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speakers 9
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TAMARA TONITE
- Participated in Ideas at the Powerhouse session:
- Late Night
Ideas - 'under the spell of heterosexual christianity'
- 9pm, Friday, August 17
Drag Queen and aspiring politician, Tamara Tonite has
stood as an independent candidate in Queensland state
and local elections on a platform of human rights. In
the most recent state government election, Tonite contested
the seat of Brisbane Central and attracting 4% of the
vote, she polled fourth in a field of nine candidates.
She is also the public face of the Endeavour Foundation's
annual fundraiser, The Frocky Horror Sale. About her
commitments to politics and charity, Tonite says "this
is one Drag Queen who definitely does not mime, she
speaks."
As an advocate for human rights, Tonite proclaims,
"it's not a matter for debate, it is a fact of
life. It's not a decision to be made, but something
that just has to be done, without question. Every person
on this earth deserves to be treated no better, and
certainly no less than any other person, for any reason
at any time." She supports law reform for transgender
rights, modification of the Anti-Discrimination Act
to acknowledge transgender rights, the right of women
to access fertility clinics regardless of martial status
or sexual preference and voluntary euthanasia.
During her election campaign, Tonite argued that it
is currently legal for transgender people to be discriminated
against. "transgenders have no rights. They are
not covered by the Anti-Discrimination Act at all. They
can be legally denied housing, access to transport,
finance, food, services and even service in a restaurant,
and there is not a damn thing they can do except walk
away. What sort of government would allow this situation
to continue beyond right now? What sort of government
would even dare to raise one more issue, or even discuss
an election before changing this situation? Not with
a vote, or a majority rule, or any other manner of making
a decision. It just should be done, no arguments, no
fors and againsts, no agreements. All people must be
afforded the same rights."
Tonite has worked continuously in Brisbane as a Drag
Queen since 1994. She started her career with Joanies
Follies. When that closed, Tonite left mainstream drag
and the pub circuit to start her own business called
Dial a Drag Queen.
Tonite hosts a chat show on community television and
Tamara Tonite is the highest rating show on Briz31,
attracting an audience of over 100,000 viewers during
its 238 episode run.
Visit Tamara Tonite's website at http://www.drag.com.au
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Zane Trow
- Participated in Ideas at the Powerhouse session:
- Is this the
comfort zone?
- 5pm, Friday, August 17
Zane Trow, Artistic Director, Composer/Performer,
Sound Artist and Engineer of the Imagination.
Trow was born in London in 1956. He started at Brisbane
Powerhouse, Centre for Live Arts as Artistic Director
in May 1999. He left school to be an artist, but dropped
out of fine art-school to study experimental music composition.
Trow has been professionally involved in the contemporary
live arts since the mid-1970s. His work spans creative
development, performance art, sound installation and
musical composition for dance, theatre, visual arts
and film, contemporary performance direction, community
arts, critical writing, arts consultancy and project
management services, arts organisation, festival and
event artistic direction, arts management training and
cultural policy activism. He has studied percussion
in India and toured multi-media art and performance
to Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
His early performance and creative career in the United
Kingdom included work with leading contemporary performance
groups- Pains Plough, Joint Stock, Welfare State, Theatre
Royal Stratford East, LIFT (London International Festival
of Theatre), Oval House, The Place and Chapter Arts
to name but a few. For most of the 80s he worked as
a composer-in-residence and Assistant Director with
Common Stock Theatre Company, one of the first professional
community theatre companies in the United Kingdom consistently
working with visual and physical theatre forms.
Trow arrived in Australia in 1989 when he became CEO
and Centre Director of Footscray Community Arts Centre,
one of Australia's largest and most respected community
arts centres that is perhaps best known further afield
for its multicultural arts, community theatre and Women's
Circus. In 1991 he was appointed CEO and Artistic Director
of Melbourne's Next Wave Festival. This biennial festival
designed for young contemporary artists has a national
and international reputation for innovation performance,
visual arts and arts technology. In 1997, he became
the Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of
the Performance Space in Sydney, which is highly regarded
nationally and internationally for work in contemporary
multi-media and performing arts.
Recent electronic sound and music includes installations
for the Centre for Contemporary Photography and the
Melbourne International Arts Festival, digital synthesisers
for George Telek (an ARIA award winning CD), sound art
for the ABC "Listening Room" and voice compositions
for theatre. He is currently working with Andy Arthurs,
Head of Music QUT on a long-term, large scale sound
installation/ performance project.
In Australia, Trow has played an active role on boards
and committees, most notably Contemporary Music Events
Company (Chair), Australia Council for the Arts' National
Youth Arts Festival Committee (member), City of Melbourne
Cultural Advisory Board (member), Arts Victoria Multi-Arts
Organisations and Festivals (Grant Committee), Victorian
Arts Industry Training Board, the National Board of
the Australian Network for Art & Technology and
currently the Board of Multimedia Arts Asia Pacific
(MAAP). He has recently been appointed as the Inaugural
Chair of the Queensland University of Technology Creative
Industries Advisory Council.
Published writing includes RealTime, Artworks, Westspace,
Dance Life, Westspace Dialogue and Australasian Drama
Studies.
Generally Trow likes lime pickle (he makes his own),
vodka, travel, minimalism, conceptual art, circus, Joseph
Beuys, Jorge Luis Borges, Maya Deren, Meredith Monk,
Kathskall Dance/Drama, Robert Wyatt, early surrealist
film and the www. He does not like performances where
the Thespians standing (or even sitting and occasionally
moving about) on stage do nothing but talk; nor does
he like parochialism, colonialism, racism and sexism.
Often all these dislikes seem to be related in some
twisted way.
