The Circus Diaries: Writing the Circus on Fire Mountain

Welcome

The Circus Diaries is a wonderful oral history and photographic project documenting traditional Australian circus life from the 1920's to the present. Over the past three years I have travelled through much of Australia interviewing and photographing circus elders and families, and living with traditional circuses.

The Circus Diaries is a PhD project in partnership with The Australian Centre of Melbourne University and the Performing Arts Collection of the Arts Centre, Victoria.The Circus Diaries exhibition opened at the George Adams Gallery of the Arts Centre, 100 St. Kilda Rd, Melbourne, on May 18th, and ran till July 15th, 2007. The exhibition was an outcome from my Australian Circus Oral History PhD research and features photographs by Cal MacKinnon. To see some of Cal's contemporary images from The Circus Diaries exhibition, please click on the link to her website on the right.

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Sunday, February 8, 2009

Writing the Circus on Fire Mountain

Have just crawled back to Melbourne through the worst bushfires in history. Nearly 200 people are dead. Whole historic towns are razed. Forests gone.

A shattering end to an amazing week spent at the top of Mt Hotham, Victoria's highest mountain, and major snow scene - when it's snowing.

But here, in the middle of summer it is alpine meadows, green bush, and silvered trees. Swathes of mountains with dead trees from the last bushfires a few years ago.

I was participating in the Narrative Network writing retreat, with Boston professor, Cathy Riessman - fondly known as the

'grandmother of narrative research'.

Organised by Ruth Ballardie, who convenes the Narrative Network of Australia, the retreat was a fantastic 5 days of writing, laughing, walking, talking, reading and eating with women from as far afield as flooding north Queensland, and Chile. Then the fires broke out.... we watched from a distance. By Sunday morning the mountians were covered in smoke, and driving down the winding roads was eerie and worrying. Then through the smoke from the Myrtleford fires. Then through the smoke from the Kilmore fires. We all got home safely. We fared better than many..