WEBVTT
1
00:00:01.250 --> 00:00:04.500
(audience applauding)
2
00:00:06.680 --> 00:00:07.513
Thank you.
3
00:00:14.253 --> 00:00:18.973
Even as a child, I knew I was attracted to men,
4
00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:25.453
and as a teenager, I went to Cairns State High School.
5
00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:28.773
It was the worst time of my life.
6
00:00:30.020 --> 00:00:31.470
People used to call me names.
7
00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:37.410
I wanted to be popular and to fit in,
8
00:00:37.410 --> 00:00:41.090
but my hair would not brush back at the sides,
9
00:00:41.090 --> 00:00:44.023
and there was no way I could look like Elvis Presley.
10
00:00:50.690 --> 00:00:53.030
I somehow knew that
11
00:00:53.030 --> 00:00:56.703
I was gay, but it was totally unarticulated.
12
00:00:58.660 --> 00:01:02.770
One day at home in Cairns,
13
00:01:02.770 --> 00:01:05.280
I read the afternoon paper
14
00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:08.743
and there was an article on homosexuality.
15
00:01:11.530 --> 00:01:14.290
It spelled out what the condition was
16
00:01:14.290 --> 00:01:17.713
and it named three famous ones in history,
17
00:01:19.620 --> 00:01:24.103
and I thought, oh God, that's me.
18
00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:28.373
The shock of recognition rather hit me like a thunderbolt.
19
00:01:31.611 --> 00:01:35.757
Although I had this revelation, it didn't change my life.
20
00:01:37.190 --> 00:01:39.750
I didn't know a single gay person,
21
00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:43.003
and I thought they were four homosexuals in the world.
22
00:01:44.990 --> 00:01:46.263
Oscar Wilde,
23
00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:48.633
Michelangelo,
24
00:01:49.490 --> 00:01:53.074
Leonardo da Vinci, and me.
25
00:01:53.074 --> 00:01:56.074
(audience laughing)
26
00:01:57.790 --> 00:01:59.700
I graduated in architecture
27
00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:02.763
at Sydney, at Queensland University.
28
00:02:03.610 --> 00:02:05.370
I liked university.
29
00:02:05.370 --> 00:02:08.203
It wasn't as constrained as high school,
30
00:02:09.630 --> 00:02:12.580
and I bonded with my colleagues,
31
00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:14.293
but I was still in the closet.
32
00:02:18.640 --> 00:02:22.020
I came to Sydney in 1969,
33
00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:26.523
the same year as Stonewall, about which I'd never heard.
34
00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:30.610
Coming to a new city meant
35
00:02:30.610 --> 00:02:34.200
no one knew about my past case history,
36
00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:37.460
and I was able to reinvent myself.
37
00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:42.423
I was able to come out as a gay man, fairly painlessly,
38
00:02:43.847 --> 00:02:45.990
although it took a period
39
00:02:45.990 --> 00:02:49.193
of a few years to fully transition.
40
00:02:51.260 --> 00:02:55.333
I met David McDiarmid and Peter Tully.
41
00:02:55.333 --> 00:02:57.520
They were from Melbourne
42
00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:00.903
and they were artists and they had style.
43
00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:06.260
Peter used to make funky plastic jewellery,
44
00:03:06.260 --> 00:03:08.020
necklaces and earrings,
45
00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:09.793
and in this case, a belt,
46
00:03:11.100 --> 00:03:16.033
and they introduced me to Linda Jackson and Fran Moore,
47
00:03:16.980 --> 00:03:19.773
a couple also from Melbourne,
48
00:03:20.650 --> 00:03:24.340
and Linda was working with Jenny Kee
49
00:03:25.450 --> 00:03:27.733
in Sydney, and so,
50
00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:32.220
we all formed a little group.
51
00:03:32.220 --> 00:03:37.220
Jenny and Linda had a fashion label called Flamingo Park
52
00:03:37.350 --> 00:03:40.690
and they had fabulous parades.
53
00:03:40.690 --> 00:03:44.653
David would hand paint some of Linda's fabric.
54
00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:48.680
I did the photos
55
00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:50.790
and Peter would provide
56
00:03:50.790 --> 00:03:54.363
the funky plastic necklaces and accessories.
57
00:03:56.174 --> 00:04:00.293
They're there at an exhibition on those display cones,
58
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:03.313
all made of plastic.
59
00:04:05.200 --> 00:04:07.010
So here's the gang.
60
00:04:07.010 --> 00:04:09.880
Linda would call us her gay brothers
61
00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:16.610
and David was particularly
62
00:04:16.610 --> 00:04:19.140
fascinating to me because he was the first
63
00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:24.460
person who identified as a gay artist,
64
00:04:24.460 --> 00:04:27.833
and I never had that concept before.
65
00:04:29.110 --> 00:04:31.480
That's one of his works,
66
00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:35.713
and he also did a gay reading of the Doris Day song,
67
00:04:37.217 --> 00:04:40.817
"Secret Love" from "Calamity Jane."
68
00:04:40.817 --> 00:04:43.230
"Once I had a secret love
69
00:04:43.230 --> 00:04:46.480
that lived within the heart in me.
70
00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.560
All too soon, this secret love
71
00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.247
became impatient to be free."
72
00:04:54.650 --> 00:04:57.430
So he made it about coming out,
73
00:04:57.430 --> 00:04:59.780
and this was very much
74
00:04:59.780 --> 00:05:03.063
like the mood of the times, the '70s,
75
00:05:05.780 --> 00:05:09.970
and I put photographs like this in my very first exhibition,
76
00:05:09.970 --> 00:05:13.060
well, solo exhibition, "Sydneyphiles,"
77
00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:17.523
at the Australian Centre for Photography in 1977.
78
00:05:19.150 --> 00:05:22.323
That's Jenny, and Linda at the exhibition.
79
00:05:24.238 --> 00:05:26.243
There were many photos of them,
80
00:05:27.780 --> 00:05:30.830
including this one of Jenny kissing Little Nell
81
00:05:35.440 --> 00:05:38.160
as well as scenes from gay life.
82
00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:42.150
It was the first time that Australian photos
83
00:05:42.150 --> 00:05:46.353
of the gay subculture were shown at an institution,
84
00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:52.660
and some people thought that they shouldn't be shown,
85
00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:56.920
and this is a photograph of Sylvia and the Synthetics,
86
00:05:56.920 --> 00:06:00.510
a performance group who appeared in the mid-'70s,
87
00:06:00.510 --> 00:06:03.000
seemingly out of nowhere,
88
00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:07.630
and they will lewd, in your face, anarchistic,
89
00:06:07.630 --> 00:06:12.630
and nude, they perform simulated sex acts live on stage,
90
00:06:14.020 --> 00:06:16.780
sometimes among themselves,
91
00:06:16.780 --> 00:06:18.143
and at other times,
92
00:06:20.130 --> 00:06:22.523
with vacuum cleaners.
93
00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:31.710
My favourite place in the whole of Sydney was a sauna
94
00:06:31.710 --> 00:06:34.130
called Ken's Karate Klub
95
00:06:34.130 --> 00:06:37.363
or KKK at Kensington.
96
00:06:38.380 --> 00:06:42.200
It was owned by a drag queen called Kandy Johnson
97
00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:45.273
who loved to put on shows around the pool,
98
00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:49.870
and she asked me
99
00:06:49.870 --> 00:06:52.670
to photograph the shows,
100
00:06:52.670 --> 00:06:57.670
and so that's how I got my camera into the sauna
101
00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:01.253
and people let me take photographs like this.
102
00:07:04.520 --> 00:07:07.430
It's amazing that they let me take them then,
103
00:07:07.430 --> 00:07:08.860
'cause they wouldn't let me,
104
00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:11.450
I couldn't take these photographs now.
105
00:07:11.450 --> 00:07:13.100
People would object.
