CONVERSATIONS

QVWC and Mother Tounge joined forces to curate a lineup of some of Melbourne's most inspiring voices for Melbourne Fringe Festival 2024. Five passionate poets, including Fleassy Malay, and Sevgi Boga, will take the stage, sharing their lived experience while you soak up the magic, leaving you inspired and energised. Meet one of the young performers Teagan Webb.

Meet renowned photographer Ruth Maddison. Ruth is one of Australia’s foremost photographers. For 48 years Maddison has been exploring ideas surrounding relationships, working lives, and communities through portraiture and social documentary photography.

Barbara Wheeler is a cultural heritage management specialist and a fibre and textile artist. Her multidisciplinary approach delivers heritage projects that resonate with community values and integrity.

Miles Franklin–winning Goorie author Melissa Lucashenko discusses her epic and heartrending work of historical fiction Edenglassie.

Emma Stenhouse is a proud Ngarrindjeri woman and a contemporary indigenous artist on a journey of self discovery, deepening her connection with her family, exploring her heritage, and inspired by her love of Country.

Meet Fleassy Malay one of the artists who has work in the WOMEN* NOW exhibition. Fleassy is a writer, spoken word artist, illustrator and wearable art jewellery designer.

It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Ann Soo Lawrence talks to us about her journey of diagnosis and recovery from early breast cancer. Ann is currently exhibiting her artwork at QVWC and it was through setting up her exhibition at the QVWC that our programming coordinator Piper Huynh connected Ann to Counterpart one of our tenants here at QVWC who support women going through Breast Cancer.

Eliza Hull is a musician, writer and disability advocate based in country Victoria. Her most recent book Come Over To My House (co-written by Sally Rippen) is a children’s book exploring the wide spectrum of disabilities in families and is a great way to introduce disability to young children.

Roz Campbell is the founder of Tsuno, a social enterprise supplying bamboo fibre pads and organic cotton tampons, which donates 50% of profits to charities empowering women and girls living in poverty.

Emily Somers is the founder of Bravery Co., a motivational speaker, an Art Director, coffee addict, a beach lover and a Mum. She founded Bravery Co. after her second stint with cancer after struggling to find any cool cancer headwear.

Fatima Yousufi is a 21-year-old soccer player who honed her skills on the field as a member of Afghanistan's Women's National Soccer Team before having to flee the Taliban in 2021.

Tamala started acting as a teenager and starred in shows such as Upper Middle Bogan, Nowhere Boys and Cleverman. She has since been recording a multitude of First Nations audiobooks and is the host of Storybox Library.

Author of multiple books, Jane Bennett founded Celebration Day for Girls and the Chalice Foundation to continue to share her wisdom on menstruation. Her daughter, Freya Bennett, founder of Ramona Magazine was excited to sit down and chat with her about her lifetime of experience learning and teaching the menstrual cycle. 

At 26 years old, Kgshak Akec is a passionate and dedicated writer, poet, and lover of words. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Creative Writing at Deakin University, and is also an artist in residence at Somebody's Daughter Theatre Company in Melbourne. 

The Queen Victoria Women's Centre will unveil Creative Resilience as part of YIRRAMBOI Festival in early May, we chatted with Janet Bromley from the collective to see how the project is going.

Yan Tang So moved from Guangdong, China to Australia in 1993. Though she was a trained textiles teacher, Yan found it challenging to find work when she arrived. It wasn’t until 2020 that Yan began working at Second Stitch, a textile training centre and production studio in Melbourne, which aims to empower women from diverse backgrounds, both economically and socially.

Vanessa is a sexologist and the founder of Mia Muse, a sex and wellness platform for women. She is also the author of Big Pussy Energy, a deck of cards filled with wisdom and rituals to connect people to their fierce femme power.

The QVWC has commissioned Ngardang Girri Kalat Mimini (NGKM), to create a public artwork. NGKM is a collective of First Nations women and trans diverse artists from across Victoria. The artwork will commemorate and celebrate stories of Aboriginal women artists from South-Eastern Australia and is funded through the Victorian Women’s Public Art program with Regional Arts Victoria.

NGKM’s lead artist Georgia Macguire will be collaborating on Creative Resilience with Lorraine Brigdale, Annie Brigdale, Janet Bromley, Trina Dunstan-Oogjes and Glenda Nicholls. Georgia is a First Nations Creative living on Djandak. In addition to various awards and scholarships, she was the 2013 recipient of the CAL Victorian Indigenous Art Award for three dimensional works and won the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards People’s Choice prize. Georgia is a founder of NGKM and produces art under the pseudonym Blackgin.

Zoë Condliffe is a data activist, gender advocate, researcher and Founder & CEO of She’s A Crowd, the world’s largest database of gender-based street harassment. She’s worked in gender and youth advocacy for Plan International Australia, where she pioneered digital crowdmapping, Free To Be, the Youth Activist Series and Girls’ Walks. From there she started She’s A Crowd, leveraging the power of storytelling to address gender-based violence in public spaces.

Meet our Resident Organisations: CASA House

Meet our intern, Jordan Brebner. Jordan has been studying International Studies at RMIT & is working with the team until the early June.

QVWC is excited to be working with Melbourne Recital Centre on a new cultural community partnership. We speak to Latoyah Forsyth & Jessie Upton to learn more about what participants can expect.

Jessamy Gleeson sat down to have a chat with Molly George from the YWCA board. Read her interview and find out more about the work of YWCA.

Pony Club is a gym for everyone, but it’s also a queer-owned gym. It's a gym that believes all people deserve to have access to strength, fitness and well being, regardless of who they are, how they live or what they believe.
Read her interview with Jessamy Gleeson.

CW/TW: reference to domestic abuse.

This is a story of bravery and we thank Mogana for sharing her story with us. Mogana is a 37-year-old mother of three. Her life has been full of obstacles and hardships, but she is eager to make a positive difference in her life. She is the personification of courage and endurance. She is a victim of family violence She is sharing her true-life experience to encourage people to be optimistic in the face of adversity.

As we wrap up a week in the dreaded lockdown we are also reflecting on last week being National Reconciliation Week 2021. Read Jessamy Gleeson’s article on Reconciliation Week, and ways we can each take the take the time to learn, and action, some steps towards allyship.

Amy is a Melbourne-based journalist and founding publisher of Archer Magazine. Archer is an award-winning print publication about sexuality, gender and identity. Amy talks to use about juggling the load during these wild times.

Alice Bellette is a proud descendant of the Palawa people - the first peoples of Tasmania. In between completing her PHD Alice is a zine maker, a music maker, a poet.