Goggin, Christopher Newell (2005) ‘Don’t Talk about Me... Like I’m Not Here': Disability in Australian National Cinema. Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine.146/147, pp. 152-159. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.043842788583710"
  Reads, in part "Disability is a central cultural identity and category in Australia, but this is not often realized. We seek to make a contribution to conversations and critical analyses of disability in Australian culture through an exploration of a privileged national cultural form, namely film. The trope of disability looms large in late twentieth century Australian cinema, and yet cultural comment on these ‘disabled’ scripts and performances has not yet considered a disabilities studies perspective. Accordingly, in this article we combine our different perspectives on disability and film into an account of how specific films use disability. In particular, we analyse key films from the 1990s as examples of powerful displays of bodies and personhood." References a range of films, including Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 1991), Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992), Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer, 1993), Muriel's Wedding (PJ Hogan, 1994), Shine (Scott Hicks, 1996), Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001), My One Legged Dream Lover (writer Kath Duncan with dir. Penny Fowler-Smith, Christine Oslen 1998), Pins and Needles (writer Genni Batterham with dir. Barbara Chobocky, 1979), Riding the Gale (Genni Batterham with dir, Hugh Piper, 1987), Dance Me to My Song (writer Heather Rose with dir. Rolf De Heer, 1998), Heather Rose Goes to Cannes (Chris Corin, 1999), Myself When Fourteen, (Ivor, Arthur and Corinne Cantrill 1989),Film of Circles, Squares, Triangles, Lines and Dots (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill 1981), Rainbow Diary (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill 1984), House Gang (Mandy smith, 1997), Quentin Crashes Big Brother (Quentin Kenihan, 2002), Quentin, World at My Wheels (Quentin Kenihan, 2000), Ability Trek (Jacob Baldwin 1998)
• "Kath Duncan, Gerard Goggin (2002). 'Something in Your Belly': Fantasy, Disability and Desire in My One Legged Dream Lover. Disability Studies Quarterly 22 (4), pp: 127-144."
  In this article we explore fantasy, disability and desire in the groundbreaking 1998 Australian TV documentary My One-Legged Dream Lover. Based upon self-reflexive documentary conventions, the video uncovers journalist-cum-freak raconteur Kath Duncan's explorations into the world of amputee fetish. Duncan is a double congenital amputee. She says," I've tried most things men, women, sex toys, unusual locations, dominance and submission games but I wanted to know what it was like to be desired because of my impairments." Gerard Goggin is a temporarily able-bodied (or TAB) academic with his own history of queer desire and a personal investment in exploring issues of difference. Duncan's and Goggin's collaboration includes accessing each other's edgier fantasies, aiming to give voice to some of the negotiations, anxieties, pleasures, and risks we have taken, speaking across the chasm of our personal histories, different genders and respective bodies.
• "Stepping Out - 1980"
  Australian Screen entry/clip for 'Stepping Out' 1980 - reads, in part "Romayne, a Sunshine Home drama group member, introduces us to the idiosyncrasies of some of the other members." - Press kit from Ronin Films available at http://web.archive.org/web/20231102095120/https://www.roninfilms.com.au/get/files/18222/stepping-out-original-1981-press-kit.pdf
• "DADAA - The Lost Generation Project"
  DADAA - The Lost Generation Project 2007 - reads, in part "The project was conceived from a partnership between DADAA and the WA Disability Services Commission, which began in 2002. After working on 15 small projects, the partners decided to develop a large-scale project in 2007 to continue developing arts and cultural interventions with and for people with intellectual disability living in supported accommodation across the Perth metropolitan area. The project's rich CACD strategy has seen numerous successful workshops, exhibitions and related projects come to fruition in partnership with local governments and other community arts organisations.?
• "Still Watching Netflix - Hannah Gadsby On The Insane Reactions She Received to Nanette | Douglas"
  reads, in part "When Nanette, Hannah Gadsby's 2018 Netflix speical, dropped it stirred up a lot of feelings. A lot were genuinely moved by it, and fell in love with Hannah. Then other, didn't. In this exclusive clip from Hannah's new special (Douglas, now streaming), she breaks down some of the DM messages she got."
