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Disabled and proud Larissa MacFarlane acquired a brain injury 24 years ago, which she said allowed her to become the artist she is today. “I had a brain injury which literally changed my brain, I had to learn how to talk and walk and through that I also became an artist, which I had never done before,” she said. MacFarlane showed her most recent art in an exhibition at the Sunshine Arts Space. The exhibition titled ‘Practising our pride, remembering our ancestors’, featured a series of framed lino cuts. “Through this exhibition I am trying to find new ways to practise disability pride and one of those ways has been looking at disability rights history,” she said. “I have made portraits of some of our disabled ancestors who have died recently, all who have made massive contributions to the rights and the lives of disabled people in Australia and beyond.” July is Disability Pride Month, which is of great significance for MacFarlane. “My work over the years has explored disability pride and trying to change the ways we see people with disabilities through a negative lens. I am trying to re frame that in line with the social model of disability,” she said.
Larissa MacFarlane with her exhibition. (Damjan Janevski) 345205_04
Unscripted question call By Hannah Hammoud A Brimbank councillor wants council to establish a regular public forum to allow the community to ask live, unscripted questions of council. Councillor Maria Kerr will raise the idea as a notice of motion during Tuesday’s council meeting. Cr Kerr said introducing a regular public forum would promote “transparency” and allow the community to hold representatives to account.
“It’s now up to each individual councillor to decide if they support transparency and accountability,” she said. “I would be happy to put myself in front of any resident and answer any questions they might have.” Cr Kerr said she has been overwhelmed by the amount of support she has received from the community in regards to the motion. “The reason why I’m putting up this motion is because I want to give the community a voice and I myself want to put myself forward to be scrutinised,” she said. “This forum is for the
community to hold us to account because at the end of the day they pay our wage.” Cr Kerr said Monee Valley council hosts a public forum once a month. The Moonee Valley council website states that the public forums take place in a less formal setting than council meetings and provide another opportunity for residents to play a role in civic matters. Moonee Valley council allows residents to raise questions directly and without notice, unlike council meetings where questions must be submitted beforehand and are read aloud by
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council on behalf of the resident. At the previous Brimbank council meeting held on June 20, the meeting was adjourned for 15 minutes as multiple residents seated in the public gallery continued to shout in protest of the draft LGBTQIA+ Action Plan. Cr Kerr said there is currently no mechanism which allows residents to directly engage with council representatives. “People are frustrated and upset. The community isn’t able to ask us questions directly and we also aren’t able to answer their questions … this isn’t in the spirit of democracy,” she said.
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