In January I had the surprise of being awarded the honour of Ballarat Citizen of the Year for 2023. I’m excited that this means I have the opportunity to talk about some of my community projects and how people can be involved with them because that’s the whole point of my projects: building community.
While I’m involved in several community groups/projects, the two that most of my time goes into are the Ballarat Tweed Ride and Ballarat National Theatre.
I’ve been part of BNT since around 2016 when my old drama teacher got me involved. I joined the board in 2020 after being encouraged to apply. Being on the board has given me great access to a range of ways to contribute to the company, but we have wonderful volunteers who contribute in more specific ways like assisting with front-of-house duties at shows and at Monologue Karaoke, as well as volunteering on our Programming Committee, who help us review submissions for upcoming seasons. There are a whole range of ways people can be involved.
BNT has been around since 1938 so it has a long history and a multi-generational community that has contributed to its story.
Some of my volunteer work with BNT has included the establishment of Monologue Karaoke through our friends at Volta, which has made regular theatre accessible and given a space for the BNT community to connect outside of a theatre show. Monologue Karaoke is like karaoke, but for theatre. Attendees can get up on stage with a rehearsed or impromptu performance, keep audition pieces fresh, collaborate with other performers and most importantly, experience the joy of being on stage. It’s a low-pressure environment and a great way to make theatre friends.
I have also led several internal administrative projects that have enabled BNT to digitise company processes such as the membership management system which has gone from being a paper form to an online portal. This was a challenging process that required lots of consideration for the varying needs of our membership, many of whom are not technology literate, and as part of the research into this change, I worked to enable BNT to discuss the process in depth with a fellow regional theatre company, Bendigo Theatre Company (BTC), who had previously gone through the same process.
I championed the digital archiving of our many years of photography. This is an amazing ongoing process which I’m still fascinated by, probably due to my history major. The company has been around since 1938, so plenty of the images are still not digitized. The platform I settled on after researching options was Flickr. I then showed how to use it to a fellow board member and volunteer, Robyn, who has been gradually scanning and uploading the old print copies of photos. While she does that, I upload any new imagery we make, so we’re working from both ends of the company’s life. Our history is such an important thing to document and future-proof, as well as to make accessible (I’ve been helping to make them publicly available on our website where we can, alongside as many historic newspaper articles I’ve been able to access through Trove, etc). Last year I used those archives to create a calendar fundraiser, with the support of a local printing company which members were able to purchase and have delivered directly to them once it was printed.
Further fundraising efforts have seen us raise some funds with the Jane Austen High Tea last year, as well as successfully applying for a $1000 grant for community groups from Metricon. The calendar and the high tea I’d love to make annual activities because they also help people feel connected to the company and its story. The high tea is also a way for those who the Jane Austen podcasts have reached to translate that connection they feel into a real-world, in-person experience. This last high tea had wonderful fans travel from as far away as Beechworth and Newcastle.
During the pandemic, I directed our now internationally known Pride and Prejudice Podcast, working with co-creator and BAF Alumna Olivia French and a collective of local, and regional actors and theatre makers. The project was shortlisted as an honouree in the Webby Awards and the following it established has enabled BNT to create opportunities for further accessible audio productions.
During the production of the P&P Podcast, I researched and established the theatre company an online merchandise store that provides a small passive income stream for us, which was essential during periods of lockdown to contribute to the payment of the ongoing overhead costs for running the company. This year I’m excited about several more community arts projects with BNT as well as some fundraising to help with their community projects and impact overall.
If theatre is something you are interested in there are so many ways to get involved with local theatre. They have volunteers acting and directing, but they also have volunteers building their sets and props and costumes, controlling the theatre lights, welcoming audiences, planning the company’s marketing, taking photos, helping with fundraising activities, writing procedures and policies and managing finances. All you have to do to be part of any of these things with BNT is become a member. Check out what theatre you have locally to see how you can take part.
At the Australia Day Community Awards, the Ballarat Tweed Ride was shortlisted for Community Event of the Year and it’s the other community event that most of my time goes into. Check out the official website here.
