Perth Voice Interactive

A NEW walking performance exploring Perth during the 1980s AIDS crisis has unearthed a rich history its developer feared was at risk of being lost.

Noemie Huttner-Koros’s The Lion Never Sleeps takes the audience through the Northbridge streets where the queer community gathered, danced and fought the discrimination they faced during the 80s and early 90s.

Huttner-Koros, 22, interviewed those who lived through the AIDS crisis for the audio component of her work.

“Most of the people I spoke to, during the most intense period of the AIDS crisis, they were losing friends every single week,” she said.

Huttner-Koros said one of the men told her hospital staff “had no idea what to do, there was such fear”.

The man’s female partner was in a wheelchair and when they arrived at hospital an orderly told them to wait for half an hour while she got some tests done.

When she didn’t return for two hours he went looking and found her, alone in an elevator going up and down between floors.

“The orderly had seen she’d had AIDS, and just bolted, because there was so much fear of how it was transmitted.”

Another man’s neighbours moved out from the flat next door when they discovered he had AIDS.

“They thought AIDS could come through the wall,” Huttner-Koros said.

Amidst the fear and loss, there were acts of moving kindness.

One story told of a group of friends who carried a man in a wheelchair up the long flight of stairs to Connections nightclub so he could have one last knees-up before the disease took his life.

In the pre-Grindr era gay-friendly venues were a vital part of the culture, and Huttner-Koros’s performance takes the audience to important sites with an audio track playing the interviews over headphones.

“We travel as a group, and that’s also pretty important to the show—recreating that feeling of safety in numbers,” she said.

A couple of places like Connections are still around (it’s been going 44 years) while others like the short-lived Pineapple Dance nearby are just memories.

The work’s title comes from one of the prominent gay bars of the 80s, the Red Lion Tavern.

It became the Aberdeen Hotel in 1990, but in its heyday “it was a really important spot for LGBTQI+ people, and it was apparently fabulous. Really incredible drag shows,” Huttner-Koros said.

She developed the show after meeting Los Angeles queer icon Cassils at the “Still Here” LGBTQIA+ artists’ lab put on by Propel Youth Arts earlier this year.

“This artist from LA knew so much about where they’re from, and that queer history, but I was sure that there were stories here.”

A generation gap in the LGBTQI+ community between those coming of age in more liberal times, and older folk who survived an era when they were criminalised and shamed, had Huttner-Koros fearing the history wasn’t being passed down.

When she reached out to the older generation for interviews, she found “people have been so generous. I’ve learned a lot … there are some really incredible stories about unsung heroes around Perth who held the community together”.

The Lion Never Sleeps runs July 24, 25 and 26. The walk starts at the Blue Room and it’s part of the theatre’s Winter Nights program. Full lineup and tickets are at blueroom.org.au

by DAVID BELL

WITH urban homes short on garden space, indoor plants are becoming like little green children to many inner city dwellers.

Indoor plants have become mascots, meme-material and mental health menders, especially for millennials taken by their compactness and affordability.

Now Perth City Farm is jumping on the growing indoor plant trend, hosting the Perth Indoor Jungle Festival on July 26 and 27.

PCF’s CEO Kathleen Burton (pictured) says people are becoming more conscious of the importance of having a connection to the natural world, and indoor plants are an easy way to do that in everyday life.

Wellbeing

“The health and wellbeing benefits of keeping plants inside homes and workplaces are well known, with research showing plants inside increase oxygen levels, remove harmful toxins from the air and reduce stress levels,” Ms Burton said.

Accidentally killing indoor plants has become a running joke among self-deprecating millennials as the ultimate marker of not being ready for adulthood, because they should be easy to keep alive.

But they do need care dependant on the climate and Ms Burton believes Perth’s indoor plants have an unnecessarily high death rate.

“I think many younger people haven’t had much experience with gardening, so they buy a bunch of indoor varieties, then overwater and put them in the wrong light, and are disappointed when their love manifests as a dead plant.”

Indoor plant experts will be sharing their tips on helping “greenbabies” thrive.

Talks include cultivating carnivorous plants, edible gardens for kids and plant photography for social media by expert instaplanter Scott Cain, who has more than 185,000 followers.

General admission to the festival (with music, snacks, stalls and cutting swaps) is $5, while workshops are ticketed separately through PCF’s Facebook page.

by DAVID BELL

BEEN hacked? ECU’s Alexa Palassis wants to hear from you.

The psychology honours student is studying the personal and emotional cost when a digital identity is compromised, whether it’s social media or bank accounts.

Ms Palassis says anyone can be a target.

“Millennials are, funnily enough, the most common victims of hacking, with 60 per cent experiencing a cybercrime in the past 12 months.

“However it’s baby boomers (ages 54-72) that experience the highest loss in terms of money.”

She says cybercrime can lead to “reputational damage, business disruption, information loss, revenue loss, productivity loss, and loss of personal history and photos.

