WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.800 Hello everyone and welcome to today's special virtual highlights tour today 2 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:13.120 here at the National Portrait Gallery to mark International Day of People with 3 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:22.400 Disability. It's held every year on the 3rd of December and it's really to 4 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:30.440 increase public awareness and understanding and acceptance of people 5 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:36.360 with disability and full disclosure that I have a have a vested interest in 6 00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:45.240 this day. I have an autoimmune disease and I'm a permanent wheelchair user so I 7 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:52.240 really understand the importance of being seen for who I am and you know for 8 00:00:52.240 --> 00:01:01.160 having purpose. My name is Kate some of you will have seen me here before I'm 9 00:01:01.160 --> 00:01:09.400 in the education team taking today's tour. We also have wonderful Therese who is 10 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:16.480 our Auslan interpreter and is going to sign for us today as well so I'm going 11 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:24.000 to try and be much better with my delivery today and really slow it down so 12 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:31.040 that everyone can enjoy today's presentation. I'd like to begin by 13 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:37.980 acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land here in Canberra that the 14 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:44.360 National Portrait Gallery is on and that's the Nunawul and Nambri peoples 15 00:01:44.360 --> 00:01:53.440 and I pay my respects to their elders past and emerging. So let me tell you 16 00:01:53.440 --> 00:02:01.520 about today's virtual highlights tour. We're going to be celebrating sitters and 17 00:02:01.520 --> 00:02:09.440 artists that we have in the collection who have a disability and we're going to 18 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:17.480 be I've chosen five portraits and we're going to be looking at how representation 19 00:02:17.480 --> 00:02:26.240 has changed over time. As usual please everyone get busy in the chat you know I 20 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:30.760 love these sessions to be interactive that's when they're really fun for all 21 00:02:30.760 --> 00:02:37.760 of us so any observations or questions you have please pop it in the chat and 22 00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:48.080 with that let's get started and go to our first portrait. Everyone this is 23 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:55.880 called Chang the Chinese Giant and Party and first up I want to give you a 24 00:02:55.880 --> 00:03:04.440 minute to have to have a look at this. Pop your observations into the chat for 25 00:03:04.440 --> 00:03:07.680 me what can you see? 26 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:26.240 Thanks everyone that's right this is a guy called Chang Wu Gao and 27 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:33.720 known as Chang the Chinese Giant made first sort of public appearance in 28 00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:41.680 London in the mid 1860s when thousands of people lined lined the streets to see 29 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:49.720 his his eight foot tall frame and also witnessed his displays of linguistics 30 00:03:49.720 --> 00:04:02.400 because apparently he spoke 10 languages so an incredibly cultured man and he 31 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:10.560 first he appeared at a place called the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly in London 32 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:21.960 and it was part of this kind of Victorian taste for you know sort of a 33 00:04:21.960 --> 00:04:27.840 freak show all sorts of different people were kind of exhibiting themselves I 34 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:35.480 guess but very much of that era so in the 21st century it certainly doesn't sit 35 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:45.320 well with us but this was in in 1865 he first was exhibiting himself and he 36 00:04:45.320 --> 00:04:54.040 after Piccadilly he really he spent his life exhibiting and he went to 37 00:04:54.040 --> 00:05:01.840 with Europe America he ended up in Australia in about 1870 and if we could 38 00:05:01.840 --> 00:05:08.360 just go back to the image thanks and that's where we have about five of these 39 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:19.240 carte de visite photographs from this period and I like that in the chat there 40 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:28.680 is something nearly majestic from this yes yeah he does look majestic and I 41 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:35.680 think this is really deliberate isn't it that even