Accessibility at Varuna
In 2020, Varuna expanded its capacity to accommodate writers by building an accessible studio. (You can read about the opening event here.) This new building opens up opportunities for writers who have previously been unable to stay in residence at Varuna.
This building project has been a catalyst to consider a holistic approach within our organisation to better accommodate writers, readers and community members with disability in everything that we do. Along with this physical infrastructure, Varuna is committed to investing in staff training and systems to ensure inclusivity for all our programs. We welcome your feedback.
We have appointed our first ever Disability Inclusion Advisory Group (DIAG)*. This group provides advice that will help Varuna to establish an active commitment to writers and audiences with disability, locally and nationally, that fosters respect and understanding and encourages engagement with Varuna’s programs and events. The DIAG have been instrumental in assisting us to develop our Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP). You can read the DIAP here.
We have also developed a Varuna Accessibility - Frequently Asked Questions document to give some more detailed information about the Varuna facilities. Download the Accessibility FAQ’s here. If you have any more questions about access please don’t hesitate to contact Maeve Marsden, Creative Producer via email maeve@varuna.com.au or ring 02 4782 5674.
(*Please note whilst the DIAG provides expert advice to Varuna, the group is not an executive body and does not consider any matter outside its specific reference)
OUR DISABILITY INCLUSION ADVISORY GROUP INCLUDES:
URSULA KING
Ursula is a researcher with an eclectic background. In the mix are community development, clinical medicine, sustainability, media/communications, epidemiology, humanities, and advocacy. Several decades juggling directorship of a national service sector consultancy, community-academic-industry partnering on international ecology/health projects, and a career as an emergency medicine doctor have now given way to writing. Ursula engages with essay, critique, experimental non/fiction, poetry and creative documentary, along with a side-hustle in food ecosystems research.
KERRI SHYING
Kerri Shying is a poet of Wiradjuri and Chinese family, winner of a NSW Writers’ Centre Emerging Writer Grant in 2017 with work appearing in Snap Journal, Cordite, Verity La, Ear to Earth, and Women of Words, 2016 and in The Australian Poetry Journal 2020. Author of the bilingual pocketbook of poems Sing out when you want me 2017, Flying Islands/ASM/Cerberus Press and the chapbook Elevensies Slow Loris, 2018, her current book is Knitting Mangrove Roots, 2019 Flying Island/ Cerberus/ASM. Shortlisted Helen Anne Bell and Noel Rowe Prizes in 2017, she won the Dr Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship for 2019 for her collection Know Your Country through Puncher and Wattman. Kerri has been convenor of the free disability-led writing collective, Write Up for 5 years and was a nominee for theaspireawards.com.au/2020.
SARAH-JANE STASZAK
Sarah-Jane Staszak has always been an adventurer and a passionate traveller. Most of her international pursuits are to skiing destinations, the highlight of many was the most recent heliskiing in Alaska. She has spent much of her early years peddling the wheels of her push bike through exotic places in central, south and the North Americas and sifting through the backroads of Australia for thousands of kilometres. These days Sarah-Jane cruises around on a slightly different set of wheels with her best friend and assistant, Cozie the black Labrador. Sarah-Jane is a Blackheath resident of the Blue Mountains and an adoring, proud mother of a growing young boy named Hamish.