The Ballarat Tweed Ride was an idea of my sister Deneale (you may know her as The Goldfields Girl) and me. I decided to implement it back in 2012. It was an accidental hit, making the local newspaper and a year later the City of Ballarat events team reached out to me to make it an official event in the Ballarat Heritage Festival (then the Ballarat Heritage Weekend) event schedule. It’s been a long road of learning, trial, and error. More than once I’ve had key supporters pull out, leaving the future of the event uncertain, once early on it was done quite maliciously and I remember sobbing to my family from the impact of it. Each year I’ve worked to problem solve to make sure the event goes ahead. The biggest challenge is usually insurance, because every year cycling is seen as a more and more dangerous activity (it absolutely is not), and insurance for cycling events is quite specific to competitive races and extreme sports. That’s quite a contrast to our slow and relaxed event.
Now when I say ‘we’ as part of my descriptions of this event it means two things: firstly that my sister is often a sounding board for decisions and along with my mother, uncle, aunt, brother, and father, is often roped-in to help make the event happen on the day. Secondly, it means that the ride isn’t just mine, it’s for the community and I feel very much like the event is ‘ours’ when I talk about it, even though I’m the one doing the planning and organising. It also means I feel a sense of duty to the people the ride is for.
We describe the event as ‘social cycling and timeless style’.
Social cycling embeds the use of the bicycle in people’s lives in a way that makes it replicable any day of the year. It gives social support to new, or less frequent cyclists as they navigate cycling routes around city streets in a way they would do if they chose cycling as their regular mode of transport. Beginners ride alongside friendly and supportive experienced riders. It creates an opportunity to service bikes to get them ready to ride for a specific occasion, which makes a bike ready to be used outside of the event. It means people feel part of a community that is cycling and sees cycling as an activity that is accessible in their lifestyle.
Cycling itself is fun! Riding a bike sparks joy. Seeing others ride historic bikes like penny farthings and three-wheeled contraptions is as brilliant fun as it is for those ride them. Those who can’t ride also get to come and witness and take part. Having options for e-bikes and scooters also lets people enter the ride at their level of ability and confidence. I personally have a dynamic disability (plenty of days of the year I can do what anyone else does, but flares of my condition mean I may need a walking cane. It is fortunate then that a walking cane can look so stylish on a tweed ride), so an e-bike option makes sense for me to participate and last year I was able to take as a passenger a friend whose own dynamic disability meant that participation by riding was inaccessible otherwise.
Timeless style is a wonderfully ethical concept. The dress code for this event doesn’t lend itself to fast fashion, it lends itself to thrifting, getting things purposefully tailored, and sentimentally reviving pieces that your family has kept for generations. It’s naturally a supporter of slow fashion and fabrics and materials that come from natural fibres. Several years ago we decided to establish fashion/style awards for participants. After our first year of these, my sister and I reflected on how we could make them reflect the core values that we saw for the event. This meant establishing the awards without a specified gender binary and making sure spectators we eligible for an award.
To us, this secured that participants who could not ride for disability reasons were not excluded from the fun of the event. It also made visible our stance that our awards are based on style not how well a person performs to a perceived social gender norm. Because really, what if a woman wears a suit? Or a chap wears a dress? Or a person doesn’t identify as either man or a woman? Or a person is transitioning from one part of the spectrum of gender to another and has enough pressure around how others perceive their gender to be? We whittled it down to two types of style for the event: elegant or dapper. These loosely represent styles that may be either femme or masc, or maybe even flamboyant or traditional. Importantly, you know what is elegant and what is dapper when you see it. It’s not just about a skirt or trousers because, as we discussed we knew there were definitely suits that were elegant and dresses that were dapper.
This particular choice meant that we could actively hold space for LGBTQI+ participants, so they would know that we had considered their comfort, their place in our community, and that we were consciously defending that place. It also lets our non-queer participants know that they were welcome to support, include, defend and encourage those of the queer community taking part in the event. I’ve had many moments throughout the running of this event where I’ve got to take a moment and appreciate what this event does for people, but the one I hold closest to my heart was when a trans participant commented on one of our Facebook posts that they felt they could come the following year as their ‘true self’.