though he is seated you can 42 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:44.360 see he's just so much taller than his manager who is standing there and his 43 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:53.640 wife Kin Fu who is kind of very neatly tucked in underneath his elbow so he is 44 00:05:53.640 --> 00:06:04.080 majestic and yeah noticing that he's got this long pigtail a very traditional 45 00:06:04.080 --> 00:06:11.000 hairdo kind of that shaved top of his head and then this long pigtail plait 46 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:23.160 down behind this long braid and he's also costumed in this heavily embroidered 47 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:35.640 robes so and he's got this delicate fan in front of him so does Kin Fu so we're 48 00:06:35.640 --> 00:06:43.920 really getting this he's got this unique combination I guess of this asiatic 49 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:54.560 otherness and these gigantic proportions and that's really you know what he became 50 00:06:54.560 --> 00:07:01.280 known for and it's such I have such a push-pull with this image I'm really 51 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:07.560 curious to know how you feel about looking at it because I'm kind of really 52 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:15.320 drawn to it and I'm really curious and in the 21st century is is is that okay 53 00:07:15.320 --> 00:07:22.840 am I any better than the kind of Victorian audiences but in the same 54 00:07:22.840 --> 00:07:32.240 token Chang also he this is how he did back then this is how he he made his 55 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:41.440 living and these carte de visite they were they came into Australia about 1859 and 56 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:51.120 people like Chang used them kind of to as a quirky souvenir of being in his 57 00:07:51.120 --> 00:08:03.600 celestial presence apparently and so they were a memento and they were ideal 58 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:09.000 as this kind of distribution to the masses to kind of promote his his 59 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:17.880 viewings and a couple of things that I found really kind of disturbing about a 60 00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:22.320 couple of anecdotes I came across is one that his manager who stand in there 61 00:08:22.320 --> 00:08:29.600 actually forbade stopped Chang were walking in public because thought that 62 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:35.160 that might kind of you know ruin his public appeal I guess people wouldn't 63 00:08:35.160 --> 00:08:41.360 be turning up for the performances which is an incredibly distressing thing 64 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:45.000 isn't it to think that this man's life he was all going to be about viewing and 65 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:53.240 making money from just being this exceptionally tall man and he also 66 00:08:53.240 --> 00:09:01.840 travelled apparently with a tailor-made coffin which really reminds us you know 67 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:10.560 case disaster struck this kind of morbid reminder of this giant sir common 68 00:09:10.560 --> 00:09:19.920 humanity I also when I was looking into Chang I came across some information on 69 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:26.920 our website and saying that you know like I said there's this Victorian taste 70 00:09:26.920 --> 00:09:33.040 for these kind of freak shows but there were also at this time this period of 71 00:09:33.040 --> 00:09:38.880 these grand international exhibitions you know wonders of the industrial age 72 00:09:38.880 --> 00:09:45.840 and so there were all these trade exhibits but there were also these 73 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:52.360 semi anthropological displays popular feeding into this kind of fascination 74 00:09:52.360 --> 00:10:00.120 of the fantastic exotica I guess which had long sort of been part of this 75 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:08.280 Orientalism and what I found was that when those formal exhibition halls closed 76 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:14.440 the surrounding gardens were used as this kind of fashionable venue for 77 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:21.120 entertainment until around 11 each evening and there was food and drink 78 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:27.280 people wandering around pavilions and stages and so they're marveling at all 79 00:10:27.280 --> 00:10:32.480 these sort of different performances from you know there's tightrope walkers 80 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:38.880 there's jugglers people from all around the world who were wearing their kind of 81 00:10:38.880 --> 00:10:47.960 national costume and the Chinese pavilion was one such venue and people 82 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:53.520 could come this is where they would encounter Chang sitting upon his throne 83 00:10:53.520 --> 00:11:01.600 or mingling with visitors to the pavilion and apparently one of his 84 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:06.480 performances might have gone like this this is what I picked up that tickets to 85 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:16.240 one of his levees might cost up to three shillings and this levee is a public 86 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:23.120 court assembly where people would attend someone of great rank and a Mr. 87 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:30.360 Hushed auditorium there would be a tinkle of bells that would go to a rising 88 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:35.760 crescendo as a musician took to the largest brass bells with a mallet 89 00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:42.040 Chang would slowly rise from his throne like chair on stage to the rousing 90 00:11:42.040 --> 00:11:49.480 accompaniment of the great Chang hulker on the piano which was supposedly written 91 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:55.480 for him and his appearances at the Egyptian hall and he'd slowly descend to 92 00:11:55.480 --> 00:12:01.640 greet his audience in a ceremony referred to as a chin chin making like 93 00:12:01.640 --> 00:12:07.320 conversation exchanging polite greetings with patrons who gasped in awe at 94 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:13.920 his at his magnificently costumed person his great hands would gently clasp 95 00:12:13.920 --> 00:12:23.480 select hands in the audience in greeting and that he were he apparently appeared 96 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:31.440 mild and gentle very courteous and engaging as he walked from one spectator 97 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:41.160 to another shaking hands with all who wanted to so this is his story and the 98 00:12:41.160 --> 00:12:49.880 start of our look at disability I want to take you to a reinterpretation of 99 00:12:49.880 --> 00:12:59.080 Chang with our next slide which is you may have seen there's a series of 16 100 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:07.160 portraits done by Chinese Australian woman called Pamela See and here she's 101 00:13:07.160 --> 00:13:17.360 got Chang in profile and with his wife Kin Fu again who's seated but she's 102 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:27.000 reimagining you know the this Chinese man in Australia and she uses two 103 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:32.960 different kind of paper cutting techniques she's got that European style 104 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:40.160 paper cutting with the with the black in profile that's from a German artist in 105 00:13:40.160 --> 00:13:48.080 the 1700s and then she's got up in the white is a peony this is this really 106 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:57.960 ancient Chinese paper cutting technique and she she uses that to show perhaps 107 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:03.640 where Chang was from in China so she's combining these two different techniques 108 00:14:03.640 --> 00:14:11.640 and and it's a kind of going back and reimagining the impact and the and the 109 00:14:11.640 --> 00:14:17.640 life of these Chinese people in Australia when they were here going to take you to 110 00:14:17.640 --> 00:14:31.520 something totally different now and our next slide is of an artist called Theresa 111 00:14:31.520 --> 00:14:40.520 Burns again I'm going to just give you a minute to take a look tell me what you 112 00:14:40.520 --> 00:14:55.040 see so that's right this is Theresa Burns and she moved to New York quite early 113 00:14:55.040 --> 00:15:03.440 on in her art practice and yeah that's right I can see in the chat yeah 114 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:10.160 abstract expressionism and mark making painting that's that's spot on she's 115 00:15:10.160 --> 00:15:19.320 really her obsession as she calls it exactly is with abstraction and I can 116 00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:25.200 see here at first I thought she was outside near a bamboo forest yeah but 117 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:30.680 then realized she's indoors that's right I think she's in her studio and 118 00:15:30.680 --> 00:15:38.080 beautifully captures her creativity doesn't it exactly and yeah she's very 119 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:43.520 much as you're as you're picking up on this kind of Jackson Pollock approach to 120 00:15:43.520 --> 00:15:48.840 physical expressionism with the with the paint this really energised 121 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:56.040 relationship with paint and you can see that both in terms of she does it I 122 00:15:56.040 --> 00:16:02.640 think on you know she's got that large surface behind her that that canvas but 123 00:16:02.640 --> 00:16:10.400 she'll also use the floor and she'll kind of use her own her own body as as the 124 00:16:10.400 --> 00:16:17.040 brush paint you know painting her body and rolling and creating line and shape 125 