To relax: he stops shaving. He is not (as of '99)
an Australian Citizen (not a consumer) and continues
to hold a European Union passport as well. His favourite
joke is: What do you get when you cross a Performance
Artist with a Mafia boss? An offer you can't understand.
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HAUNANI-KAY TRASK
- Participated in Ideas at the Powerhouse session:
- 'We are
not happy Natives'
- 3.30pm, Thursday, August 16
See the online
transcript of the session
Haunani-Kay Trask is descended of the Pi'ilani line
of Maui and the Kahahumakaliua line of Kaua'i. She is
an Hawaiian scholar and activist for Hawaiian sovereignty
and is a founding and leading member of Ka Lahui Hawai'i,
the largest sovereignty organisation in Hawai'i.
She has represented Hawai'i's indigenous people at
the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples
in Geneva, and at numerous Indigenous gatherings in
Samiland(Norway), Aoterea (New Zealand) and Indian nations
throughout the United States and Canada. She is reported
to be a 'riveting and powerful' speaker when addressing
Indigenous human rights and sovereignty. "No matter
what most Americans believe, most of us in the colonies
do not feel grateful that our country was stolen, along
with our citizenship, our lands, and our independent
place among the family of nations."
Dr. Haunani Kay-Trask holds a Ph.D degree in political
science from the University of Wisconsin. Presently
Professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i,
she served for ten years as the Director of the University
of Hawai'i's Center for Hawaiian Studies. As a writer,
feminist and scholar, Trask has published across several
genres, political theory, essays and poetry. The author
of numerous articles, published throughout the world
on self-determination struggle of Hawai'i's indigenous
people, she has also published three books, including:
on political theory Eros and Power; a white paper for
the Office of Women in International Development, Fighting
the battle of double colonisation; an anthology of poetry,
Light in the Crevice Never Seen; and an anthology of
essays, From a Native Daughter. As well, she co-produced
the award winning documentary, Act of War: Overthrow
of the Hawaiian Nation.
Recipient of Islander of the Year Award, Honolulu
Magazine.
An essay about the economic and cultural impact of
tourism in Hawai'i is published online. http://www.abc.net.au/global/culture/culture_trask.htm
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ELAINE WAINWRIGHT
- Participated in Ideas at the Powerhouse session:
- 'Can we Free
ourselves?'
- 7pm, Saturday, August 18
Hear audio
highlights from the session
Dr Elaine Wainwright is a theologian, feminist, author
and Sister of Mercy. She has published several feminist
readings of biblical scriptures including, A Feminist
Critical Reading of the Gospel According to Matthew
and Shall We Look for Another? A Feminist Reading of
the Matthean Jesus. In analysing biblical texts, Wainwright
examines storytelling from a feminist perspective, stating
that the experience and inclusion of women in religion
is a matter of great importance. "How we tell the
stories of that past, whether classical stories or those
within Christianity which travelled the world with Graeco-Roman
culture, particularly in relation to the earth and women,
will shape our ideas as well as our practices into the
future." Storytelling can be about the values and
ideas we wish to carry into our future.
Having been raised on the Darling Downs, Wainwright
lives in Brisbane and is developing a growing concern
for the plight of the earth as well as the human community.
Currently, her research is geared towards gender analyses
of healing in the ancient world. In particular, this
research is focused on "women and the earth, and
the interconnectedness of ideas and values surrounding
these two areas." The research addresses the body
and the earth as intrinsic in an ecological perspective.
Canvassing historical and current trends in health care
including technologised and alternative therapeutic
practices, Wainwright explores the nexus of gender-body-earth.
The objective of this research is to retell our stories
so as to inform an enduring shift in the control of
ideas in health care.
A lecturer in biblical studies and feminist theology
at the Brisbane College of Theology, she is also Adjunct
Fellow at Griffith University and the American Catholic
Biblical Association Visiting Professor at the Ecole
Biblique et Archaeologique Francaise in Jerusalem. In
1993/94 she was a visiting professor at Harvard University
Divinity School in Boston and holds a Doctorate from
the University of Queensland. She has lectured both
academically and to a more popular audience in Australia
and internationally. Wainwright is in regular attendance
at the Society for Biblical Literature and American
Academy of Religion meetings in the United States. She
contributes regularly to academic journals in her area
of expertise as well as to anthologies of essays.
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DENIS WALKER
- Participated in Ideas at the Powerhouse session:
- 'If good
people choose to do nothing'
- 12pm, Sunday, August 19
Denis Walker is Bejam Kunmunara Jarlow Nunukel Kabool,
son of Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal, Custodian of
the land Minjerriba from Moongalba via Goompi, Minjerriba,
Quandamooka.
Bejam is carrying on the work of his mother Oodgeroo
of the tribe Noonuccal, custodian of the land Minjerriba
and one of Australia's most famous writer and poet.
She was also a key figure in national Aboriginal movements
of last century. Oodgeroo established Moongalba as an
education and cultural centre where she shared her culture
with many non-Aboriginal people including an estimated
30,000 school students. Today Moongalba is Oodgeroos
final resting place.
One of Oodgeroo's poems 'Son of Mine' was written to
and for her eldest son Bejam. The poem foresees a time
when the "lives of black and white entwine".
In keeping with this and Oodgeroo's "Dont hate,
educate!" philosophy, Bejam established the "Oodgeroo
of the tribe Noonuccal, custodian of the land Minjerriba,
peace, prosperity and healing, Sacred TREATY Circles".
In response to Aboriginal deaths in custody, Bejam was
a driving force in the development of the cultural heritage
education program which began in Boggo Road Gaol. He
asserts that the treaty process is the next step of
the struggle for survival, not just for Aboriginal Australia
but for all people.
He is an activist, writer and community worker in Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations.
He has played an active and significant role in the
development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
services both locally and nationally since the 1970s.
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