For Intersex Awareness Day this year we’re marking the fifth anniversary of the Darlington Statement, written, ratified, and published in March 2017 during the first Darlington Retreat. The Darlington Statement is a landmark intersex human rights document of priorities determined by lived experience. It has had a profound impact on advocacy in Australia and inspired other intersex organisations across the world to explore their own human rights contexts.

With the second Darlington Retreat came the affirmation statements that have allowed hundreds of other intersex activists, intersex organisations, allies, and ally organisations to voice their support of intersex justice. In a third Darlington Retreat we recognised the intersectionality of our movement with statements of support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the Yogyakarta Principles +10, and Canberra Statement on Forcibly displaced persons.

This Intersex Awareness Day we’re bringing together some of the voices instrumental to the Darlington Statement to explore the origins of the document, how it supports our work in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and how we’d like to see this living document developed in the future. This night of analysis is not to be missed, with unique insight into this iconic human rights document in its fifth anniversary.

Panelists:

“Bonnie Hart is an intersex woman, peer worker, advocate and content expert. Bonnie has been instrumental in community development for the intersex community in Australia. Her current role is Prime Trauma-Truffle Harvester at Intersexyland: An upcycled fantasy-reality land where shameful pasts are transformed into powerful futures. Bonnie supports organisations and service providers devlop intersex inclusive practices through delivering training and policy review via the YellowTick initiative. Bonnie also a social science researcher who develops innovative models of psychosocial support, including InterLink, for intersex people and their families.”

“Mani Mitchell is an iconic intersex voice with decades of compassionate and formative work under their belt. Efforts that were recognised last year when they were awarded with a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit last year for their incredible contributions to intersex advocacy and education. An accomplished background in counselling and education, and a personal journey that coincided with the growth of the intersex human rights movement itself, Mani’s radical visibility has reached many across the globe.”

“Morgan Carpenter is an intersex man, bioethicist, executive director of Intersex Human Rights Australia, and creator of the intersex flag. He plays an active role in systemic advocacy on legislative, regulatory and clinical reform. He has worked on contracts to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, World Health Organization, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and Australian Capital Territory government, and an advisory group member for the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australian Bureau of Statistics and New South Wales Health. He is a member of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law.”

“Jelly O’Shea is the Community and Comms Manager for Intersex Aotearoa. Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), Jelly embraced the rights-based framework of The Darlington statement as they entered into intersex activism, and as a way to understand their own medical and social experiences as an intersex person. Jelly was lucky enough to be part of D2 and attend various retreats and conferences with the Aus cohorts, and celebrates the collaborative nature of the Darlington Statement that continues to bring wonderful humans together. When Jelly is not doing intersexy work, they like hanging with dogs, trees, and tinkering with jewellery.”

Event information:

This webinar will be held via Zoom on Wednesday the 26th October 2021 at the following times;
8.30-9.30pm (Aotearoa)
6.30-7.30pm (ACT/NSW/Tas/Vic)
5.30-6.30pm (QLD)
6-7pm (SA)
4.30-5.30pm (NT)
3.30-4.30pm (WA)

This recorded event will be made available for free afterwards on our website. However to help ensure the sustainability of our work, we ask that you consider a donation of $10 for the event to any of our organisations.