00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:24.840 with her body so despite the fact she's in a wheelchair I think when she was 126 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:30.760 17 she was diagnosed with a very rare degenerative degenerative disease 127 00:16:30.760 --> 00:16:37.880 called Friedrich's ataxia but she talks about there being no obstacles for her 128 00:16:37.880 --> 00:16:46.040 and she says not men not money not just not disability nothing will stop me I'm 129 00:16:46.040 --> 00:16:54.080 getting to the fricking studio and I'm making that painting so you can see 130 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:58.640 these in this beautiful black and white photograph you know she's just staring 131 00:16:58.640 --> 00:17:07.840 out so confidently at us everything in that space you know including her arms 132 00:17:07.840 --> 00:17:16.560 clothes the wheelchair the floor everything is splattered with paint 133 00:17:16.560 --> 00:17:24.040 that wall extends across the entire space behind her you know just coated 134 00:17:24.040 --> 00:17:31.320 with layers of paints applied with a huge brush strokes but also dips and sprays 135 00:17:31.320 --> 00:17:40.240 drips and sprays there's if yeah if we can just go to the full image again 136 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:46.000 because I just want to say there's kind of this white street that runs down that 137 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:52.400 full length at the center of the wall kind of quietly dividing that space and 138 00:17:52.400 --> 00:18:02.880 in that lower foreground she's she's in her wheelchair there but she she just to 139 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:10.200 me she looks so strong and so fierce with her gaze coming back out at her 140 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:19.800 these beautiful sort of high cheekbones unsmiling kind of got a slender torso it 141 00:18:19.800 --> 00:18:26.640 looks to me she's kind of twisting a little bit to us she's got all this 142 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:34.560 heavily you know painted like paint splattered jeans heavy-duty laced laced 143 00:18:34.560 --> 00:18:41.280 up workbook work boots and down by the floor behind her she's got these these 144 00:18:41.280 --> 00:18:47.280 big kind of paint brushes lying down there so letting us know clearly 145 00:18:47.280 --> 00:18:55.720 everything in this painting is just telling us how how about her profession 146 00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:03.480 as a painter and about how she must use her body so totally and with throwing 147 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:09.920 everything into it to create these works and you really get a sense of that 148 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:17.260 energy with which she must work you know she she never backs away from what 149 00:19:17.260 --> 00:19:25.720 are her limitations maybe increasing limitations with her body she uses it to 150 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:32.760 you know fullest extent in this in this passionate kind of connection 151 00:19:32.760 --> 00:19:40.900 conversation she has with her art practice so that's Teresa Burns and yeah 152 00:19:40.900 --> 00:19:47.600 I love your comments just saying that it beautifully captures her creativity we're 153 00:19:47.600 --> 00:19:54.160 going to go now to look at something completely different from that kind of 154 00:19:54.160 --> 00:20:01.200 wild paint splattered expressiveness of of Teresa Burns studio we're going to 155 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:11.500 this beautiful portrait of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu you know who used that 156 00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:18.180 angelic voice of his to you know tell traditional stories of of his people and 157 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:24.140 his culture you may have seen this portrait before but just tell me what 158 00:20:24.140 --> 00:20:32.760 are your first impressions of of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu's portrait 159 00:20:32.760 --> 00:20:48.200 yeah there's this comment here about deep sunken eyes absolutely his eyes 160 00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:58.020 they're kind of veiled in in shadow they're really dark aren't they and that 161 00:20:58.020 --> 00:21:05.500 shadow really sort of acts as a focal point really you know and it's offering 162 00:21:05.500 --> 00:21:11.260 us up that sort of powerful reference I guess to to his blindness and and also 163 00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:20.400 his intense shyness I think and one of the comments this is one of the portraits 164 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:26.020 I have actually seen for real when I was in Australia in 2019 yeah I love these 165 00:21:26.020 --> 00:21:32.880 words it's a strong and impressive artwork isn't it it's I think that 166 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:40.080 beautifully sums up this kind of evocation of what Guido Maestri is