Queerstralia: resistance, resilience, and the gaps that remain

Abstract

Queerstralia is a three-part documentary series that sets out to provide an expansive account of Australia’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and other queer (LGBTQIAþ) histories. As the documentary makes clear early on, such a task is both daunting and far from straightforward. Not only have LGBTQIAþ stories been kept to the marginalia of history, the question of whether we ought to view the past through the lens of contemporary identity categories is also highly contested. Furthermore, there is incredible diversity within LGBTQIAþ communities, even though the acronym is frequently used in the popular imagination to refer to community in the singular. Queerstralia addresses these issues head-on, with what host comedian Zo€e Coombs Marr describes as ‘the big messy puzzle that is queer identity’. Queerstralia represents the multi-stranded nature of Australian queer histories by deploying a looping narrative approach as metaphor. This feels like an annoying comedic distraction in the first episode but comes together across the series to make a more serious political point. Rather than following a neat chronological trajectory, the three episodes are organised thematically, looking at ‘The Law’, ‘Gender and Identity’ and ‘Community and Belonging’. After some exposition, the series begins with Peter de Waal searching meticulously through old court records from the 1860s to find examples of ‘sodomy’ and ‘buggery’. The series ends on a hopeful note about how queer people were galvanised by the AIDS crisis. In this way, though the presentation of history is non-linear and implicitly critical of an oversimplified ‘progress narrative’, the tone is optimistic and emphasises resilience and resistance over persecution. The documentary involves interviews with a brilliant array of Australian thinkers and activists from across the LGBTQIAþ spectrum and provides some marvellous archival stories and footage of queer lives and events in our history. It is unusual and exciting to see Australian queer history centred, given the typical North Americanand Euro-centrism of many other narratives of queer life. The series includes incredible