106
00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:17.830
Back then somehow, there was a different mood.
107
00:07:17.830 --> 00:07:19.433
People wanted to be,
108
00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:24.960
people thought it was important to be visible,
109
00:07:24.960 --> 00:07:28.913
and I didn't have that much trouble.
110
00:07:30.930 --> 00:07:33.230
and these are some other,
111
00:07:33.230 --> 00:07:37.023
another photograph from that genre.
112
00:07:37.980 --> 00:07:39.077
It's cool.
113
00:07:39.077 --> 00:07:40.653
"Do you remember me?
114
00:07:41.580 --> 00:07:45.207
I slept beside you, but left in the morning."
115
00:07:48.390 --> 00:07:50.220
I met Allan Booth.
116
00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:52.723
He was 20 and I was 36.
117
00:07:54.640 --> 00:07:56.973
We made love the second time we met,
118
00:07:58.770 --> 00:08:03.300
although had sex is more a term I've used,
119
00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:06.500
and then we became once-a-week boyfriends.
120
00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:09.910
He had others, his best friend and confidant
121
00:08:09.910 --> 00:08:11.833
was a person called Jeffrey,
122
00:08:13.020 --> 00:08:17.230
but Allan was friends with a hairdresser, a lawyer,
123
00:08:17.230 --> 00:08:18.833
and a theatre director.
124
00:08:22.470 --> 00:08:27.470
For my generation, society had loathed the homosexual,
125
00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:32.530
and we had absorbed this loathing,
126
00:08:32.530 --> 00:08:36.023
even though it was directed towards ourselves,
127
00:08:37.470 --> 00:08:40.923
we had internalised this self-loathing,
128
00:08:42.210 --> 00:08:46.003
but that was what gay liberation was all about.
129
00:08:47.160 --> 00:08:52.153
Liberating ourselves from society's negative opinions,
130
00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:58.150
but Allan knew nothing of this depression.
131
00:08:58.150 --> 00:09:01.000
He had come out when he was 15.
132
00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:04.373
His parents knew about him, but they were supportive.
133
00:09:06.520 --> 00:09:08.760
He lived in a house in Surry Hills
134
00:09:08.760 --> 00:09:11.373
that had a history of gay tenancy.
135
00:09:15.020 --> 00:09:17.150
There was a gay ghetto developing
136
00:09:17.150 --> 00:09:20.130
in the Darlinghurst-Surry Hills area,
137
00:09:20.130 --> 00:09:23.780
and people found that they could live in a gay household,
138
00:09:23.780 --> 00:09:26.330
work for a gay establishment,
139
00:09:26.330 --> 00:09:31.330
and fraternise with friends in venues in Oxford Street,
140
00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:35.520
and this situation had never occurred
141
00:09:35.520 --> 00:09:38.033
in Sydney or Australia before.
142
00:09:42.100 --> 00:09:45.890
Allan on the right, and some of the people
143
00:09:45.890 --> 00:09:50.890
from his household decided to have a marine fantasy party.
144
00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:55.010
So Jeffrey on the left,
145
00:09:55.010 --> 00:09:56.403
came as a wave.
146
00:09:59.890 --> 00:10:02.400
Lance is a blue-ringed octopus
147
00:10:03.290 --> 00:10:06.703
and Allan was a non-specific marine fantasy.
148
00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:16.093
Peter Tully came as an eastern suburbs shark.
149
00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:21.583
I came as seaweed.
150
00:10:25.560 --> 00:10:27.600
There were too many mermaids
151
00:10:29.330 --> 00:10:31.993
and not enough boys from Muscle Beach.
152
00:10:35.170 --> 00:10:39.440
Allan had a drag persona called Jinx Jones.
153
00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:42.013
Jinx was avant-garde and modern.
154
00:10:43.130 --> 00:10:46.160
While Allan was quite charming,
155
00:10:46.160 --> 00:10:50.120
Jinx, on the other hand, was very demanding
156
00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:52.653
and required a lot of attention.
157
00:10:56.380 --> 00:11:00.023
Peter Tully made me a hat for my birthday.
158
00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:04.080
It was made out of pictures of naked men.
159
00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.790
It had a lime green synthetic fur trim
160
00:11:07.790 --> 00:11:10.813
and he called it something on my mind.
161
00:11:15.590 --> 00:11:18.010
Allan threw a surprise birthday dinner
162
00:11:18.010 --> 00:11:20.020
for me in Surry Hills,
163
00:11:20.020 --> 00:11:22.433
and I was touched by his gesture.
164
00:11:23.290 --> 00:11:26.883
I thought, oh, we're getting serious,
165
00:11:28.450 --> 00:11:29.820
but a few months later,
166
00:11:29.820 --> 00:11:33.240
Allan told me he didn't wanna have sex with me anymore,
167
00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:35.333
but we could still be friends.
168
00:11:36.950 --> 00:11:37.973
Oh dear.
169
00:11:41.630 --> 00:11:46.210
There were demonstrations to decriminalise homosexual acts,
170
00:11:46.210 --> 00:11:47.783
which were illegal.
171
00:11:50.030 --> 00:11:52.763
I was politicised by the gay movement.
172
00:11:53.670 --> 00:11:57.803
I decided I would always be who I was.
173
00:11:58.890 --> 00:12:01.573
It's a thread that runs through my work.
174
00:12:04.970 --> 00:12:07.870
State by state, the laws were changed.
175
00:12:07.870 --> 00:12:11.430
First, South Australia in the mid-'70s,
176
00:12:11.430 --> 00:12:15.020
Victoria in 1980,
177
00:12:15.020 --> 00:12:18.750
New South Wales in 1984,
178
00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:22.940
and Tasmania was the last state in 1997,
179
00:12:25.650 --> 00:12:29.933
but the most famous demonstration occurred in 1978.
180
00:12:31.790 --> 00:12:35.613
This is not that demonstration, but I've reconstructed it.
181
00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:40.190
53 people were arrested at a Mardi Gras march
182
00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:43.300
and thrown into Darlinghurst jail.
183
00:12:43.300 --> 00:12:44.573
Some were beaten.
184
00:12:46.400 --> 00:12:49.673
This marked the inaugural Mardi Gras,
185
00:12:50.820 --> 00:12:55.820
and people from that original march are called the 78ers,
186
00:12:57.940 --> 00:13:02.177
and so after that, there's always been a Mardi Gras parade.
187
00:13:04.780 --> 00:13:06.750
and in 1981,
188
00:13:06.750 --> 00:13:11.750
Peter Tully wore one of his urban tribal wear outfits
189
00:13:12.370 --> 00:13:14.273
to the Mardi Gras parade.
190
00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.763
That's Allan, Cindy Pastel and John Yakalis.
191
00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:26.660
There are only a few floats,
192
00:13:26.660 --> 00:13:31.583
the boys from the Midnight Shift, the disco,
193
00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:35.183
the boys from the Fitness Exchange,
194
00:13:37.780 --> 00:13:40.373
the girls from the Lesbian Line.
195
00:13:43.260 --> 00:13:45.093
Gay Aborigines,
196
00:13:46.570 --> 00:13:49.800
and this lesbian couple begged me
197
00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:53.183
to send them this photo, which I did,
198
00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.860
but I didn't have one of them themselves together,
199
00:13:57.860 --> 00:13:59.610
and it made me realise
200
00:13:59.610 --> 00:14:03.820
that representation is terribly important
201
00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:05.723
for a marginalised group.