doing 167 00:21:40.080 --> 00:21:45.900 here you know we have this beautiful face it's you know it's just the huge 168 00:21:45.900 --> 00:21:55.260 scale of this and looking at us you know front on facing us front on and that tip 169 00:21:55.260 --> 00:21:59.940 of their head to kind of got that white highlight and that's tip of his head is 170 00:21:59.940 --> 00:22:05.300 really cropped off you know his head is just short and dark around the tops 171 00:22:05.300 --> 00:22:13.280 there got a fine line of sideburn down past that ear these amazing eyes that 172 00:22:13.280 --> 00:22:24.360 we've spoken about and there was really an active trust here between the artist 173 00:22:24.360 --> 00:22:31.600 and Gurrumul you know who as you will know was blind from very I think very 174 00:22:31.600 --> 00:22:38.380 early on in his life perhaps from birth and he had to trust the artist in the 175 00:22:38.380 --> 00:22:45.460 way that he would be depicted and it's important to say that Guy Maestri shared 176 00:22:45.460 --> 00:22:51.980 this image and he described it to Gurrumul and and sort kind of 177 00:22:51.980 --> 00:23:03.020 affirmation from Gurrumul and his family that it was that it was okay to to use 178 00:23:03.020 --> 00:23:08.560 so it's really creating and sharing Gurrumul and depicting him through 179 00:23:08.560 --> 00:23:14.940 someone else's eyes so strongly strongly evocative evocative of that of 180 00:23:14.940 --> 00:23:22.220 that life and and his voice and I wanted to share with you some background story 181 00:23:22.220 --> 00:23:28.820 I'm not sure if you know this about this portrait but Guido Maestri heard 182 00:23:28.820 --> 00:23:37.020 Gurrumul sing at a New Year's Eve concert in 2008 in Sydney I think and he found 183 00:23:37.020 --> 00:23:46.740 the concert so unforgettable that he had to track down Gurrumul and you know 184 00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:53.020 create this portrait of him he knew he'd be an incredible subject and so he got 185 00:23:53.020 --> 00:23:58.940 in touch with a friend in the music industry helped him track down Yunupingu 186 00:23:58.940 --> 00:24:04.620 who was in Darwin but he was about to fly out to the States I think for a 187 00:24:04.620 --> 00:24:12.300 music tour in the end Guy Maestri got sort of a 40 minute window of opportunity 188 00:24:12.300 --> 00:24:19.580 with Gurrumul at the airport took some sketches and some photographs and 189 00:24:19.580 --> 00:24:25.260 apparently he said of the meeting that I got a sense of his presence and this 190 00:24:25.260 --> 00:24:32.300 determined the nature of the portrait quiet and strong which is exactly what 191 00:24:32.300 --> 00:24:40.300 you're picking up on here comment that focused inwardly yeah yeah he's in his 192 00:24:40.300 --> 00:24:46.660 he's in his mind and there is something daunting about the feeling portrayed 193 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:51.780 something daunting I love that and his voice is so emotional I love him I know 194 00:24:51.780 --> 00:24:57.500 do you I get the sense you know that there's this quiet hum with this portrait 195 00:24:57.500 --> 00:25:03.860 and you just get his voice kind of floating back to me and I'm wondering 196 00:25:03.860 --> 00:25:10.380 if that is what you're picking up on as well emotional strong and impressive 197 00:25:10.380 --> 00:25:17.860 work and I think that Guy Maestri he ended up just going back and working in 198 00:25:17.860 --> 00:25:24.540 his studio I think he worked for a month long he was just listening to Gurrumul's 199 00:25:24.540 --> 00:25:31.260 music totally in that moment and trying to really just connect with the songs 200 00:25:31.260 --> 00:25:41.780 and the story and he won I think he won the archival prize in 2009 with this 201 00:25:41.780 --> 00:25:49.340 portrait and of course Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu I just love this that he was just so 202 00:25:49.340 --> 00:25:55.060 talented he could play when he was quite young he learned to play guitar keyboard 203 00:25:55.060 --> 00:26:04.140 drums did you do as a child he was blind from birth and he famously was left 204 00:26:04.140 --> 00:26:13.020 handed but he learned to play a right-handed guitar upside down so just 205 00:26:13.020 --> 00:26:18.900 you know a powerful portrait you know strongly evocative of this life lost 206 00:26:18.900 --> 00:26:26.020 but you know it's just resounding I think with this beautiful resonant voice 207 00:26:26.020 --> 00:26:35.700 that he had I'm now going to take you to our final portrait in this tour looking 208 00:26:35.700 --> 00:26:44.060 at now a sitter with disability and I'm going to take you to this wonderful 209 00:26:44.060 --> 00:26:56.140 contemporary photograph of Ellie Cole and Ellie Cole is the most famous 210 00:26:56.140 --> 00:27:08.660 female Paralympian and she's sitting here this was a photograph taken in 2016 211 00:27:08.660 --> 00:27:17.020 it's at Wiley Baths in Kujie and she was photographed for an article about 212 00:27:17.020 --> 00:27:26.300 Australian women competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio and 213 00:27:26.300 --> 00:27:35.820 it appeared in also in 2020 