The Disability Pride collaborative paste up mural will be going back up on the wall of the Footscray Exchange Building in the coming months!
And there will be an awesome paste up party to come along to and celebrate our disability culture!
Stay tuned for dates and details.
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| Me at the Disability Pride wall, November 2017 |
Meanwhile, here's a bit of the history...
In late 2017, I co-ordinated a community project to create a paste up mural in my hometown inner city suburb of Footscray to celebrate Disability Culture and Pride.
It culminated in a night time event, as part of a bigger local arts festival, One Night in Footscray, on November 24.
Over 40 disabled artists and activists, came together on a hot summer's evening, at the base of the Footscray Telstra Exchange building, to install a mural that had taken weeks to prepare, and that celebrated our culture and community.
It was an amazing night.
Disability Pride is not a common occurrence in Australia, unlike other parts of the world. Whilst the USA has been holding annual Disability Pride marches for almost 30 years, there has only been a tiny smattering of Disability Pride events in Australia. So this really was an amazing night!
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| November 24, 2017, Mural installation party |
But just over a week later, the morning after International Day of People with Disability, on December 4, the mural was erroneously removed by the local council's graffiti clean up team.
It was supposed to have stayed there indefinitely. It had all the right permissions. It had also been partially funded by both the building owners, Telstra, and the local Maribyrnong City Council.
It was a shocking, heartbreaking moment for many of us. For some of the participating artists, it was their first time publicly identifying with disability and erasure of their stories hit hard. For other more seasoned disability activists, it came as little surprise to have our voice silenced yet again.
For the length of Australia's white history, disabled people have been marginalised, institutionalised, dismissed and denied basic human rights such as access to decent housing, education, employment, health care and civic participation. Disabled people are often pitied, viewed as a tragedy or if they are seen to exceed the low expectations placed upon them, they are then viewed as inspirational.
Disability Pride is about reclaiming our identities and bodies as our own. It is about changing the way people think about and define disability, to break down and end the internalized shame among people with disabilities, and to promote the belief in society that disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity in which people living with disabilities can take pride.
Disability Pride also seeks a different understanding of ‘disability’ beyond the medical model, which sees disability as a problem of the person, requiring sustained medical care. Instead I want people to realize the issue of ‘disability’ as a socially created problem. Management within the social model of disability requires social action and cultural, individual, community, and large-scale change.
As a woman with an acquired disability of almost 20 years, it has taken me a long time to recognise my own internalised ableism and understand the value in practicing disability pride. Which is why I was motivated to take on such a big project.
When the mural was destroyed after only a week in place, the disabled community rose up to make this a media issue. My initial Facebook post was shared over 200 times. And the mural destruction was covered in many mainstream media. Here's some links. The Age. ABC Online The Star. The issue also got on the National TV ABC news, where I was interviewed alongside disability activist Carly Findlay.
And then I fell in a very big heap!
And for the past 6 months I have seriously struggled to know how to move forward, and put Disability Pride back on the wall. It has been truly miserable. The way forward seemed obvious - if I had done it before, then I could do it again. And of course, I am well aware of the silver lining of the whole debacle -the media coverage of the mural's destruction, has meant that the concept of Disability Pride has probably reached a far greater audience than if it had stayed on the building.
But I have remained immobilised. And there has been so much shame around my immobility, that I haven't been able to even speak up or share. Until now! Because today I acknowledge, that this isn't just an artwork. This is about identity. This is about my identity. This is about Rights. This is about the lack of respect that disabled people have in Australia, the real daily struggle that people face, and the very real fear of being marginalised once again. This is stuff that is rarely talked about outside the disability community and it is just too easy for the mainstream to dismiss.
Onwards and upwards!
Disability Pride is coming!