202
00:14:08.810 --> 00:14:10.143
I've done workshops,
203
00:14:12.471 --> 00:14:16.890
there's always a couple that say that they're terribly hurt
204
00:14:16.890 --> 00:14:20.770
there's a same sex photograph of them,
205
00:14:20.770 --> 00:14:25.600
and their partner is not on the mantle piece
206
00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:27.593
with the other family photographs,
207
00:14:29.670 --> 00:14:31.980
and anyway, this was the photograph
208
00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:36.793
that was everybody's favourite from that 1981 march,
209
00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:43.053
gays and lesbians together, out and proud,
210
00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:46.780
and so the next year, 1982,
211
00:14:46.780 --> 00:14:50.110
Peter Tully got a $6,000 grant
212
00:14:50.110 --> 00:14:54.040
from the community section of the Australia Council
213
00:14:54.040 --> 00:14:57.163
to start the Mardi Gras workshop,
214
00:14:58.640 --> 00:15:02.673
and he became the artistic director of the parade.
215
00:15:05.670 --> 00:15:08.193
He gathered together his slaves.
216
00:15:14.710 --> 00:15:17.583
Sorry, I didn't really want this music on.
217
00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:29.170
They pulled together the giant figure of Edna Everage
218
00:15:29.170 --> 00:15:30.773
down Oxford Street.
219
00:15:32.420 --> 00:15:36.710
Tully had a team of helpers and under his tutelage,
220
00:15:36.710 --> 00:15:38.810
Mardi Gras quickly developed
221
00:15:38.810 --> 00:15:41.943
into the prototype of the modern Mardi Gras,
222
00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:48.223
then there was abstraction, colour and movement,
223
00:15:50.020 --> 00:15:53.643
and a certain innocent joie de vivre.
224
00:15:58.770 --> 00:16:03.770
Gays had taken terms like fag and owned them,
225
00:16:04.260 --> 00:16:05.703
and in so doing,
226
00:16:05.703 --> 00:16:10.563
they had taken the derogatory meaning from the word,
227
00:16:11.920 --> 00:16:13.390
words like poof
228
00:16:14.310 --> 00:16:16.260
or fruit,
229
00:16:16.260 --> 00:16:17.853
or pansies.
230
00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:22.760
As you probably know,
231
00:16:22.760 --> 00:16:27.393
the pink triangle was the insignia of the Nazis,
232
00:16:28.730 --> 00:16:31.410
was the insignia the Nazis used
233
00:16:31.410 --> 00:16:34.893
to denote homosexuality in the camps,
234
00:16:38.160 --> 00:16:43.160
the gays had seized upon this pink triangle as an emblem,
235
00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:46.960
and there were lots of them in the '80s.
236
00:16:49.300 --> 00:16:53.880
Sydney gays used pink triangle sunglasses,
237
00:16:53.880 --> 00:16:56.240
an opera house hat,
238
00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:01.233
and an inverted Harbour Bridge to make a smiley face.
239
00:17:04.890 --> 00:17:08.220
This is one of the first lesbians to dance
240
00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:10.713
bare-breasted down Oxford Street.
241
00:17:15.380 --> 00:17:19.653
A group called the Cycle Sluts from San Francisco,
242
00:17:21.030 --> 00:17:23.310
came to Sydney to perform,
243
00:17:23.310 --> 00:17:27.953
and so they created this look amongst Sydneysiders
244
00:17:29.650 --> 00:17:32.713
and these were the first gay Asians I photographed,
245
00:17:33.860 --> 00:17:37.680
and to be honest, I didn't identify with them
246
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:40.513
as I was more of a activist.
247
00:17:44.730 --> 00:17:47.283
An early version of lifesavers,
248
00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.870
the Gay Cronulla group, I think
249
00:17:55.550 --> 00:18:00.350
the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was a satirical order,
250
00:18:00.350 --> 00:18:03.150
but they took themselves very seriously
251
00:18:03.150 --> 00:18:05.213
and they were like a real order,
252
00:18:06.350 --> 00:18:10.760
and that were always asked to bless many of the gay events
253
00:18:14.500 --> 00:18:17.610
Doris Fish in the fat suit on her fish-mobile
254
00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:21.550
with Jackie Hyde
255
00:18:21.550 --> 00:18:23.630
with the lilac hair
256
00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:27.513
and in the crown is Doris's mother.
257
00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:35.343
Michael O'Halloran won best costume for this outfit,
258
00:18:37.060 --> 00:18:41.210
and since the gay ghetto was in Darlinghurst,
259
00:18:41.210 --> 00:18:45.943
there's always been affectionate depictions of cockroaches.
260
00:18:51.840 --> 00:18:54.010
This is one of my favourite photos,
261
00:18:54.010 --> 00:18:57.793
the way they've genderized the Daleks,
262
00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:09.303
and this is an image that I took at one of the parades,
263
00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:15.943
but I'm just talking about photography for the moment.
264
00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:20.600
Sometimes you just get a photograph accidentally
265
00:19:20.600 --> 00:19:24.540
that has got other meanings than the Mardi Gras parade,
266
00:19:24.540 --> 00:19:27.020
and I think that this one does.
267
00:19:27.020 --> 00:19:31.103
It's kind of absurd and it's provocative,
268
00:19:34.860 --> 00:19:39.630
challenging and yet, appealing to the imagination,
269
00:19:39.630 --> 00:19:42.690
and I've called it
270
00:19:44.570 --> 00:19:47.757
Fairy Tale as if you were
271
00:19:49.060 --> 00:19:53.410
confronted by a character in a fairy tale,
272
00:19:53.410 --> 00:19:56.923
and so it's like the other fairies.
273
00:20:00.930 --> 00:20:05.930
Peter Tully had a whole team behind him to help him
274
00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:09.083
make the floats at the workshop,
275
00:20:10.010 --> 00:20:14.463
and one year, Keith Haring was in Sydney, this is 1984,
276
00:20:15.370 --> 00:20:19.000
and he was surprised to find that the lead float
277
00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:22.373
to the Mardi Gras was a borrowing of his work.
278
00:20:23.390 --> 00:20:26.020
I don't think he was that upset.
279
00:20:26.020 --> 00:20:27.933
I think he was flattered by this.
280
00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:32.990
The big gay hat,
281
00:20:32.990 --> 00:20:37.990
then people wanted to proclaim their gayness, shout it out,
282
00:20:38.170 --> 00:20:41.263
ram it down people's throats, so to speak.
283
00:20:42.340 --> 00:20:45.683
I don't think people would wear a hat like this now,
284
00:20:46.560 --> 00:20:49.663
simply 'cause there's not that need.
285
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:56.000
David was the director of the Mardi Gras in the late '80s,
286
00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:58.230
and this is the only photograph I have
287
00:20:58.230 --> 00:21:01.373
of him and Peter Tully together.
288
00:21:03.140 --> 00:21:05.340
David's carrying a totem
289
00:21:05.340 --> 00:21:09.433
of Tom Piper's Camp Pie.
290
00:21:12.450 --> 00:21:14.120
David and Peter exhibited
291
00:21:14.120 --> 00:21:17.880
at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in the mid-'80s.
292
00:21:19.610 --> 00:21:22.260
It's quite a prestigious gallery.
293
00:21:22.260 --> 00:21:26.590
So the cultural festival associated with the Mardi Gras
294
00:21:26.590 --> 00:21:28.343
had grown quite quickly.
295
00:21:29.730 --> 00:21:34.510
A few years previously, in 1983,
296
00:21:34.510 --> 00:21:37.280
I had an exhibition at the card shop,
297
00:21:37.280 --> 00:21:40.883
P.S. Write Soon in Oxford Street,
298
00:21:41.810 --> 00:21:44.880
and there were 12 other photographers
299
00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.470
who each had exhibitions
300
00:21:47.470 --> 00:21:50.823
in venues in Oxford Street shops,
301
00:21:53.923 --> 00:21:56.060
It was the beginning
302
00:21:56.060 --> 00:22:00.193
of the cultural festival associated with the Mardi Gras,
303
00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:04.360
and in 1989,
304
00:22:04.360 --> 00:22:08.943
Cath Phillips opened the Big Gay Art Show at the Tin Sheds.
