Albury Hotel float, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, 1983 Photograph by William Yang, courtesy the National Library of Australia nla.pic-vn3097560
Where else would one find this intoxicating combination than the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras? It’s Mardi Gras time in Sydney again, and the rainbow flags are coming out, along with the Marching Boys and many other classics such as the Dykes on Bikes.
But every year the Mardi Gras finds new areas of interest and activism and this year will be no different.
You can read about Sydney’s pre-eminent parade in Garry Wotherspoon‘s article about the history of the Mardi Gras. Garry is a well known historian of the gay movement, and has been a participant in many of the struggles and celebrations he writes about.
Starting as a political demonstration in 1978, which escalated due to police behaviour, the Mardi Gras has developed into a full scale cultural festival, with multiple events over several weeks. It has also become a major tourist attraction, bringing visitors from all over Australia and the world.
Kicking off with the Fair Day at Victoria Park on Sunday 12 February, this year’s festival looks to be as diverse and outrageous as ever. Check out the program and see what you can get along to.
All Love is Equal, Mardi Gras Fair Day 2007 Photograph by Janissary/Bren Barnes, via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
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Filling in the details along Pitt Street, from 'Sands & Kenny's map of Sydney and its environs' 1858, National Library of Australia nla.map-rm1272
One of the more unusual articles added recently to the Dictionary is Catherine Bishop‘s exhaustive piece on the women of Pitt Street. Catherine takes readers on a virtual walk up Pitt Street in 1858, peering in the shop doors and windows to find the women who live, work and play there. It’s a fascinating snapshot of the range of businesswomen, employees, servants, landladies, teachers, and others, who were manufacturing, selling, cleaning, teaching and generally making a living in mid-nineteenth-century Sydney.
Catherine has made full use of the possibilities of searchable digitised resources like Trove and the New South Wales Births Deaths and Marriages indexes to follow these individuals and save them from ‘the enormous condescension of posterity’, to use the phrase coined by EP Thompson. It’s a fascinating way to experience Pitt Street.
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Welcome to the new look Dictionary of Sydney Trust page and the new home for our blog Looking Up.
The new site incorporates the Dictionary of Sydney’s organisational information, access to the Dictionary’s resources, information on our projects, and tips on ways readers can contribute to and support the Dictionary. The Dictionary itself is still found at www.dictionaryofsydney.org.
You can keep in touch with what we’re up to by subscribing to the blog and/or our quarterly newsletter, befriending us on Facebook or following our Twitter stream – just select the option from the left hand column.
Hope to see you here often!
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One of our new articles is about Sydney’s Greek communities, one of the largest and oldest groups in the city, with a venerable tradition and great pride.
Evzones (Greek soldiers) who led the Greek Day march in Sydney, 28 February 1941, Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria, ref: an016346
Panayiotis Diamadis has written for us about the Hellenes of Sydney, who hailed from all over the Mediterranean, but traced their ancestry back to Greece. There’s been a long two-way traffic between Sydney and Greece, as well. The first Greek arrivals were convicts in 1829, later pardoned, who helped start the Camden vineyards. By the end of the nineteenth century, churches and social groups were being formed, and a thriving community was taking steps to protect its language and religious traditions.
This essay covers the history of one of Sydney’s best known migrant communities, which has become an integral part of the modern city.
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