JESS FAIRFAX

Queering the Collection, a powerful audio and photographic project that uncovers hidden stories and celebrates the invaluable contributions of Australian LGBTIQA+ artists and performers.

Led by Tristan Meecham of All The Queens Men, the series explores the way collections and archives act as vehicles for storytelling, memory, and the preservation of complex and varied narratives.

Featuring interviews with Janet Anderson, Robyn Archer AO, Colin Batrouney, Caroline Bowditch, Maude Davey OAM, Ben Graetz, Stephen Nicolazzo, Uncle Noel Tovey AM and Christos Tsiolkas, the project has been inspired by culturally significant items from the Australian Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne and The Australian Queer Archives.

Werribee South is a suburb in Melbourne’s South-West. Thanks to 3000 acres of productive market gardens, the area has provided Melbourne with a secure source of fresh vegetables ever since the early 1900’s.

But as an affordable housing crisis weighs on an area becoming increasingly characterised by new housing estates, how viable is the future of these market gardens? And as the older houses of Werribee are flattened, the land subdivided and houses and units built to the boundaries, are we in danger of forgetting our history and the memories entwined in roots of fallen fruit trees?

An audio documentary, calling for a green recovery post-COVID

Within this documentary you will hear from researchers, farmers and representatives from unions, investor groups and worker cooperatives about the environmental, social and economic impact of climate change and the solutions at hand.

In Ethiopia, Tizita is a style of music that translates to nostalgia. The lyrics draw on childhood memories, lost loves and land, sparking imagery and shared memories that get to the essence of what it is to be Ethiopian.

From the yearning cry of the Pontian Lyra, to Indigenous Australia songlines, Tongan Manatu, folk and blues, this is a journey into the songs of nostalgia, their importance and what happens when we can't hear our own Tizita. 

Commissioned by Monash University and RMIT Creative Unit and funded by the City of Melbourne, the project gathered the stories of Melbournians throughout the Emerging Writers Festival through interviews with the general public. The stories were featured as part of a five-part podcast series, covering themes of love, belonging, family, passion and place.
 

To those I have loved, I know there were many times that we suffered, suffocated, felt the stabs of unnecessary pain and pinned self-loaded expectations onto each other. We fell apart, and this piece was made in an attempt to understand why.