305
00:22:10.060 --> 00:22:13.690
Cath Phillips was the first lesbian
306
00:22:13.690 --> 00:22:16.343
to become president of the Mardi Gras,
307
00:22:17.550 --> 00:22:21.250
and in 1991, gay men and lesbians
308
00:22:21.250 --> 00:22:23.080
danced on stage
309
00:22:24.639 --> 00:22:28.440
to a Madonna song, "Express Yourself"
310
00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:30.023
at the Sleaze Ball,
311
00:22:31.290 --> 00:22:34.243
and they were wild scenes backstage.
312
00:22:35.310 --> 00:22:38.670
Mardi Gras had become a coalition
313
00:22:38.670 --> 00:22:40.993
of gay men and lesbians,
314
00:22:42.820 --> 00:22:45.930
and with the lesbian president,
315
00:22:45.930 --> 00:22:50.280
more lesbians became involved in the Mardi Gras.
316
00:22:50.280 --> 00:22:55.280
This photographs in the Australian Love Stories exhibition,
317
00:22:57.470 --> 00:23:00.370
Dykes on Bikes became the lead float
318
00:23:02.100 --> 00:23:05.757
and has remained there till this day.
319
00:23:08.790 --> 00:23:10.733
There were truckloads of lemons.
320
00:23:16.610 --> 00:23:20.343
Black lemon lover was a subset of lemons,
321
00:23:22.730 --> 00:23:26.263
and this large vagina appeared on Oxford Street,
322
00:23:27.670 --> 00:23:30.563
quite a realistic depiction I thought,
323
00:23:32.670 --> 00:23:33.703
not that I'd know.
324
00:23:40.270 --> 00:23:43.830
Pip Playford made this float
325
00:23:43.830 --> 00:23:47.497
called "Look, Mom, I'm on TV."
326
00:23:54.230 --> 00:23:57.090
In the '90s, the Mardi Gras
327
00:23:57.090 --> 00:24:00.720
became big in every sense of the word.
328
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:05.300
That's Ron Muncaster on the right and his partner, Jacques,
329
00:24:05.300 --> 00:24:09.360
and Ron would always make an extravagant
330
00:24:09.360 --> 00:24:11.843
costume for each Mardi Gras.
331
00:24:13.450 --> 00:24:15.770
The televising of Mardi Gras
332
00:24:16.660 --> 00:24:21.180
brought about change in the '90s.
333
00:24:21.180 --> 00:24:25.843
Gay and lesbian got into people's living rooms.
334
00:24:27.490 --> 00:24:30.940
I think it had a big effect on social attitudes
335
00:24:33.620 --> 00:24:35.663
but in the '90s,
336
00:24:36.760 --> 00:24:39.313
Mardi Gras also became corporate.
337
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:44.340
That's the 2010 float
338
00:24:44.340 --> 00:24:45.950
for youth support
339
00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:50.380
2010 is the postcard for Darlinghurst
340
00:24:51.470 --> 00:24:54.543
and there's a sponsor's logo on the bus.
341
00:24:59.790 --> 00:25:02.290
At the time, there was some who thought straight people
342
00:25:02.290 --> 00:25:04.773
shouldn't be allowed to come to the parties,
343
00:25:06.130 --> 00:25:10.120
although it was an impractical idea, but
344
00:25:12.600 --> 00:25:17.600
people were starting to feel possessive of the Mardi Gras.
345
00:25:19.580 --> 00:25:23.403
Fred Nile and his group of Christians praying for rain.
346
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:29.570
Now associated with the Mardi Gras parade,
347
00:25:29.570 --> 00:25:34.220
there's always been the Mardi Gras cultural festival
348
00:25:37.780 --> 00:25:40.877
Claire De Lune showed up at the Fair Day
349
00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:45.263
wearing a costume of living flowers.
350
00:25:48.280 --> 00:25:51.910
Huge crowds showed up for the dog show
351
00:25:51.910 --> 00:25:53.803
at Fair Day is believed.
352
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:02.080
A group at the Tin Sheds Gallery at Sydney Uni
353
00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:07.933
where inside there was a woman's performance group.
354
00:26:13.470 --> 00:26:17.100
At the Soho gallery in 1996,
355
00:26:17.100 --> 00:26:21.163
a muscle man posed as a kind of installation,
356
00:26:24.130 --> 00:26:28.340
and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, there was a show
357
00:26:28.340 --> 00:26:32.173
by the famous Dutch photographer, Erwin Olaf,
358
00:26:33.490 --> 00:26:35.930
and there were pedestals installed
359
00:26:35.930 --> 00:26:38.229
in the gallery for people to stand
360
00:26:38.229 --> 00:26:40.543
on and displays themselves,
361
00:26:42.500 --> 00:26:43.893
like exhibits,
362
00:26:46.290 --> 00:26:47.343
very popular.
363
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:51.020
Meanwhile, that same year,
364
00:26:51.020 --> 00:26:55.260
there was a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at the MCA,
365
00:26:55.260 --> 00:26:59.830
and so this is part of a kind of floor show
366
00:27:01.380 --> 00:27:04.260
where the performers reproduced
367
00:27:04.260 --> 00:27:08.160
some of the images in the photos
368
00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:12.970
and American writer Edmund White
369
00:27:12.970 --> 00:27:16.023
and Dennis Altman were at that opening,
370
00:27:18.810 --> 00:27:22.980
and that's David Marr on the left from the debate,
371
00:27:22.980 --> 00:27:26.270
with his partner, Richard Barrett and Dennis Watkin
372
00:27:26.270 --> 00:27:30.780
who was director of the Mardi Gras Cultural Festival.
373
00:27:30.780 --> 00:27:35.780
So it was big and the debate would fill the state theatre.
374
00:27:44.293 --> 00:27:48.610
AIDS ravished the gay community
375
00:27:48.610 --> 00:27:50.033
from the late '80s,
376
00:27:52.790 --> 00:27:54.153
and this is David,
377
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:56.813
who had AIDS.
378
00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:07.563
He made works about his condition quite courageously.
379
00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:14.670
Late in his life, he devoted himself to these works,
380
00:28:14.670 --> 00:28:18.863
and it could be argued that these are his best works.
381
00:28:21.970 --> 00:28:25.100
The AIDS Council of New South Wales did a series
382
00:28:25.100 --> 00:28:28.140
of safe sex posters
383
00:28:28.140 --> 00:28:30.223
taken from his paintings.
384
00:28:32.340 --> 00:28:34.303
He worked right up until the end,
385
00:28:35.190 --> 00:28:37.900
then he only had enough energy
386
00:28:37.900 --> 00:28:42.343
to make these rainbow aphorisms on the computer.
387
00:28:44.360 --> 00:28:48.393
His biggest regret was that he couldn't do more work.
388
00:28:49.280 --> 00:28:51.613
He died in 1995.
389
00:28:55.840 --> 00:28:59.963
Peter Tully also had AIDS and he knew he was dying.
390
00:29:01.080 --> 00:29:03.260
He loved the Mardi Gras
391
00:29:03.260 --> 00:29:07.320
and he persuaded his friends to dress up as hags
392
00:29:07.320 --> 00:29:10.150
and to push their trolleys of death
393
00:29:10.150 --> 00:29:12.203
in the Mardi Gras parade.
394
00:29:13.060 --> 00:29:15.193
It was his idea of a joke.
395
00:29:18.170 --> 00:29:21.137
At the big AIDS exhibition,
396
00:29:21.137 --> 00:29:24.480
"Don't Leave Me This Way" at the National Gallery
397
00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:28.770
of Australia in Canberra, a performance artist,
398
00:29:28.770 --> 00:29:33.770
Brenton Heath-Kerr appeared in a latex body suit
399
00:29:33.990 --> 00:29:36.003
he'd cast from his own body,
400
00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:39.943
he was already skeletal.
