In 2019 the Museum was questioned about its holdings of material related to LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, plus) people, places, and stories. After a thorough collection survey, the answer was…almost nothing. Further research revealed there is little representation of LGBTQIA+ stories in regional museum collections across Australia.

The Museum recognised a failure to fulfil this mission and wants to challenge the perpetuation of heteronormative centred ways of knowing and being within its collections. The idea for Small Town Queer was born, to explore and collect queer history and stories from the Tweed, along with the challenge for Tweed Regional Museum to undergo a ‘queering’ of its policies, museological practices and collections. Small Town Queer offers the opportunity to work collaboratively on the ways in which Tweed Regional Museum can establish a practice of collecting, preserving and making accessible the history, stories and material culture of local LGBTIQA+ people.

Small Town Queer Online Exhibition

Small Town Queer Playlist

Interview Recorded: Murwillumbah, November 2020.

Image: Murwillumbah Museum (Tweed Regional Museum Collection).\

Music: Coffee & Conversation 2020 Podcast.co Example Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leonie Dickinson works in vocational education and training, dividing her time between the Tweed and the Northern Territory, where she specialises in working with Aboriginal people from remote communities. Before moving to the Tweed Coast from Melbourne in 2004, Leonie studied at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in the late 1980s. Leonie became a Film Director and Digital Content Producer and was the first female in the audio department at Chanel Seven in Melbourne. In 2017, Leonie created an inclusive, online community of lesbian and dyke campers, which currently boasts almost 2500 members!

Small Town Queer Online Exhibition

Small Town Queer Playlist

Interview Recorded: Murwillumbah, January 2021.

Image: Leonie (Courtesy of Leonie Dickinson).

Music: Coffee & Conversation 2020 Podcast.co Example Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ian Teacosy Gray is a historian and curator, activist, Radical Faerie and a ‘78er’, having marched in the first Mardi Gras in Sydney. Teacosy moved the Northern Rivers in the mid-1970s, which he considers his tribal and spiritual home. Ian has helped to found many Northern Rivers community and social groups, including the Radical Oz Faeries, Tropical Fruits and more recently the Older Lesbian & Gay Association which is a queer elder’s support group. Teacosy is also a community historian, having co-created the Tropical Fruits Queer History Project and the Northern Rivers Queer History Project with his long-time friend, Peter Mitchell. And In 2017, Teacosy curated the exhibition ‘Lismore Has a Diverse Past’, shown at Southern Cross University.

Small Town Queer Online Exhibition

Small Town Queer Playlist

Interview Recorded: Murwillumbah, November 2020.

Image: Teacosy(Courtesy of Ian Gray).

Music: Coffee & Conversation 2020 Podcast.co Example Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.