The ride started in 2012 with a group of 7 friends. Last year we had over 130 riders from Ballarat and around the region, state, and country.
Riding my father’s electric three-wheeler at the 2022 ride.
A community is many people, not just one.
An award like Citizen of the Year is interesting because, yes I do a lot of community work, but acknowledging one person alone is only part of the story. The art and creative world around Ballarat has so many people involved and I am involved because of many people. My old drama teacher Sally Read was instrumental in getting me into activities with BNT. Alexandra Meerbach, a proactive local theatre maker and teacher was the one who got me to join the board. All the projects I’ve implemented to build BNT have had people who have critically helped me. Moving BNT to Flickr, I had Robyn. Moving BNT to Hello Club, I had Daisy Kate Kennington and Emma Hampson. When the board got covid and Front of House became impacted, Shell Pryor and Emma Hampson stepped up to make things happen. Shell also made sure Front of House happened for Monologue Karaoke. Monologue Karaoke was rolled out while my partner and I were both very unwell and I was lucky to have Shannon Nicholls step in to keep it rolling along while I rested, and to have Sue Skewes show up at each session to support. Emma Hampson also facilitated a pop-up performance from Mad Swan as part of the year’s Monologue Karaoke sessions. When doing programs and newsletters, Cathy Adamson and Sue Skewes have been a second pair of eyes and proofread. So you see, there are always many people behind the scenes, whose own heartbeat becomes the heartbeat of a community like this.
For Ballarat Tweed Ride, we have riders who show up every single year, this last year Sewart Clissold even brought historic bikes to the finish venue for people to look at and take photos with. For our 10-year anniversary, Travis Price made some incredibly generous contributions of artwork for both a commemorative poster and an enamel pin. My uncle David Wain has for the last several years driven behind the group as an emergency pick-up support for riders. Dan Bolwell has attended many rides but also made himself available to help with promotional photos of the event. Lucy Zee’s videography has made it possible for people to see the event online, making it more accessible. Sophie Skoblar’s photography gave me the chance to focus on the participants instead of both greeting people and taking photos. Evelyn Zeven’s photos of the event and the fair last year were the first I saw of the day after it happened. Last year we also had amazing stall-holders show up and collaborate, tweaking their offerings at their stalls to be in theme with the event. Craig and Sophie from Grounded Pleasures have been wonderful champions of our event and have supported us with gifts we can give the prize winners. Sovereign Hill has also been generous with prizes that help us showcase Ballarat and encourage winners to return to Ballarat for more experiences. My father and brother have run as support cars, my Dad one year even he even swapped bikes with me mid-event to enable me to keep riding. Matt Briody, a passionate advocate for local cycling has enthusiastically collaborated with me in the lead-up to each event to make sure cyclists are well rewarded on the day, giving our acknowledgement of country and safety briefing and then leading the ride with his incredible artist wife Marin. My aunt Monica Wain has supported me with early promotional photoshoots and multiple years of fashion and style guidance for our style awards.
A few people have messaged me in the wake of the award and said ‘I want to do something like that, how do I do it?’
For me, doing this was as simple as:
- Finding something that makes me happy, that will bring me joy when I contribute to it
- When I wish I had the opportunity to do something, building it for others at the same time as myself
I also like to look at four useful approaches to community activity:
- getting things to completion because achievement enables achievement (done is better than perfect)
- striving to learn and grow so that my potential and the potential of others have the opportunity to be realised (a better self is better for everyone)
- supporting others to gain independent skills that empower them to do what they need (empowerment over dependency)
- contributing what I can to make relationships kind, constructive, respectful and welcoming and expecting nothing less from others (expect for others what you expect for yourself)
I think that is plenty enough writing on this topic for today, particularly when I could talk on this topic for hours.
Let me know if you have any questions about community volunteering!
L