401
00:29:44.130 --> 00:29:47.370
I hadn't seen Allen for about four years
402
00:29:47.370 --> 00:29:51.200
and I was in ward 17 of St. Vincent's Hospital
403
00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:55.000
when I walked past one of the rooms and I saw Allan
404
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:57.563
and I recognised him immediately,
405
00:29:59.010 --> 00:30:01.030
but he had changed.
406
00:30:01.030 --> 00:30:03.163
He seemed like an old man.
407
00:30:06.680 --> 00:30:10.803
Each time he came to hospital, he'd bring decoration.
408
00:30:11.670 --> 00:30:16.670
He tried to add colour to those drab hospital walls
409
00:30:18.394 --> 00:30:20.240
and he kept a diary in which he wrote
410
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:25.240
down all his hopes and fears, as well as his dreams.
411
00:30:26.810 --> 00:30:30.560
I think more people die of self pity
412
00:30:30.560 --> 00:30:32.753
than die of AIDS.
413
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:39.223
I remember another entry,
414
00:30:40.557 --> 00:30:43.130
"I made my will today.
415
00:30:43.130 --> 00:30:45.653
It wasn't as scary as I thought."
416
00:30:49.250 --> 00:30:51.630
They could do no more for him at the hospital,
417
00:30:51.630 --> 00:30:53.303
so they let him go home.
418
00:30:54.150 --> 00:30:57.573
That was all he wanted, just to be at home,
419
00:30:59.080 --> 00:31:01.340
and he'd been at home for a few months
420
00:31:02.310 --> 00:31:07.113
when he made the momentous decision to go off medication.
421
00:31:10.580 --> 00:31:13.860
10 days later, he took a turn for the worse.
422
00:31:13.860 --> 00:31:16.820
His whole face seemed to have caved in,
423
00:31:16.820 --> 00:31:19.400
and it became apparent that Jeffrey
424
00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:23.513
and his friends could not look after Allan at home.
425
00:31:26.150 --> 00:31:30.400
So he went to the hospice and on this particular day,
426
00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:34.703
he was in a wheelchair while the nurses were making his bed,
427
00:31:35.950 --> 00:31:39.180
and he had his hand over the arm of the chair,
428
00:31:39.180 --> 00:31:41.473
I put my hand over his.
429
00:31:42.660 --> 00:31:45.680
I'd already said goodbye to Allan.
430
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:48.080
I told him that I loved him,
431
00:31:48.080 --> 00:31:52.077
and at the time he had smiled and said, "That's good,"
432
00:31:53.110 --> 00:31:55.863
which wasn't the response I wanted,
433
00:31:57.310 --> 00:32:01.030
but as we were waiting for the nurses,
434
00:32:01.030 --> 00:32:05.140
he lifted my hand to the level of his face
435
00:32:05.140 --> 00:32:09.923
and he lightly dropped his forehead on to my hand.
436
00:32:13.150 --> 00:32:16.560
He was young when I met him years ago,
437
00:32:16.560 --> 00:32:21.560
and our relationship had been full of fun, zany, exciting,
438
00:32:21.940 --> 00:32:25.143
sexy, but never tender,
439
00:32:26.020 --> 00:32:30.663
until now in this unexpected moment of grace,
440
00:32:34.780 --> 00:32:37.220
then he went into a coma.
441
00:32:37.220 --> 00:32:40.080
I saw the nurse, give him a glass of water,
442
00:32:40.080 --> 00:32:42.693
but the water just ran out of his mouth.
443
00:32:43.540 --> 00:32:46.210
He didn't respond to touch.
444
00:32:46.210 --> 00:32:49.440
I half expected him to be cold,
445
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:54.440
but he was burning with fever and his pulse was racing.
446
00:32:54.540 --> 00:32:58.260
Later this night, our friend Jeffrey
447
00:32:58.260 --> 00:33:02.203
rang to tell me, Allan had died.
448
00:33:11.890 --> 00:33:14.360
There were vigils,
449
00:33:14.360 --> 00:33:19.360
social rituals to come to terms with mass grief.
450
00:33:21.290 --> 00:33:24.513
Yeah, the names of the dead were read out.
451
00:33:25.950 --> 00:33:30.320
I knew then what it was like to be in a war
452
00:33:30.320 --> 00:33:32.153
where many people died.
453
00:33:37.950 --> 00:33:41.850
It was then when our community was at its lowest state
454
00:33:41.850 --> 00:33:44.763
that our enemies tried to destroy us,
455
00:33:48.320 --> 00:33:53.320
but somehow, the community banded together,
456
00:33:53.410 --> 00:33:57.700
gay men, lesbians and straight friends,
457
00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:01.523
and somehow we all live through this dark period.
458
00:34:07.270 --> 00:34:10.380
I did some safe sex posters for ACON,
459
00:34:10.380 --> 00:34:13.560
that's the AIDS Council of New South Wales,
460
00:34:13.560 --> 00:34:15.993
targeting gay Asians,
461
00:34:17.830 --> 00:34:22.280
and this poster, love him safely every time
462
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.493
came out in five different Asian languages.
463
00:34:30.040 --> 00:34:33.100
In the early '90s, I initiated a group,
464
00:34:33.100 --> 00:34:35.723
Asian Lesbian and Gay Pride.
465
00:34:37.915 --> 00:34:41.960
It wasn't the first Asian group in Sydney,
466
00:34:41.960 --> 00:34:46.013
but it was the first to contain gay men and lesbians.
467
00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:51.230
Our first event was centred around a seminar
468
00:34:51.230 --> 00:34:54.850
where we discussed what it is like to be gay and Asian
469
00:34:54.850 --> 00:34:58.533
in a predominantly gay Anglo society,
470
00:35:00.120 --> 00:35:03.223
and we talked about the politics of desire,
471
00:35:04.280 --> 00:35:07.890
how most of the images depicted in the media
472
00:35:07.890 --> 00:35:11.823
of sexually desirable, people were white,
473
00:35:13.300 --> 00:35:16.020
and so I did a series of photographs
474
00:35:16.020 --> 00:35:20.063
where I tried to sexualize the Asian body,
475
00:35:21.750 --> 00:35:23.680
to point out that
476
00:35:24.890 --> 00:35:27.773
it could be desirable, too.
477
00:35:34.870 --> 00:35:38.090
It's one of the reasons why gay men
478
00:35:38.090 --> 00:35:41.243
generally don't desire other gay men.
479
00:35:44.350 --> 00:35:48.470
Well, it's a little known fact that gay Asian men
480
00:35:48.470 --> 00:35:51.860
generally don't desire other gay Asian men,
481
00:35:51.860 --> 00:35:55.863
especially Asians who were born in the West like me.
482
00:35:57.410 --> 00:36:00.790
However, it doesn't quite explain
483
00:36:00.790 --> 00:36:04.223
why to people who desire only Asians,
484
00:36:05.490 --> 00:36:08.610
these racial preferences exist,
485
00:36:08.610 --> 00:36:13.550
and there are popular slang terms
486
00:36:13.550 --> 00:36:15.173
to confirm this.
487
00:36:17.500 --> 00:36:20.993
Caucasians who like Asians are called rice queens,
488
00:36:23.340 --> 00:36:27.513
Asians who like Caucasians are called potato queens.
489
00:36:29.060 --> 00:36:33.423
and Asians who like Asians are called sticky rice queens.
490
00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:40.360
This photograph is in the exhibition
491
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:41.903
might be a different version,
492
00:36:44.410 --> 00:36:46.050
but they're the people
493
00:36:46.050 --> 00:36:49.143
from my Asian Lesbian and Pride Group,
494
00:36:50.237 --> 00:36:52.110
and we're at the Mardi Gras,
495
00:36:52.110 --> 00:36:57.110
and the Mardi Gras had already been going for 24 years
496
00:36:58.270 --> 00:37:01.150
before gay Asians
497
00:37:01.150 --> 00:37:03.380
made themselves
498
00:37:03.380 --> 00:37:05.743
visible as a group.