“Victims often don’t perceive themselves as victims and don’t know how or where to gain assistance, so the impact of their experience is somewhat unexplored.

“I’m aiming to find out more about the personal impact to individuals and small business. Preliminary research suggests people affected report feelings of violation, shock, helplessness, anger and guilt, and in some cases, ongoing psychological impact. I’d like to hear more about that.”

The results will help figure out what support services and advice are needed for victims.

If you’ve been targeted contact her via apalassi@our.ecu.edu.au

A FORMER senior City of Perth staff member says the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority ruled out advertising on a Noongar-inspired tower in Yagan Square.

“This was our fear but the MRA assured us no advertising would be on it,” the former employee said.

They’d been involved in discussions with the MRA, along with a range colleagues.

“I cannot speak on their behalf but I feel confident in stating not a single person would have endorsed advertising. We were told the digital tower would tell Aboriginal stories and showcase WA,” they said.

But the MRA has allowed up to 30 per cent of the sign’s content to be commercial advertising, upsetting Aboriginal custodian Robert Eggington (“Tower sell-out,” Voice, July 13, 2019).

The authority’s own website says: “We like to think of the screen as being like a giant digital art gallery, showcasing works from local and international artists.”

In the mix

The MRA told the Voice advertising had been in the mix since the tower’s inception, and the ad revenue paid for its maintenance and operation.

“The digital tower is the latest incarnation of previous advertising towers, which have occupied this prominent location for more than 100 years,” the MRA said in a statement.

It said advertising had appeared on the tower since the square was opened in March 2018.

But the ex-council staffer, speaking up after seeing our story, said that was cold comfort.

“To the First Nations people who were promised a space, a place that respected them and showed the world a small part of their magnificent history and culture, goodness, what can I write?

“Sorry doesn’t cut it; the only thing to do is remove the advertising.”

The tower’s design is inspired by the bullrushes that were removed from Lake Kingsford, an important food source for Whadjuk Noongars that was filled to make way for the Perth railway station in 1880. Its 14 columns represent the 14 Noongar language groups.

by DAVID BELL

STIRLING councillor Bianca Sandri says criticism of her appearance as a witness against her own council in a SAT appeal last year is making a mountain out of a molehill.

An urban planner in her day job, Cr Sandri’s firm had been hired by a church group trying to get approval from Stirling for a place of worship in Balcatta prior to her election to council in October 2017.

In August that year the application was rejected by Stirling’s planners because of a shortfall in parking, so the church decided to appeal to the State Administrative Tribunal.

Expert witness

By the time the appeal was heard in June 2018, Cr Sandri had been voted onto council, but decided to appear as an expert witness for the church.

That decision has been criticised by former Stirling councillor Paul Collins, who said Cr Sandri should have excused herself from appearing as an expert witness.

“SAT appeals are heard ‘de novo,’ meaning from the beginning, so why wouldn’t a sitting councillor stay well away from such appeals,” Mr Collins said.

“There must be rules and serious consequences in local government preventing councillors serving two financial masters at an SAT appeal? If not then there certainly needs to be.”

But Cr Sandri said she’d not been involved with the application as a councillor, declaring a financial interest and leaving the council chamber when the item was reconsidered in February 2018. She said she also “sought approval” from the council’s administration before appearing as a witness at the appeal.

She said she was disappointed to see this resurface more than a year later on council watchblog Stirling Community Matters.

“[It’s] disappointing that it has only been raised with me only now, via a third party,” Cr Sandri said.

“I am always available to discuss concerns with constituents, including representatives of local community groups, and would encourage them to approach me directly in the future so they can be dealt with in an open and fair manner.

“This situation was a unique circumstance. Whilst I was operating within the guidelines and protocols, I don’t foresee me acting as a town planning expert witness in the future against the city.”

Cr Sandri said her town planning background should be seen as a useful resource for the council, but was being used as a point of attack by some.

“This solidifies the reason why people with businesses often do not run for council as it is not worth the disruption and reputational damage,” she said.

by DAVID BELL

THE first two of Perth council’s new “general manager” positions have been filled.

CEO Murray Jorgensen is making a clean sweep of the five old director positions to be replaced with four GMs.

He has captain’s pick because the commissioners (filling in for suspended councillors) relinquished their right to have a vote on the senior appointments (“Quietly redirected,” Voice, June 1, 2019).

Former Peppermint Grove CEO Anne Banks-McAllister is the new GM of community development starting August 26. Mr Jorgensen says she is “a very talented and professional individual who has both local government and private industry experience and has an exceptional reputation in local government circles”.

Ms Banks-McAllister said: “I’m under no illusion of the issues surrounding the city and I am looking forward to the opportunity to help rebuild the City of Perth, and have it recognised as a leader in local government.”

Denmark shire council CEO Bill Parker announced his “unexpected” resignation today to take up GM of Perth’s “corporate services alliance”.