Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 27 November
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Climate change is hitting some of us harder than others. For people with disability, it brings a unique set of potential impacts and consequences, from shelter and news accessibility during extreme weather events to sustainable housing and migration restrictions.
In this conversation, our panellists will discuss inclusion and access in the context of the climate crisis. Is the global climate justice movement adequately attuned to the varying needs of people with disability?
How can disabled writers and artists use storytelling to re-centre climate change discussion and strategy? And how might people with disability be especially well equipped to lead discussions of – and find solutions to – questions of climate adaptation, access and resilience, for themselves and for everybody?
Can't make it? This event will be live-streamed on this page. Sign up for reminders here.
Drinks available for purchase on the night.
Presented in partnership with The Other Film Festival & Arts Access Victoria with the support of City of Melbourne and Screen Australia.
This event will be Auslan interpreted and live-captioned.
Featuring
Andy Jackson
Andy Jackson is a poet and creative writing teacher and mentor, was awarded the inaugural Writing the Future of Health Fellowship, and is a Writers Victoria Patron. He has featured at literary events and arts festivals ...
Lefa Singleton Norton
Lefa Singleton Norton is a writer and creative producer. Her work centres on disability, feminism and motherhood.
View ProfileCB Mako
CB Mako is a non-fiction, fiction, and fan-fiction writer. Winner of the Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition, shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards – QUT Digital Literature Award, the Overland Fair Australia Prize, and longlisted for the inaugural Liminal Fiction Prize, cubbie has been published in the Suburban Review, The Lifted Brow, Mascara Literary Review, Peril Magazine, The Victorian Writer, Djed Press and Overland.
cubbie has performed as artist and panelist at Emerging Writers' Festival, Digital Writers Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, and Melbourne Writers Festival. cubbie's works will be in the Liminal Fiction Prize Anthology (Brow Books, 2020) and Growing Up Disabled in Australia (Black Inc. Books, 2020).
Carly Findlay
Carly Findlay OAM is an award-winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. Her first book, a memoir called Say Hello, was released in January 2019.
Carly edited the anthology Growing Up Disabled in Australia with Black Inc Books. It’s in stores now.
She writes on disability and appearance diversity issues for news outlets including CNN, Vogue, ABC, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and SBS.
In 2022, Carly provided a testimony at the Disability Royal Commission, speaking about abuse in public spaces. In 2020, Carly Findlay received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her work as a disability advocate and activist.
In 2021, Carly received The Victoria Award for Excellence in Women's Leadership. She was named one of Australia’s most influential women in the 2014 Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. She has appeared on ABC TV’s You Can’t Ask That and Cyberhate with Tara Moss, The Project, The CookUp, Studio 10 and The Drum, and has been a regular on various ABC radio programs.
She has spoken at the Melbourne Writers Festival, the University of Western England, Ubud Writers Festival, The Australian Centre for Moving Image and Melbourne University – to name a few. She organised the history-making Access to Fashion in 2018 – a Melbourne Fashion Week event featuring disabled models. She has a Masters of Communication and Bachelor of eCommerce.
Carly identifies as a proud disabled woman – she lives with a rare, severe skin condition, ichthyosis.
View ProfileFiona Tuomy
Fiona Tuomy is an inclusive storytelling specialist – an award-winning screenwriter, director, producer and developer working across storytelling genres and platforms. A graduate of AFTRS, where she made a series of celebrated short films with fellow students including Samantha Lang, Tony McNamara and Warwick Thornton. A creative collaborator with the late Brad McGann, Fiona worked closely with him on the development of his internationally award-winning feature film In My Father’s Den. Fiona is writer and director of the acclaimed ABC TV documentary Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip and to research this project received a Creative Fellowship from State Library Victoria.
As well as being a creative practitioner, Fiona has worked in leadership and education roles across the screen, arts, literary and disability sectors. In 2012 Fiona was employed by Arts Access Victoria to establish the landmark Write-ability – writers with disability program in partnership with Writers Victoria. Over a five-year period, Fiona’s ongoing work on this program has established her as a leader in the design and delivery of disability-led arts programs.
Currently Fiona is Artistic Director of The Other Film Festival – Australia’s first international disability film festival and an Industry Tutor for the RMIT Bachelor of Creative Writing program. Buoyed by her participation in Screen Australia’s Seeing Ourselves: Developing the Developer initiative, Fiona is developing a bold slate of disability-led screen and digital projects. In May 2019 Fiona was appointed to a new Advisory Group, which will help shape the Victorian Government’s strategy and investment in the creative industries from 2020.