499
00:37:10.380 --> 00:37:12.000
They we're a bit nervous about it.
500
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.070
So their costumes are quite elaborate,
501
00:37:15.070 --> 00:37:18.210
and they've kind of covered themselves up,
502
00:37:18.210 --> 00:37:23.210
and they did a routine that they carefully rehearsed,
503
00:37:23.720 --> 00:37:25.713
was very elaborate as well,
504
00:37:26.600 --> 00:37:29.790
and they got all mixed up during the parade,
505
00:37:29.790 --> 00:37:31.760
doing this elaborate dance,
506
00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:35.230
when really things for the Mardi Gras
507
00:37:35.230 --> 00:37:37.230
should be bold and simple,
508
00:37:37.230 --> 00:37:40.730
but we didn't understand that at this time,
509
00:37:40.730 --> 00:37:43.163
'cause this is the first time they'd been there.
510
00:37:44.810 --> 00:37:48.043
So in 2002,
511
00:37:50.060 --> 00:37:54.293
Mardi Gras lost $400,000.
512
00:37:57.420 --> 00:38:01.180
There's no continuity with Mardi Gras
513
00:38:01.180 --> 00:38:04.320
members or committee.
514
00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:07.653
Every few years, there's a completely new committee,
515
00:38:08.660 --> 00:38:10.880
and managing a big budget festival
516
00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:13.533
requires skill and experience,
517
00:38:14.660 --> 00:38:18.960
but also Mardi Gras was suffering a midlife crisis.
518
00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:22.140
The original 78ers were getting older.
519
00:38:22.140 --> 00:38:25.483
and the younger generation didn't seem to be interested,
520
00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:29.023
but it managed to survive.
521
00:38:31.650 --> 00:38:34.510
There are no big budgets now.
522
00:38:34.510 --> 00:38:38.313
It's all no frills, user-paced.
523
00:38:42.650 --> 00:38:46.700
Equality has always been a big theme of the Mardi Gras,
524
00:38:46.700 --> 00:38:50.120
and this is a marriage rights,
525
00:38:50.120 --> 00:38:53.173
New South Wales in 2012,
526
00:38:54.520 --> 00:38:59.520
but now we have a surfeit of our own gay celebrities.
527
00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:02.473
Matthew Mitcham, the diver.
528
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:10.440
Mark Trevorrow, entertainer also known as Bob Downe,
529
00:39:12.550 --> 00:39:14.553
Ian Roberts, the footballer,
530
00:39:16.590 --> 00:39:18.923
and one year Lily Tomlin,
531
00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:22.420
the Hollywood actress was out here,
532
00:39:22.420 --> 00:39:25.853
and she had a float in the Mardi Gras.
533
00:39:26.750 --> 00:39:31.653
and Kylie Minogue is a great favourite with gay men,
534
00:39:34.520 --> 00:39:38.500
and now there's a new generation of younger lesbians
535
00:39:39.510 --> 00:39:41.483
who like Wonder Woman,
536
00:39:44.750 --> 00:39:48.313
and this photograph is also in the exhibition,
537
00:39:50.340 --> 00:39:51.363
called Girl Loving.
538
00:39:53.540 --> 00:39:55.860
Yeah, so it's a different kind of,
539
00:39:55.860 --> 00:39:59.523
it's a kind of glamorous version of lesbians.
540
00:40:01.670 --> 00:40:06.370
Here are the Fijian, the Fijian drag Queens,
541
00:40:06.370 --> 00:40:09.793
with the handmaidens in the background,
542
00:40:14.330 --> 00:40:18.863
transsexual Isaac Roberts and Lisa Parker.
543
00:40:24.260 --> 00:40:27.293
These are the popular villains of the day.
544
00:40:28.650 --> 00:40:31.273
Pauline Hanson on the left.
545
00:40:32.900 --> 00:40:35.013
Tony Stop the Boats Abbott,
546
00:40:36.150 --> 00:40:37.440
stop the floats
547
00:40:38.520 --> 00:40:39.963
Cardinal Pell.
548
00:40:41.990 --> 00:40:44.863
Think of the children, I am.
549
00:40:51.700 --> 00:40:54.410
I think Mardi Gras has become a marvellous,
550
00:40:54.410 --> 00:40:57.403
diverse, community affair,
551
00:40:58.370 --> 00:41:00.780
and I like the dark moments
552
00:41:03.580 --> 00:41:05.603
and the lighter ones too.
553
00:41:08.910 --> 00:41:12.930
Sydney gay men go into training so that their bodies peak
554
00:41:12.930 --> 00:41:14.613
on this one night of the year.
555
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:21.360
At the 40th anniversary,
556
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:26.360
Mardi Gras resurrected some favourite costumes from the past.
557
00:41:26.780 --> 00:41:30.240
Brenton Heath-Kerr's Gingham Girl,
558
00:41:30.240 --> 00:41:32.790
there's the sodomite jar,
559
00:41:32.790 --> 00:41:35.600
and the other two costumes are recreations
560
00:41:35.600 --> 00:41:38.373
of costumes that Peter Tully made,
561
00:41:41.440 --> 00:41:43.400
and for the 30th anniversary,
562
00:41:43.400 --> 00:41:47.130
they resurrected Vicki the Virus,
563
00:41:47.130 --> 00:41:50.200
a float from the late '80s
564
00:41:50.200 --> 00:41:53.973
when David McDiarmid was director of the parade.
565
00:41:56.660 --> 00:42:01.660
People living with HIV felt they had to personify the virus
566
00:42:01.890 --> 00:42:05.043
so that they could come to terms with it.
567
00:42:06.810 --> 00:42:11.810
So that's why they invented Vicky the Virus,
568
00:42:14.250 --> 00:42:18.260
and it reappeared at one of the anniversaries,
569
00:42:18.260 --> 00:42:20.773
13 years after David had died,
570
00:42:22.030 --> 00:42:25.320
and in 2014, there was a big retrospective
571
00:42:25.320 --> 00:42:29.800
of David's work at the National Gallery of Victoria.
572
00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:32.590
and it was curated by Sally Grey,
573
00:42:32.590 --> 00:42:35.903
who was also the executor of David's will.
574
00:42:37.490 --> 00:42:40.770
These anodized household appliances
575
00:42:40.770 --> 00:42:43.460
once belonged to Peter Tully,
576
00:42:43.460 --> 00:42:48.460
and David had instructed others to make them into totems.
577
00:42:48.500 --> 00:42:52.073
So Peter was represented at the exhibition as well,
578
00:42:55.970 --> 00:42:59.140
these were some of the fabric designs
579
00:42:59.140 --> 00:43:03.533
that David did for Linda Jackson's garments,
580
00:43:09.060 --> 00:43:11.050
and I used a lot of my photographs
581
00:43:11.050 --> 00:43:13.493
as background in one of the rooms,
582
00:43:18.610 --> 00:43:22.058
and this is one of David's work with Mylar,
583
00:43:22.058 --> 00:43:27.058
the reflective material which he used quite a lot.
584
00:43:29.040 --> 00:43:33.057
So Sally Grey also brought out a book,
585
00:43:33.057 --> 00:43:37.300
"Friends, Fashion & Fabulousness" about
586
00:43:37.300 --> 00:43:40.750
Jenny Kee, Linda Jackson,
587
00:43:40.750 --> 00:43:43.163
David McDiarmid and Peter Tully,
588
00:43:44.807 --> 00:43:48.880
"The Making of an Australian Style."
