Phase 1 #WCMTLD craftivism

My penultimate day in Australia and I had the absolute joy of a day with Aine and Eddie. We met in the city and got the ferry across to Cockatoo Island. We scooted and wandered around taking in the old industrial sights, and the more contemporary, it’s currently being used for filming a new series […]

A hop to Hobart

Why are you going to Tassie? It’s been a frequent question on this trip and I’ll be honest I did start asking myself the same question when I realised the distance I was travelling for 2.5 days. When it came to planning my WCMT Fellowship I knew I wanted to visit the countries I’m visiting […]

Magical Melbourne Part 2

Last week started in Brisbane and I flew back to Melbourne on Wednesday. Wednesday evening I met John Chesterman, Director of Strategy and currently Acting Advocate, at the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate. John was one of the first people I contacted when planning my WCMT travels as he himself is a former Australian […]

A Brisbane bonanza #WCMTLD

I’m at the stage in my trip where my motivation to blog daily is waning a little. A lot of what I’m hearing is reinforcing what I’ve already been told, and I’m taking copious notes whenever I meet someone, however the heat in Brisbane (it was hot, very humid and damp – a little like […]

Dying to matter #WCMTLD

I spent today, International Day of People with Disability 2017, in Brisbane. Well that’s not strictly true, I spent some of it in Brisbane, some of it travelling to the Gold Coast and a significant chunk of it having an incredibly pleasurable lunch and walk on the beach/paddle in the shallows and chat with Sally […]

A round table and a sniff test

During my very limited time in New Zealand (10 days, not nearly enough) I spoke to a number of people about investigating the deaths of learning disabled people and improving their access to healthcare. I asked all of them the same question ‘who should I be speaking with to find out about academic research in […]

#DisabilityMattersOtago

I wanted to record some random thoughts generated through the exceptional Disability Matters Conference. You can visit the conference website here and see what was covered. I can honestly say its been a long time since I’ve been at such an eclectic and authentic conference. The three days brought together disabled people and self advocates, […]

A New Zealand weekend

So it’s Monday evening and I’ve not blogged since Friday so I’m going to do a quick post on my weekend as an aid memoire of the end of my time in Wellington. It was a busy week last week, split between Melbourne and Wellington, and I knew I only had one day in Wellington […]

‘To date, done nothing with this information’

Day 14 of my #WCMTLD trip and only Day 2 in New Zealand but it really feels like time is flying by. Today was a bit of a blur of meetings, walking to meetings and discussing how the deaths of intellectually disabled people are investigated in New Zealand. First up I met with Claire and Martyn […]

Look backwards to go forwards #WCMTLD

My first day in New Zealand today and it’s been great for setting the context. First up I met with Esther Woodbury from the Disabled Persons Assembly New Zealand followed by Cindy Johns from People First New Zealand (who I forgot to photo). Both disabled people’s organisations form part of the coalition of DPOs who […]