in a Netflix series I think that was looking at six 214 00:27:35.820 --> 00:27:44.420 athletes who competed in these Paralympics and she was I think she was 215 00:27:44.420 --> 00:27:50.140 diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in her right leg when she was a child and 216 00:27:50.140 --> 00:27:57.140 I think she was on E3 when she had surgery to amputate that limb just above 217 00:27:57.140 --> 00:28:03.580 her knee but her parents as part of her rehabilitation they enrolled her in 218 00:28:03.580 --> 00:28:11.820 swimming classes and she was 15 when she competed in the world championships for 219 00:28:11.820 --> 00:28:19.100 the first time you know winning a silver medal and she went on to I think at the 220 00:28:19.100 --> 00:28:26.020 end of her career she had won 17 medals so you know this phenomenal swimmer 221 00:28:26.020 --> 00:28:36.380 Paralympian champion and here this is just such a beautiful photo quite it's 222 00:28:36.380 --> 00:28:46.340 quite she's you know beside the ocean she's sitting on these big boulders and 223 00:28:46.340 --> 00:28:54.300 also you can see there atop the Australian flag and these big kind of 224 00:28:54.300 --> 00:29:04.100 rocks it's taken at dusk so we kind of get these wispy clouds you know low on 225 00:29:04.100 --> 00:29:11.140 the sky behind her she's kind of got that left leg tucked up knee near her 226 00:29:11.140 --> 00:29:20.700 shoulder we get this carbon fibre prosthetic leg that she has on there's 227 00:29:20.700 --> 00:29:27.220 you know a bit of scuffing around the toes she's but she's looking out at us 228 00:29:27.220 --> 00:29:32.300 she just looks so fit and healthy and strong fairly neutral expression I think 229 00:29:32.300 --> 00:29:39.820 you know that wet hair like she may well have just been swimming just you know 230 00:29:39.820 --> 00:29:46.300 beautiful beautiful photo in her speedo swimsuit we're being told very clearly 231 00:29:46.300 --> 00:29:52.860 of her of her profession and of her success and you know highlighting her 232 00:29:52.860 --> 00:30:02.740 muscular muscular build there and just behind her is this ocean and I love that 233 00:30:02.740 --> 00:30:07.900 here we've gone kind of from at the start we have Chang the Chinese giant where 234 00:30:07.900 --> 00:30:13.740 we're really emphasizing his difference everything you know him exhibiting 235 00:30:13.740 --> 00:30:19.980 himself you know he ended up in PT Barnum's you know extravaganza show of 236 00:30:19.980 --> 00:30:27.660 you know all sorts of different people these freak shows emphasising 237 00:30:27.660 --> 00:30:33.140 difference to here I feel with Ellie Cole we've gone to embracing the difference 238 00:30:33.140 --> 00:30:43.700 and seeing it as a power I'm going to end with a video that is giving really 239 00:30:43.700 --> 00:30:48.340 the last word to Ellie Cole because it's such a beautiful story and I think you 240 00:30:48.340 --> 00:30:53.540 know we've gone that from that early photo of Chang to this lovely photo of 241 00:30:53.540 --> 00:31:02.340 Ellie Cole at the end such a difference and hopefully to you know embracing 242 00:31:02.340 --> 00:31:09.300 this theme of understanding and accepting disability that it's it can 243 00:31:09.300 --> 00:31:16.140 actually be a power and someone's strength so I hope you've enjoyed today's 244 00:31:16.140 --> 00:31:22.940 tour and as I say I'm going to give the last word to Ellie Cole 245 00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:28.620 swimming's one of those sports where you have your face in the water you have no 246 00:31:28.620 --> 00:31:32.020 idea what's going on in the outside world and so you spend a lot of time with 247 00:31:32.020 --> 00:31:35.540 your minds when times are really hard you just jump into the pool and you think 248 00:31:35.540 --> 00:31:39.820 things over you've got a biology exam coming up you jump in the pool and you 249 00:31:39.820 --> 00:31:43.340 think things over you've had a fight with your partner you jump in the pool and 250 00:31:43.340 --> 00:31:48.500 you think things over so it's a really great pull a pull of reflection I guess 251 00:31:48.500 --> 00:31:56.380 you could say I think that when you're young you just want to be accepted by 252 00:31:56.380 --> 00:32:02.380 all of your friends and away from me to do that was swimming for me swimming was 253 00:32:02.380 --> 00:32:07.180 particularly special because it was the only sport that I could participate in 254 00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:11.340 as a kid where I could take my prosthetic leg off jump in the water and 255 00:32:11.340 --> 00:32:15.340 I could be the same as all the other kids and then I found after a while that I 256 00:32:15.340 --> 00:32:19.180 could actually be better than raise to my friends at that sport and it gave me a 257 00:32:19.180 --> 00:32:23.580 really great platform to show all of my friends at school that I could still 258 00:32:23.580 --> 00:32:28.260 achieve things in a physical sense because I definitely wasn't running up 259 00:32:28.260 --> 00:32:33.940 and down beside them in the playground but get me into a pool and I'll beat 260 00:32:33.940 --> 00:32:38.060 you that