Events

Build your own archive armour

Celebrate Trans Month with zine, badge and collage making

Join volunteers from the Australian Queer Archives on a creative and interactive journey through local trans histories.

“The ability to see yourself in the past is essential to forming a sense of belonging in the world,” Archie Barry wrote in 2018. “It seems now I’ve naturally fallen into a role that many queer and gender diverse people fall into: that of informal researcher. We silently hoard content – URLs, zines, ads, pamphlets, stickers, mp3s, books, posters – to build a personalised buffer, a kind of archive armour, between the self and the cis-hetero world.”

It is important to do this during these times where trans communities are under attack in ways that parallel attacks on gay communities in the recent past and continue to harm us all.

This session will include a short presentation on finding examples of trans care, hope, and joy from the archives and beyond, and give you the opportunity to start building your own archive armour by making a zine, badge and/or collage inspired by our histories.