589
00:43:48.880 --> 00:43:51.943
So they have been acknowledged in that way,
590
00:43:55.880 --> 00:43:59.400
then in 2017,
591
00:43:59.400 --> 00:44:03.023
we had the same sex marriage postal survey.
592
00:44:06.150 --> 00:44:11.150
This was a GLBTI rally outside the town hall.
593
00:44:12.720 --> 00:44:15.580
I had never seen such a big crowd
594
00:44:15.580 --> 00:44:18.180
and this isn't all the full crowd
595
00:44:18.180 --> 00:44:22.793
because it's stretched around the block from this street,
596
00:44:24.940 --> 00:44:29.930
and then we all gathered at Prince Alfred Park
597
00:44:29.930 --> 00:44:33.423
in Sydney on the 15th of November, 2017,
598
00:44:35.050 --> 00:44:37.853
for the results of the survey.
599
00:44:38.800 --> 00:44:41.470
There was a bit of uncertainty,
600
00:44:41.470 --> 00:44:43.900
then came the announcement.
601
00:44:43.900 --> 00:44:48.400
Yes, 61.6%,
602
00:44:48.400 --> 00:44:52.560
no, 38.4%.
603
00:44:52.560 --> 00:44:53.873
We had won.
604
00:44:55.630 --> 00:44:58.390
Within seconds of the announcement ending,
605
00:44:58.390 --> 00:45:02.900
the producers pushed the real John Paul Young on stage
606
00:45:02.900 --> 00:45:05.080
and "Love Is In The Air" was played
607
00:45:05.080 --> 00:45:06.913
over the loud speakers.
608
00:45:07.870 --> 00:45:12.480
That's Karen Phelps and Jackie Stricker,
609
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:14.253
her wife on the right,
610
00:45:15.620 --> 00:45:20.620
and that's Magda Szubanski on the left, and I think,
611
00:45:21.270 --> 00:45:25.560
Magda Szubanski's interviews on television
612
00:45:26.830 --> 00:45:29.683
was actually this,
613
00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:34.730
one of the reasons why we won the vote.
614
00:45:34.730 --> 00:45:37.673
She was just so good at making our
615
00:45:41.190 --> 00:45:44.240
demands understandable, and of course,
616
00:45:44.240 --> 00:45:46.873
that's the real John Paul Young singing.
617
00:45:48.780 --> 00:45:51.350
High-profile lesbian couple
618
00:45:51.350 --> 00:45:55.710
Virginia Edwards and Christine Forster embraced
619
00:45:56.560 --> 00:45:59.270
while Irish activist
620
00:45:59.270 --> 00:46:02.380
Tiernan Brady gave a shoulder hug
621
00:46:02.380 --> 00:46:05.990
to Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO
622
00:46:05.990 --> 00:46:10.803
who had personally donated $1 million to the campaign.
623
00:46:13.007 --> 00:46:14.657
"Love Is In The Air,"
624
00:46:15.640 --> 00:46:17.270
the history of Sydney
625
00:46:17.270 --> 00:46:21.700
and Australia's gay community. and the Mardi Gras
626
00:46:21.700 --> 00:46:26.453
is an object lesson on how social change can occur.
627
00:46:27.330 --> 00:46:31.280
At first, there has to be protests and loud shouting
628
00:46:33.870 --> 00:46:35.883
to get our voices heard,
629
00:46:37.170 --> 00:46:41.820
then continued visibility in the media
630
00:46:41.820 --> 00:46:43.990
and in our daily lives
631
00:46:47.470 --> 00:46:50.880
eventually leads to acceptance.
632
00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:53.160
It takes a long time.
633
00:46:53.160 --> 00:46:56.550
It's 50 years since Stonewall,
634
00:46:56.550 --> 00:46:58.583
but change can occur.
635
00:47:00.600 --> 00:47:03.893
Yes, there is much to celebrate.
636
00:47:08.090 --> 00:47:08.923
Thank you.
637
00:47:11.002 --> 00:47:14.252
(audience applauding)
638
00:47:36.147 --> 00:47:38.170
Thank you so much, William,
639
00:47:38.170 --> 00:47:39.910
that was wonderful.
640
00:47:39.910 --> 00:47:41.920
We've had an outpouring of love,
641
00:47:41.920 --> 00:47:44.707
both on-site and online for that presentation.
642
00:47:44.707 --> 00:47:47.130
It was amazing.
643
00:47:47.130 --> 00:47:49.930
Did anyone in the audience have any questions
644
00:47:49.930 --> 00:47:51.300
that they'd like to ask William?
645
00:47:51.300 --> 00:47:52.740
We may be able to take maybe one
646
00:47:52.740 --> 00:47:54.563
or two before we finish today.
647
00:47:57.110 --> 00:47:57.943
One question.
648
00:47:59.620 --> 00:48:00.853
Hello, William.
649
00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:03.933
I think it's wonderful, the photos,
650
00:48:05.510 --> 00:48:07.280
over the years.
651
00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:08.540
How do you get around?
652
00:48:08.540 --> 00:48:10.480
I know this is sounds like a really boring question.
653
00:48:10.480 --> 00:48:12.073
How do you get around consent?
654
00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:17.960
Well, I can't ask everybody.
655
00:48:17.960 --> 00:48:19.023
I can ask,
656
00:48:21.370 --> 00:48:26.370
obvious, I can ask about obviously provocative photographs,
657
00:48:27.460 --> 00:48:31.003
and usually I don't have trouble with them,
658
00:48:35.400 --> 00:48:40.400
for example, there was a person called Rod Sydney who had
659
00:48:42.250 --> 00:48:47.250
pool parties or summer parties where a lot's going on,
660
00:48:47.820 --> 00:48:52.820
and I would consult with Rod, he knew everyone,
661
00:48:53.050 --> 00:48:57.290
to see who to leave out, for example, when I showed them,
662
00:48:57.290 --> 00:49:01.620
but I do get trouble and I think that if you show
663
00:49:01.620 --> 00:49:02.720
a lot of work
664
00:49:04.130 --> 00:49:07.300
about our communities, there are bound to be people
665
00:49:07.300 --> 00:49:11.400
who you don't, you can't reach,
666
00:49:11.400 --> 00:49:14.930
and so, if they complain,
667
00:49:14.930 --> 00:49:18.543
I'll just take the photo out, I don't mind doing that,
668
00:49:19.560 --> 00:49:22.790
but it's kinda something that you can't predict
669
00:49:22.790 --> 00:49:26.020
because it's always a surprise when some people
670
00:49:27.672 --> 00:49:29.603
say, how dare you,
671
00:49:32.460 --> 00:49:35.330
or all those kinds of things, they're usually not
672
00:49:36.720 --> 00:49:39.240
revealing photographs that you could say,
673
00:49:39.240 --> 00:49:42.080
oh, someone might have trouble with this,
674
00:49:42.080 --> 00:49:45.513
but generally, even from the beginning,
675
00:49:46.480 --> 00:49:48.240
well, there were two things happen at the beginning.
676
00:49:48.240 --> 00:49:50.143
Let's talk about the '80s,
677
00:49:52.130 --> 00:49:54.980
but a lot of people didn't want to be published
678
00:49:57.160 --> 00:50:00.193
because it was still,
679
00:50:04.240 --> 00:50:06.000
there were consequences to be,
680
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:10.153
to be paid if you, so if you were a teacher and you are out,
681
00:50:13.350 --> 00:50:16.210
so usually, I'd ask people then
682
00:50:16.210 --> 00:50:18.630
if I was going to put a photo up
683
00:50:18.630 --> 00:50:19.800
that said that that were gay,
684
00:50:19.800 --> 00:50:22.483
but now there's too many people,
685
00:50:24.130 --> 00:50:25.493
and now I think that,
686
00:50:31.420 --> 00:50:34.810
it's not such a big deal now
687
00:50:36.750 --> 00:50:39.300
for a person to be
688
00:50:39.300 --> 00:50:42.563
kind of gay in public,
689
00:50:43.480 --> 00:50:47.230
but yes, so the short answer to the question
690
00:50:47.230 --> 00:50:50.463
is it's too difficult to ask everyone,
691
00:50:53.880 --> 00:50:56.340
but I'm happy to delete things.