• "Latecomers - IMDB"
  Latecomers' Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry - reads, in part "Frank and Sarah two strangers with cerebral palsy become entrenched in each other's dysfunctional lives after witnessing their able bodied friends in an awkward situation at a bar."
• "Accessible Arts - ACE Arts Creativity Expression Accessible Arts - ACE Arts Creativity Expression - Antony Jones - Review: Words About House Gang - Iss15, Pg7"
  Accessible Arts - ACE Arts Creativity Expression - Antony Jones - Review: Words About House Gang- Iss15, Pg7 - reads, in part, "In every sense of the word House Gang is a sitcom in the American traditon. melodrama and simplecharacterisation, but without the blow­wave hair. This is not a criticism, it could simply be no other way for 30 minutes of light, comedy television. The only difference being that in House Gang, three of the characters are played by people with intellectual disabilities: Trev is the struggling athlete; Belinda is self-obsessed, love-struck and out of love; and Robert is the soft, sensitive type."
• "Interview with Michele Saint-Yves"
  Michèle Saint-Yves is a playwright, filmmaker, poet, and director. Interview Summary Michèle Saint-Yves’ background includes a colonial upbringing in Pacific territories, a Scottish boarding school education, and a complex personal journey of confronting her own inherent racism and colonial legacy, particularly through her writing. Her work as an artist with disability is deeply informed by her sense of otherness and focuses on creating inclusive performance-based work that challenges mainstream audiences and systems, aiming for transformative experiences that impact disability justice and community. Michèle actively embraced the social model of disability, which shifted her understanding of herself and her art, and has received recognition for her pioneering work with the prize-winning show "Clock for No Time." However, recognising the social model’s limitations, her current creative endeavours are concerned with 'access intimacy' and evaluating the lasting impact of her performances, in collaboration with other artists and through research grants.
• “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.
• "Undercover Artist Festival Program 2021"
• Jeff Usher
• Peter Vance
• "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.
• "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”
• “Tutti Arts 2018 Highlights”
  Tutti Arts 2018 Highlights – information about The Sisters of Invention , Sit Down Shutup and Watch Film Festival, Company AT, OzAsia Festival
• Jianna Georgiou
• Maddy Macera
• "Tutti Arts - Annual Report 2011"
  Tutti Arts Annual Report 2011 - includes Values, Artistic Director’s and President’s Report, Partnerships, Collaborations, and Programs, including Dance, Choral, Film and Outreach Programs, productions of ‘One’ and ‘Magic Flute,’ Financials, Artists and Staff
• "Tutti Arts - Annual Report 2017"
  Tutti Arts Annual Report 2017 – President’s, Artistic Directors, Disability & Quality Manager's, Arts Manager Reports, information on Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film and New Media and Choral and Kids & Youth Programs, Projects, and Exhibitions, including information on Impersonal Space, Frozen Girl, Sit Down Shutup and Watch Film Festival, The Sisters of Invention, Company AT, Financials, Staff and Board Members, Supporters
• "Tutti Arts - Annual Report 2018"
  Tutti Arts Annual Report 2018 – President’s, Artistic Directors, Disability & Quality Manager’s, Arts Manager Reports, information on Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film and New Media and Choral and Kids & Youth Programs, Projects, and Exhibitions, including information on Say No More, Standing Up Standing Out, BEASTLY!, Sit Down Shutup and Watch Film Festival, The Sisters of Invention, Company AT, Financials, Staff, Supporters
• "Tutti Arts - Annual Report 2022"
  Tutti Arts Annual Report 2022– What Tutti Does, Artists Making An Impact, Music, Performance, Visual Arts, and Film work in 2021, information on ‘Reaching out’ Project, Sit Down Shutup and Watch Film Festival, The Sisters of Invention, Company AT, Tutti’s Strategic Plan 2023 – 2026, Supporters