Independent Living: An Autobiographical Travelogue Presentation by - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Presentation by Catherine Frazee

CILT AGM

September 20, 2006

Independent Living:

An Autobiographical Travelogue

1

• A Few Photos
• A Few Reflections
• A Few Lessons
• A Few Minutes
• A Few Liberties

What is an “Autobiographical Travelogue”?

2 As I grew up and into myself and my place of belonging, participation and contribution, my choices and

• pportunities have been

shaped by the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement.

• The Meaning of Community
• The Meaning of Activism
• The Meaning of Independence

Three Lessons from the Independent Living Movement

“Independent Living (IL) is a vision, a philosophy and a movement of persons with disabilities.”

CILT website, 2006

3

• 1. My First Job, circa 1981
• 2. My Current Work, 2006

The Meaning of Community

4

A Life in Two Photos

“Independent Living is founded

• n the right of

people with disabilities to: Live with dignity in their chosen community...”

CILT website, 2006

A Life in Two Photos:

• 1. My First Job

5

6

A Life in Two Photos:

• 2. My Current Work

The IL Community

7

To claim "I belong", in two simple words, invokes the strength and spirit of those who have battled and laboured and dreamt to make our way clear. To claim "I belong", situates us in an endless landscape of IL history, politics and philosophy. It is a claim

• f defiance and embrace, choice

and hope, yearning and satisfaction.

• 1. Activism in the Streets
• 2. Activism in the Academy
• 3. Activism in the Arts
• 4. Activism in the Everyday

The Meaning of Activism

8

Activist Portraits

“Independent Living is founded

• n the right of

people with disabilities to: … Participate in all aspects of their life…”

CILT website, 2006

9

Portraits of Activism

• 1. In the Streets

The independent living movement mobilized the political energies

• f disabled

people, allowing us to push back against the forms and structures of inequality, to challenge every notion of our lives as tragic and our bodies as broken.

10

Portraits of Activism

• 2. In the Academy

“From small beginnings … disability studies has secured a hard won place … in the curricula of some universities and we can be confident that from these small beginnings will emerge a vibrant force for educational and social change.” Michael Oliver, 1999

11

Portraits of Activism

• 3. In the Arts

If there is one single truth at the core of Independent Living, it is that the stories

• f our lives,

however performed, are a wellspring of truth and power. Whenever we position ourselves as the subject, not the object, we perform the ultimate act of resistance.

12

Portraits of Activism

• 4. In the Everyday

The claim of a right to participate is a claim that few of us come to easily. It is a precarious claim that none of us dare regard carelessly. It is a claim that rises up from the stories and struggles of our individual lives.

Activism & Independent Living

13

Disability activism is found in politics, advocacy, scholarship, artistic work and every single act of speaking out. It is a project which involves both celebration and struggle, solidarity and subversion, the reclaiming of histories and the shaping of radically new futures. Disability activism is strongest, as in IL, when the experiences, identities and voices of disabled people are central and uncompromised.

• 1. Calling the Shots?
• 2. Webs of Support?

The Meaning of Independence

14

Two Different Framings

“Independent Living is founded

• n the right of

people with disabilities to: … Control and make decisions about their own lives.”

CILT website, 2006

Pictures of Independence

• 1. Calling the Shots?

15 Does Independent Living demand that we be self- directing captains of our

• wn individual

ships?

16

Pictures of Independence

• 2. Webs of Support?

Or does Independent Living presume and acknowledge webs

• f recognition,

support and “invisible labour”?

3 Lessons from the IL Movement

17

• Locate myself within ever‐expanding

communities of solidarity and recognition.

• Mobilize collectively to resist invisibility and

injustice and promote deep cultural change.

• Embrace a nuanced account of independence

that builds ‘social capital’ in common cause with carers and supporters.

Citations & Acknowledgments

18

• Photographs by Patricia Seeley, 2004‐2006.
• Latimer Vigil images from Fireweed Media, 1995.
• Visual Art by Persimmon Blackbridge, 2005.
• Michael Oliver, “Disabled People and the Inclusive Society:
• r the Times They Really Are Changing” , Public Lecture,

April 27, 1999.

• Harriet McBryde Johnson, “Too Late to Die Young”,

Picador, New York 2006.

“Living our lives

• penly and without

shame is a revolutionary act.” Harriet McBryde Johnson