692
00:50:58.410 --> 00:50:59.243
Thank you, William.
693
00:50:59.243 --> 00:51:02.300
We did have one question from our online audience
694
00:51:02.300 --> 00:51:03.910
and that was from Marzia
695
00:51:03.910 --> 00:51:05.670
who would like to know what advice you have
696
00:51:05.670 --> 00:51:08.430
for younger photographers, documenting activism
697
00:51:08.430 --> 00:51:11.950
around the LGBTIQA+ movements,
698
00:51:11.950 --> 00:51:14.310
especially when they're from marginalised communities
699
00:51:14.310 --> 00:51:16.720
themselves and may not feel
700
00:51:16.720 --> 00:51:18.773
like they have a place in any community.
701
00:51:21.330 --> 00:51:24.510
Well, I could give them the advice
702
00:51:24.510 --> 00:51:27.436
that I give photographers rather than them,
703
00:51:27.436 --> 00:51:31.670
which is just keep taking photographs
704
00:51:31.670 --> 00:51:35.490
when you've got them, just keep taking your photographs,
705
00:51:35.490 --> 00:51:37.143
and eventually,
706
00:51:38.860 --> 00:51:40.520
you'll get better at it,
707
00:51:40.520 --> 00:51:43.510
and eventually a story will emerge
708
00:51:44.370 --> 00:51:46.620
from the photographs,
709
00:51:46.620 --> 00:51:49.370
and it's to do with your personal
710
00:51:50.670 --> 00:51:54.360
choices, 'cause you do have personal choices
711
00:51:54.360 --> 00:51:55.843
when you take a photograph,
712
00:51:56.890 --> 00:52:01.370
but I think it's important to get back to this question.
713
00:52:01.370 --> 00:52:03.990
I think it is important for people
714
00:52:03.990 --> 00:52:08.330
to document their own communities.
715
00:52:08.330 --> 00:52:11.060
In fact, that's exactly what I've done here
716
00:52:12.365 --> 00:52:16.123
is no one paid me to take those photographs,
717
00:52:17.603 --> 00:52:21.270
and in fact, a lot of people advise me
718
00:52:21.270 --> 00:52:25.210
not to waste my time with the gay community 'cause
719
00:52:26.850 --> 00:52:28.993
it's just a phase I'm going through.
720
00:52:36.455 --> 00:52:41.290
Being Chinese and gay community are two
721
00:52:41.290 --> 00:52:43.900
major themes in my work,
722
00:52:43.900 --> 00:52:45.040
and I think that
723
00:52:47.100 --> 00:52:52.100
people are more open to a display of these photographs
724
00:52:52.490 --> 00:52:56.370
than they were in the '70s and '80s when I first
725
00:52:57.570 --> 00:53:00.970
started showing photographs like this, in fact,
726
00:53:00.970 --> 00:53:03.373
I think there's been a lot of prejudice,
727
00:53:05.357 --> 00:53:09.487
because of this, in my work as a photographer,
728
00:53:11.190 --> 00:53:12.140
since then,
729
00:53:13.856 --> 00:53:16.650
and I think a lot of it
730
00:53:16.650 --> 00:53:20.540
has to do with the content, the gay content,
731
00:53:20.540 --> 00:53:23.940
although people probably wouldn't
732
00:53:23.940 --> 00:53:26.680
say that straight off.
733
00:53:26.680 --> 00:53:30.223
They wouldn't say, oh, don't do gay or something like that,
734
00:53:31.610 --> 00:53:35.323
but I think that now with marriage equality,
735
00:53:36.939 --> 00:53:38.163
there's probably more,
736
00:53:41.810 --> 00:53:44.690
people are more open
737
00:53:44.690 --> 00:53:49.690
to the idea of gay or something.
738
00:53:52.990 --> 00:53:55.203
Still, there are many,
739
00:53:58.782 --> 00:54:01.363
in short, not everybody embraces it.
740
00:54:04.700 --> 00:54:05.533
Thank you
741
00:54:05.533 --> 00:54:07.370
and we do have one final question
742
00:54:07.370 --> 00:54:11.070
from one of our Zoom members, Neil.
743
00:54:11.070 --> 00:54:13.620
Neil has attended just about every virtual programme
744
00:54:13.620 --> 00:54:14.453
that we've ever done,
745
00:54:14.453 --> 00:54:17.600
so we consider him one of the family.
746
00:54:17.600 --> 00:54:20.290
Neil was wondering if you thought the commodification
747
00:54:20.290 --> 00:54:22.930
of Mardi Gras pride has been a positive
748
00:54:22.930 --> 00:54:25.543
or a negative for the community and why?
749
00:54:27.980 --> 00:54:31.063
(Moderator laughing)
750
00:54:33.700 --> 00:54:38.570
Well on one hand, like the Mardi Gras got its own life,
751
00:54:38.570 --> 00:54:41.853
and it's gone in this direction and it's still alive,
752
00:54:46.898 --> 00:54:51.410
a lot of people, this is not exactly me, a lot of people
753
00:54:51.410 --> 00:54:54.473
would like it to be more grassroots,
754
00:55:03.230 --> 00:55:06.063
well, it just hasn't gone that way
755
00:55:07.030 --> 00:55:08.570
is all that I can say.
756
00:55:08.570 --> 00:55:11.053
So without even having a strong opinion,
757
00:55:14.040 --> 00:55:17.910
Mardi Gras is still going and I could say,
758
00:55:17.910 --> 00:55:22.330
I go to the parade, not every year, but occasionally,
759
00:55:22.330 --> 00:55:25.929
and it's quite vibrant.
760
00:55:25.929 --> 00:55:28.423
There's lots of young people there.
761
00:55:29.660 --> 00:55:33.220
They like young people as well,
762
00:55:33.220 --> 00:55:36.340
and it's quite a good experience,
763
00:55:36.340 --> 00:55:38.460
but it's not like it used to be,
764
00:55:38.460 --> 00:55:42.490
and probably, the world doesn't travel backwards.
765
00:55:42.490 --> 00:55:45.740
It always travels forward, and so
766
00:55:47.416 --> 00:55:49.923
I'm happy that it's still going.
767
00:55:54.860 --> 00:55:57.810
Thanks again, William, for a really wonderful
768
00:55:59.470 --> 00:56:01.490
cold Canberra afternoon
769
00:56:01.490 --> 00:56:04.910
and taking us seriously on a journey through your life.
770
00:56:04.910 --> 00:56:07.690
So it's been a privilege to be here
771
00:56:07.690 --> 00:56:12.690
and thanks to all of our on-site audience for coming in
772
00:56:13.290 --> 00:56:15.400
and just flagging that
773
00:56:16.430 --> 00:56:18.700
our next go at a hybrid event
774
00:56:18.700 --> 00:56:22.883
is on the launch weekend of our Living Memory,
775
00:56:24.380 --> 00:56:27.110
the photographic portrait prize event.
776
00:56:27.110 --> 00:56:29.380
So that's the last weekend,
777
00:56:29.380 --> 00:56:33.050
it's that weekend, end of July, beginning of August.
778
00:56:33.050 --> 00:56:37.170
So keep that in mind to perhaps come back again
779
00:56:37.170 --> 00:56:39.550
and please join me once again
780
00:56:39.550 --> 00:56:42.814
in thanking our wonderful speaker today, William Yang
781
00:56:42.814 --> 00:56:44.247
(audience applauding).
782
00:56:44.247 --> 00:56:45.247
Thank you.