Power, Play in the Archives: doing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender histories

On Monday evening, 13 July, the John Oxley Library hosted Power, play in the achives: doing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender histories.

This event was coordinated by the LGBT History Project - an initiative of the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities with the support of the Museum of Brisbane and the State Library of Queensland.

50 people attended to hear 4 diverse speakers present a range of issues involved in collecting, researching and presenting LGBT histories.

Jenny Scott discussed the State Library of South Australia's "South Australia Memory Radical Dream" website and her activism and advocacy for LGBT visibility in the public archives.

Esther Singer, Vice President of the Australian Gay and Lesbian Archives based in Melbourne shared some of their collection and the issues for this 30 year old community run archive. This collection is of national significance and has supported much research and writing of the topic of LGBT history.

Dr Yorick Smaal, local gay historian, identified the issue of delving into archives when so little is on the record concerning LGBT lives.  Working with what is there (it has been largely the legal record), and 'reading against the grain' is the challenge.

Finally E. G. Crichton artist-in-residence with GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco spoke. E. G. Crichton is Associate Professor of Art at the University of California Santa Cruz and shared with us the collaborative work she developed titled "Lineage: matchmaking in the archive."

The event is part of a larger commitment to profiling and collecting LGBT stories as part of Queensland Memory.