We’ve been moving away from the nuclear family for years now - where have we landed? In 2023, there are myriad ways to become a parent, to be a parent, and to be a part of a family. In a panel event for the Wheeler Centre’s M/OTHER series, editor Bridget Caldwell-Bright ,writer Alexandra Collier, performance artist Casey Jenkins and human rights advocate Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts discuss what it means to create contemporary families that consider the shifting needs of both children and parents. They’ll share their experiences of raising children in ways that defy and redefine traditional family boundaries and structures, and speak to the need for a broader understanding of what families and parenting looks like. From single parenthood and queer motherhood to kinship care and the importance of maintaining maternal autonomy, Caldwell-Bright, Collier, Jenkins and Turnbull-Roberts, join host, ABC Radio journalist Hilary Harper, to unpack some of the complexities involved in challenging the familial status quo.
Conversations in M/OTHER may include references to topics such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.
M/OTHER is a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.
Wheelchair accessible
Accessible toilets available
The official bookseller for M/OTHER is Neighbourhood Books.
Bridget Caldwell-Bright is a freelance editor based in Melbourne, Victoria.
Alexandra Collier is the author of a new memoir about becoming a solo mother by choice, Inconceivable: Heartbreak, Bad Dates and Finding Solo Motherhood. She is an award-winning writer who has written for theatre ...
Casey Jenkins is a queer solo parent by choice to two children and a performance/installation/community artist exploring intimacy, identity and the interplay between modes of power (individual and institutional, perceived ...
Hilary Harper is a massive book and radio nerd – she's spent 30 years on air, 20 at the ABC, and as far as she knows, is the only person to do a traffic report in haiku. She presented Life Matters for six years, and is now ...
Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts is a proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul Woman who is an advocate for Human Rights, Indigenous people’s rights, and children and young people. As a survivor she speaks from a place of truth ...