Attending Meeting Place - Australia’s annual forum for arts, culture and disability - has been an incredible experience. I got to speak on two panels talking about my solo show Happy-Go-Wrong and my life as a performer/theatre-maker living with chronic illness, as well as run a very special workshop as part of the Crip The Stage program, curated by powerhouse performer and disability activist, Hanna Cormick. Of course, I also met and networked with loads of other extraordinary artists and arts workers from all around Australia, and attended many other panels, workshops, exhibitions and events.

It was particularly poignant spending International Day of People with Disability running a workshop on Performative Metaphor as a tool to make visible the invisible: Let’s Get Visible using Performative Metaphor. All the participants gave of themselves generously and threw themselves into play with my reams of brown paper from my show Happy-Go-Wrong. Together, we invented some powerful metaphors for some of our deepest inner secrets around our varying disability experiences. It was super messy fun!

On the final evening, I was lucky to attend the inaugural National Arts and Disability Awards by Australia Council at the National Gallery of Australia.

I am grateful to Arts Access Australia for awarding me a Travel Grant which enabled me to attend and I hope to attend more Meeting Places in the future.