One in six Australians is aged 65 or older. Politicians frame this as an economic issue that affects housing, health and the workforce, as the nation grows collectively older. Yet, beyond statistics and stereotypes, an individual’s experience of ageing is deeply personal, is reliant on specific circumstances, and is subject to the same systemic issues facing the young.
Vivian Blaxell published her first book, Worthy of the Event, this year – aged 74 – a philosophical, expansive text that defies classification, set against a backdrop of trans life that begins with her own transition in the 1960s.
In Debra Oswald’s latest book, we meet Betty: a storyteller and feminist who is both eternally curious and phenomenally old. On the eve of her hundredth birthday party, she tells us her story.
And in beautiful changelings, the newest collection from poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, we are offered poignant tributes to ageing, womanhood, motherhood, and encouraged to reclaim our dreams, boundaries and time.
Join these three brilliant women as they interrogate myths and truths about growing older, and discuss how they address these issues through their work.