Retracing Queer Footprints
LUCIANO and George Keats, supported by the Australian Queer Archives, present Queer-ways: Retracing Queer Footprints.
Queer-ways maps the queer cartography of Australia, combining the queer stories and voices of past and present into a permanent, interactive record of being queer in Australia.
Retrace REGIONAL Queer FootPrints
As part of the 2025 Victoria's Pride celebrations, we are working with the Victorian Government and Midsumma to ensure statewide representation of LGBTQIA+ communities.
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Explore queer locations of significance and experiences in Bendigo and Gippsland through our augmented reality maps. These maps are permanent records of regional Victoria's rainbow community.
Retrace Melbourne's Queer FootPrints
Explore Melbourne's most iconic and familiar queer landmarks through our digital Augmented Reality maps of the city.
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Guided by local queer voices, such as Sally Goldner AM and Cerulean - Miss First Nation 2021, explore a re-telling of Melbourne’s queer history, celebrating the historical and contemporary queer venues, events and spaces that have shaped and continue to tell the story of Melbourne.
RETRACE QUEER
FOOtprints IN YARRA
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Victoria, we have completed a commissioned mural of some of Melbourne’s queer history.
The mural is the starting place for a series of self-led walking tours, introducing listeners to the queer history and rainbow communities of the City of Yarra.
Each audio tour focuses on a different area of Yarra - the east, the west and what was the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital (now Melbourne Polytechnic - Fairfield). As we lead you through the city, voices from the local community will be joining us along the way to share their stories of significant events and locations.
RETRACE QUEER
FOOtprints IN ST KILDA
As part of the Urban Canvas Mural Festival 2023, we painted a new mural next to the Victorian Pride Centre. Our new mural celebrates key figures, events and groups from the local LGBTQIA+ community that have contributed to the development of St Kilda, as the historical and contemporary home of the rainbow community.
Viewers can explore our Augmented Reality Map of St Kilda featuring the voice of Cerulean, Miss First Nation Supreme Queen 2023, and learn about the stories of St Kilda's queer past through a video series on our Instagram
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WEAR A PIECE
OF MELBOURNE'S
QUEER HISTORY
Queer-ways would not have been possible without the support of the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA).
AQuA relies on the work of volunteers and donations to remain independent. To help honour and preserve the lives and histories of LGBTIQA+ generations we are releasing a limited edition range of bandannas printed and sewn in Melbourne(Naarm).
20% of all sales will go directly to the Australian Queer Archives.
Retrace REGIONAL Queer FootPrints
Explore the queer history of Victoria's regional communities as part of Victoria's Pride, a partnership between the Victorian Government and Midsumma.
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Learn about the significant locations and venues of each town in our regional road trip videos or be guided through our Augmented Reality Maps by the local community voices.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Queer-ways was established on the unceded traditional lands of the Wurundjeri nation in the Kulin alliance.
This project iniitially focused on the geographical location referred to as “Melbourne", known as Naarm (or Narrm) by the Woiwurrung language group. The map we have utilised is based on previous settler-colonial cartography and may not accurately reflect the Aboriginal cultural landscape.
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In the future, we hope to find and develop the technology to integrate Indigenous nations into the Queer-ways map. If you are not aware of the rightful custodians of the land on which you are located, you can learn more at www.aiatsis.gov.au.
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Queer-ways acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders, past and present, and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We encourage you to take steps towards learning more about how you can support Indigenous communities in the fight for sovereignty.