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Fabukous notes

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/Literacy (reading, writing, grammar and punctuation)

/Visual Arts and wider Arts forms exploration – attending Arts events, research and reflection before and after, visual and conceptual analysis

/Writing Caroline’s Autobiography or Memoir – Caroline has asked that Jess and Amie both work together on this project with her and as it’s quite an involved project which requires a lengthy period, we agreed that this makes sense. Jess and Amie will cover different aspects of this project with Caroline, so Caroline is simultaneously learning about how to write an autobiography and how to publish one, while also writing it over time.

Jess –

Literary Aspects of the writing - including narrative structures. what and an autobiography, or memoir is and using visual imagery to tell stories

Research - attending writer’s talks and potentially meeting Jess’s friend who has written an autobiography about her experiences of starting a family while also living with Cerebral Palsy

Amie –

Working as Caroline’s scribe – Amie will focus on the writing of the autobiography with Caroline. Exploring accessible writing and recording options including Speech to Text, and investigating other apps which may be effective

Publishing – learning about how authors publish books. Seeking advice from Amie’s friend who has just published a book

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Caroline reminisced about her sister Alexandra's career as a ballet dancer in Newcastle and Atlanta, Georgia, where she travelled to see her perform. Discussion about the divisions of the ballet followed and Caroline felt the parts in the third act was particularly moving with a stronger focus on solo performance, pared down staging and emotional intensity.

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Romeo and Juliet | Melbourne, Hamer Hall | Trailer 2

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You said you know this memoir from school 

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Exploring different examples of memoirs and autobiographies

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Exploring different examples of memoirs and autobiographies

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·       We looked at Anne Frank's diary, "The Diary of a Young Girl," which you said you had read in school. This is considered a memoir as it only looks at the time from June 12, 1942, to March 29, 1944. It chronicles her life during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, while she and her family were in hiding.

·       Maya Angelou’s ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ is classified as a memoir as it focuses on her from the age of three to sixteen, when she was living in the Deep South of America, during the Depression-wracked 1930s.

·       Michelle Obama’s autobiography, ‘Becoming’ is considered so because she chronicles the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address.

·       Elton John’s book, ‘Me’, is also classified as an autobiography as it is about the authors life from childhood until now, detailing important events of his life along the way.

·       I asked you whether you would like to write about your whole life, from childhood or birth, until now, or whether you would like to focus on parts of your life. You said you didn’t want to write about your whole life

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23/04/25 Caroline's identified  interests and topics to write about her life

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23/04/25 Caroline's identified  interests and topics to write about her life

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We did some dot points about which aspects of your life, or memories, you would like to focus on, some of them were:

Growing up in a big family, with three siblings who have disabilities

Travelling around in a big family, as a child

Your different experiences of education in various states and countries you lived in, and the educational barriers you faced as a student with a disability

Learning to talk as a child

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Caroline chose tomatoes, feta, tarragon and onion for the frittata, and Mei thought it was so tasty, she asked for the recipe!

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One of Jess' family recipes. Caroline chose potato and peas as the veg and made a large enough batch to put aside three extra meals for the week.

To make prep easier Caroline also:

-Asked the butcher to cut the chicken in a small dice.

-Bought preminced garlic in the jar

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Caroline had a fantastic morning touring the incredible restoration and archiving facilities at APAC (Australian Performing Arts Collection). The highlight was seeing some of Dame Nellie Melba's original costumes up close.

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Caroline was reminded of how Jessica would sew Alexandra's ballet shoes.

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By Melbourne Opera, at the Palais.

Caroline and Jess walked along the boardwalk to a cafe and enjoyed lunch overlooking the bay before the show.

It was a powerful performance and Caroline thought the old theatre was beautiful. She would like to research the history of the theatre and others like it and Jess suggested starting with the documentary The lost city of Melbourne.

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02/06/2025: Visiting Katrina's grave at Flinders

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02/06/2025: Visiting Katrina's grave at Flinders

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Caroline chose a beautiful bouquet featuring carnations and some Australian native flowers. The drive to Flinders was filled with memories of time spent with family at the beach house there and the difficult decision to let it go.

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Caroline recorded some of her memories of the house in the following post.

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Caroline walked along the renovated pier, now built of concrete and much more accessible when using a walker. This was a surprise for her. She was reminded of walks with Katrina down to the beach, captured in the following audio.

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·       The Human Writers is a multimedia initiative which I came across when I was on Arts hub.  The community-oriented project includes memoir writing workshops, a webzine, a magazine, a podcast, and more, all designed to engage older adults, encourage them to share their non-fiction life stories, and have those stories heard, honoured, validated, published, and preserved

·       There is an opportunity to publish a 1000-word essay about any topic you like, related to your life. I thought this could be a good opportunity and incentive to start writing. Beginning with only 1000 words is more achievable also and may help you form some of the main ideas in your memoir. I chatted to you about this and showed you some of the other writing entries on the website. They also included audio recordings of the short stories which made them easier to access

·       You enjoyed listening to the stories, and said you were happy to take part in the project, so I asked you to choose three prompts to respond to

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Responding to essay prompts for The Human Writers Project

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Responding to essay prompts for The Human Writers Project

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·       One of the prompts you chose was, ‘What is the Bravest thing you have ever done?’. You spoke about acting on TV on Channel 31, with Steady Eddy

·       Another prompt you chose was, ‘Tell us about something you survived.’ You spoke about surviving your disability and how you managed to talk and go to school, surviving quite well. This led into you talking about the importance of walking to you, the progression of your walking over the years and how you feel demoralised when being pushed in a wheelchair

·       The final prompt you chose was, ‘What advice you would say to your 25-year-old self?’ You said, “Make the most of it and enjoy your life. You are always going to have a disability so just make the most of it. Just accept it and enjoy your life.”

Thank you, Caroline, for your openness and bravery answering these questions, it made for some very powerful writing!

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Caroline remembered her travels in Japan during the visit, where she saw women dressed in traditional Geisha costume.

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Caroline's favourite work from the exhibition was this small piece by Cèzanne. Turn in the Road (1881). She also loved the elaborate, staging of the show, with rooms furnished with chandeliers, rugs and replica antique furniture.

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Caroline delves deeper into her essay for the Human Writer's Project  

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Caroline delves deeper into her essay for the Human Writer's Project  

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Caroline now has 774 words..226 to go to submit her writing!

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23/06/2025: Frida Kahlo@ Bendigo Gallery

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23/06/2025: Frida Kahlo@ Bendigo Gallery

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The show presented archival material from Kahlo's home, including a large selection of her clothing. There was a strong curatorial focus on how Kahlo carefully crafted her image, including as a pioneer of representing disability in the arts.

Caroline was deeply inspired as this was her first introduction to the artists history of injury and disability and how this shaped her work and life.

We will continue to explore Frida's biography.

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Handing out pamphlets at the cinema (Balwyn)

Doing something at the Theatre

Working at a gallery

Chatting to elderly people - Nursing homes

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Gen shared examples of her process for editing when working from initial speech to text, something we would like to work towards for Caroline using her phone.

We looked at Substack as a platform for sharing writing and brainstormed ideas about the many exciting ways work can be shared using this platform, including short form video.

https://substack.com/about

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She was tall and witty. She was really out there. Fiery orange hair worn short and her clothes from the op shop but she always looked trendy in her pointy shoes. She loved getting out with her girlfriends, hanging out in coffee shops smoking cigarettes. She adored people and that was how she entertained herself.