was always kind of the mentality that I had when I was younger and so for 261 00:32:38.060 --> 00:32:41.900 me like the pool was definitely a great place of freedom but it was where I 262 00:32:41.900 --> 00:32:47.140 learned how to back myself how to be resilient how to show the world what I 263 00:32:47.140 --> 00:32:51.700 could do and then I found my way onto the Paralympic team with that exact same 264 00:32:51.700 --> 00:32:56.820 attitude and have since seen how the Paralympics can show the world what 265 00:32:56.820 --> 00:32:58.820 their athletes can do. 266 00:32:58.820 --> 00:33:07.820 The great thing about Paralympic swimming for me is that I see people who have no arms and no legs 267 00:33:07.820 --> 00:33:12.260 that are still swimming and so for me to break a here for to break a foot wasn't 268 00:33:12.260 --> 00:33:16.140 really a good enough excuse for me to stop swimming I just had to find it to 269 00:33:16.140 --> 00:33:20.540 provide to do things and be really creative and that's one of the things 270 00:33:20.540 --> 00:33:22.540 that I love about Parasport. 271 00:33:22.540 --> 00:33:32.380 Being a Paralympian is the best job in the world so I get to wake up in the 272 00:33:32.380 --> 00:33:36.380 morning nice and early and have about 20 minutes myself before I go to the pool 273 00:33:36.380 --> 00:33:40.780 and then I usually jump in the pool right behind me here and swim for about two 274 00:33:40.780 --> 00:33:45.380 hours and then jump out of the pool and get about an hour of physiotherapy 275 00:33:45.380 --> 00:33:51.700 exercises done and then if time permits I go home have a nap but usually I have 276 00:33:51.700 --> 00:33:55.740 other commitments and then I'm back in the afternoon from it for another two 277 00:33:55.740 --> 00:34:01.700 hour session I guess you have to love the sports to swim four hours a day. 278 00:34:01.700 --> 00:34:07.020 The most proud that I've ever been is when I won my gold medal in the 100 279 00:34:07.020 --> 00:34:11.540 meter backstroke at Rio because I had been racing for nine days and I've been 280 00:34:11.540 --> 00:34:15.900 chasing gold medals but I'd always be getting touched out and getting silver 281 00:34:15.900 --> 00:34:20.140 which is still great but I've got to day nine and I had one last chance to win a 282 00:34:20.140 --> 00:34:24.700 gold medal and I was so stressed out before the event that I locked myself in 283 00:34:24.700 --> 00:34:28.540 a toilet cubicle it had a mild panic attack and didn't think that I could go 284 00:34:28.540 --> 00:34:33.020 out there and race and I got myself out of the toilet cubicle and I walked onto 285 00:34:33.020 --> 00:34:39.700 the pool deck and I jumped in and I won the race. It was the greatest moment ever. 286 00:34:49.700 --> 00:34:55.340 So I did that photo shoot with Peter right before the Rio Paralympic Games and it was a 287 00:34:55.340 --> 00:34:59.220 moment where we really wanted to showcase the athletes of Australia that were 288 00:34:59.220 --> 00:35:03.620 going to the Olympics and the Paralympics and so I was asked to do a photo shoot 289 00:35:03.620 --> 00:35:08.660 outside which was really exciting to me to begin with and then Peter put me on 290 00:35:08.660 --> 00:35:13.020 some really beautiful rocks with the Australian flag and obviously I'm very 291 00:35:13.020 --> 00:35:16.180 proud to be an Australian Paralympian so to have the flag in that photo was 292 00:35:16.180 --> 00:35:18.980 really important to me. 293 00:35:19.420 --> 00:35:24.140 I guess he kind of wanted to show what I wanted to be when I was younger which was a 294 00:35:24.140 --> 00:35:28.180 mermaid like I always dreamed of being a mermaid when I was younger and so to be 295 00:35:28.180 --> 00:35:34.380 able to capture that in a portrait as well as you know the strength and you 296 00:35:34.380 --> 00:35:37.500 know showcasing my disability as well and combining that into like my 297 00:35:37.500 --> 00:35:43.100 childhood dream with the inclusion of being strong and powerful was a really 298 00:35:43.100 --> 00:35:47.220 great photo for me and you know it's something that I've always looked back on 299 00:35:47.220 --> 00:35:51.660 and been really proud to have been involved in such a creation but I 300 00:35:51.660 --> 00:35:58.780 always look at it and think that's not me but it is it's just beautiful. 301 00:35:58.780 --> 00:36:05.620 To be able to just showcase my disability is something that I can't really put into 302 00:36:05.620 --> 00:36:10.380 words you know when I was younger I never saw people or role models that had a 303 00:36:10.380 --> 00:36:15.860 disability. It's really a dream come true just to be able to show the world that 304 00:36:15.860 --> 00:36:19.460 you can still be a mermaid, you can still have a disability, you can still be a 305 00:36:19.460 --> 00:36:24.860 Paralympian, you can do whatever you like. Yeah it's cool. 306 00:36:24.860 --> 00:36:36.060 I don't know how land people do exercises. Exercises on land when it comes with 307 00:36:36.060 --> 00:36:40.260 gravity and changes in blood pressure is really difficult. I really take my hat 308 00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:43.260 off these land people.