Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 31 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex (LGBTI) people remember an era of state-sanctioned stigma and discrimination that might be hard for younger people to fathom. It wasn’t until 1997 that sex between men, for example, was decriminalised in every Australian state and territory.
For many older LGBTI+ people, the world they live in today is drastically different to the world they inhabited in the past. Getting older can sometimes mean both a feeling of invisibility and, conversely, an increased sense of surveillance. For LGBTI+ people, those propositions can pose a particular set of problems.
How can we respect the diverse sexual orientations of older Australians? How can LGBTI+ elders know and assert their rights as they navigate the complex, confusing and sometimes intimidating aged care system? And how important is visibility of LGBTI+ older people – for individuals and for the broader Australian population?
At the tail end of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey – and months of heated, often painful public debate on the issue – join Tristan Meecham, Heather Morgan, Lizzi Craig, Pauline Crameri and more for a conversation about a compassionate and respectful future for LGBTI+ people as they age.
Presented in partnership with All the Queens Men, National LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Conference and Warrnambool City Council. Haven is a pop-up safe space and a month-long series of events to support Warrnambool’s LGBTI+ community.
Featuring
Tristan Meecham
Tristan Meecham is an artist who facilitates creative frameworks that enable social transformation; connecting community, audience and artists together in events that transcend the everyday. He is the Director of All The Queens Men.
All The Queens Men create spectacular theatrical and participatory arts experiences. Established with Bec Reid, All The Queens Men champion social equality, celebrating diverse community through creative action and in exciting art contexts.
Recent creative actions include The Coming Back Out Ball, a spectacular social event held at the Melbourne Town Hall celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) elders; LGBTI Elders Dance Club, a monthly social event for LGBTI elders; Congress, a citizens’ assembly in which diverse community members collaborate with professional wordsmiths to create first speeches and personal visions for our collective future; and Fun Run, a riotous performance spectacle in Tristan runs a marathon on a treadmill live on stage supported by hundreds of performers from the local community.
Tristan was Artistic Director of Give it up for Margaret: A month of philanthropic inspiration, a month long festival inspiring innovative arts philanthropy. GIUFM was created in partnership with Victorian College of the Arts, Margaret Lawrence Bequest and over 20 subsidiary organisations.
Tristan was the creative lead for Going Nowhere, a sustainable international arts exchange at Arts House (2015 Green Room Award for Curatorial Contribution to Contemporary Performance). He remounted The Everyday Imaginarium as part of Vitalstatistix’s Climate Century in Port Adelaide. From 2010-2014, Tristan was an Artistic Associate and the Philanthropic Manager of Aphids.
Tristan is the recipient of the VCA George Fairfax Memorial Award, British Council’s Realise Your Dream Award and the inaugural Richard Pratt Scholarship. He was the Chair of Green Room Award’s Contemporary and Experimental Performance Panel (2013-2017). Tristan has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) from QUT and Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Acting) from VCA.
Heather Morgan
Heather Morgan retired in 2017 as team leader at The Positive Living Centre, part of the Victorian Aids Council, where she worked since 2008. In 1991, she was a founding member of Switchboard – a confidential telephone counselling service for Melbourne's queer community. Following this, she joined Aidsline, where she worked for 14 years.
Heather is thrilled to be recognized as an LGBTI elder by the organisers of The Coming Back Out Ball in 2017. In her retirement, Heather looks forward to officiating the occasional wedding in her new role as an Authorised Celebrant (once marriage equality is finally recognised in Australia) – but mostly looks forward to playing poker to supplement her income. She is better known as ‘Diamond Lil’ by the professional card sharks.
Lizzi Craig
Lizzi Craig is now retired, after working for over a decade with the Victorian AIDS Council as a Client Care and Support Officer at the Positive Living Centre. As part of this role, Lizzi engaged with many clients at the centre and at their homes to offer support, assessment and ongoing referral to meet the concerns and issues they identified.
Lizzi has been a District Nurse for over 30 years and has a background in Family Sensitive Practice and Family Therapy. Lizzi is passionate about caring for all people aging and living with HIV, and has respect for the wisdom and generosity they bring in sharing their journeys through their narrative.
Pauline Crameri
Pauline Crameri is the co-ordinator of Val’s LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care, part of GLHV, at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Val’s is a Victorian statewide programme working to increase the visibility, health and quality of care for older LGBTI people, and includes the National LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Conference, to be held on 5–6 October 2017 in Melbourne in partnership with the Coming Back Out Ball.
Pauline has worked in a range of human services settings and programmes for the past 30 years, and has over 15 years’ experience in community aged care and aged care planning in local government, including practical experience in LGBTI service development culminating in the achievement of the first Rainbow Tick accreditation for the service.