WHEN: 7pm, 4th Thursday of the month
WHERE: Honey Thai Restaurant, 1678 Main Rd, Belgrave (just up from Belgrave railway station footbridge)
WHAT: Dinner (meals start from around $17 and special diets can be catered for) with others on the spectrum
WHO: teens and adults on the autism spectrum and their direct support people.
This group has been successfully running since 2006.
Note: we have established 2 important ground rules for attendees
1) this is NOT an opportunity to study people with autism or explore ways to enter the autism field
2) those attending are expected to be self management skills (ie: able to respect other people’s space, have reasonable hygiene, respect the venue etc).
Any doubts whether this group is for you, please contact Donna: bookings@donnawilliams.net

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.

This item originally posted here:

Social opportunities for people with autism in Melbourne

December, 22nd. Chris and I had walked around the villages in the Dandenong Ranges to take in the community cheer that shop keepers gift us with in December. But it was nowhere to be found… with the exception of Monbulk… yay, Monbulk! But that was only because their community of traders had a competition for the best Christmas window.

But for Chris and I, their windows were a gift to the community, its their festive face, its the someone who dares to dag, to put festivity out there, to spark others to celebrate, to raise spirits in something we could all share. The other villages, Belgrave, Tecoma, Upwey, Kalista, Mount Dandenong, Olinda, Sassafras, Emerald, but for the handful of exceptions (however small) who remembered or bothered, were largely devoid of any effort at ‘cheer’. Instead, they presented like Scrooge, bland, almost stating ‘business as usual’ or, more bluntly, ‘can’t be bothered’. And what they forgot was that this resonates with those walking past their windows, and then we can’t be bothered to look much further into their windows… they modeled ‘why be bothered’ and we resonated that.

I decided to ask a few shop keepers why they had pulled the plug on decorating their windows. There were so many reasons:

* they couldn’t see the point spending money when business had been tough all year
* there was nobody around, everyone is buying on the internet
* most decorations are from petrochemicals, made in sweatshops and lights contribute to global warming
* decorations are for those celebrating Christianity so if you’re not Christian why do it
* having a whole street or village join in promoting a Christian event is culturally excluding to non-Christians and therefore not culturally sensitive to the vast numbers of non-Christians (including atheists and humanists).
* we have a summer Christmas so decorations of snowflakes, snowmen or heavy dressed Santa make no sense
* Christmas decorations in the huge shopping malls are so homogenous, pristine and ‘designer’ they felt their own would be poor by comparison
* people felt bombarded by the ‘hard sell’ use of Christmas decorations used as early as September for a season in December and they didn’t want to look like they were desperately pushing the same hard sell.
* customers complained in general about the pressure of Christmas, its wastage, its kitsch, its sensory bombardment, its me-me greed, its hard sell style of Chri$tma$ as the celebration of materialism and profits.
* keeping decorations in a box all year took up space for no good reason
* when December came, they looked around and saw nobody else was doing decorations so couldn’t get ‘in the mood’ and decided they wouldn’t either.

There is much to celebrate in December in Australia. We don’t have snow but we do have sunshine. The trees are gifting us with saplings ready to pot and gift to others. The herbs in our gardens are so abundant they are crying out to be turned into ‘bush bouquets’ and plaited garlands to be gifted to others directly or through displaying them for the passing community. The bees are active, the butterflies are everywhere, the birds are singing and all pollinating the plants and trees in fruit, waiting to be picked and shared with others. The open spaces are waiting for celebratory gatherings. It is time for dancing, singing, playing instruments, poetising, throwing an ‘art party’, story telling (there’s some good Dreamtime sun stories), time to dag out, be part of the abundance of nature and remember we are part of nature too. Dress up as an elf, don your butterfly wings, adorn yourself with flowers and vines and celebrate the earth and its abundance. You can even have a safe silk ‘bonfire’!

December in Australia is our Summer Solstice, the celebration of summer and solstice is an astronomical event, an event of nature that belongs to us all regardless of religion, beliefs or differences. You can commemorate solstice whether you are Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, Neo-pagan or committed undecided humanoid.

Is there a place for shops in Summer Solstice? Of course there is. Imagine our villages celebrating the spirit of summer in all its energy, exuberance, inspiration, abundance. Selling hammers and wheelbarrows? Great, we can use them to put up a summer garland or barrow the plants we’ve been gifted or intend to gift. Selling dresses? Wonderful. We can buy them and embellish them with the colors and symbols of summer; leaves, berries, flowers. A Beautician? Great, you can adorn hair and faces with color and the symbols of nature. A real estate agent? Then boast the gardens of your properties waiting to be seen, the opportunities in a season of enthusiasm and activity to take on something new. A paint shop? Remind people of the gift of color, its place in celebration, creativity, inspiration. A travel agent? Summer is a time of high energy, of getting out there, of having experiences. There are no excuses.

When I was a teenager in the late 70s-early 80s, I left dandelions on door knockers, filled discarded bottles with pine needles in water and ran tinsel around the outside to make “bottle trees” for people, dressed as an elf, bought sweets and went to the city and offered them around to strangers. In my twenties I dressed up as a bear and ran about in the snow (in Birmingham). When I was 30, I made mini boxes of dandelion seeds as “wish boxes” and dressed as a Santa girl and went shopping.

Sure, Christmas is presently a conglomeration. For devoted Christians it will always be a time of going to church, of worshipping what they believe in, of celebrating in the name of Jesus and that’s valid for them and being summer solstice in no way takes away from their right to celebrate Christmas their own way. But until the 4th century Christmas was, simply, a celebration of the season, it was Yule. And in Australia, our season is summer. Our summer solstice coincides with Christmas time just as winter solstice does in the Northern Hemisphere. Chris and I We have a Summer tree, decorated with clip on craft butterflies and birds, beads and bling. We have a garland on our porch in rich summer colors with craft berries and fruits. I decorated the fence with ‘bush bouquets’ and we put up our little string of lights to spread the cheer with those passing.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The end of the year is a time to celebrate new beginnings, sometimes after a very tough year. My husband and I were both in hospital this year facing challenges that could have taken our lives. December was a time to celebrate new beginnings.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.

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Happy Solstice everyone! Where’s your ‘bling’?

The spectrum of dissociative disorders includes dissociation, depersonalisation, derealisation…. sound like big words? The overdeveloped tendency to daydream, cut off from or highly compartmentalise experiences (dissociation), struggling to relax with intimacy, entanglement, familiarity or taking anything personally, emotionally (depersonalisation) or the feeling life is like a movie or that one may be dreaming one’s life, that things seem unreal (derealisation).

Further along the spectrum of dissociative disorders is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder associated with still relatively relateable experiences as vast as bullying to car accidents, natural disasters, and witnessing or experiencing assault or abuse. Beyond this is Dissociative Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DDNos)… people who have compartmentalised parts of them that are not integrated into the whole of them and may experience themselves as divided, multiple in their presentation, their identity. And at the most extreme end is Dissociative Identity Disorder itself (DID) which is a more entrenched version of DDNos in which those compartmentalised parts of the self have broken out (like leaking compartmentalised parts of the subconscious) with their own individual lives, often naming themselves as separate to each other and living with different degrees of awareness of each other.

Is DID equated with being emotionally erratic, self injurious, Borderline? No. Many people with DID live seemingly normal lives, most do not self injure, are not dangerous to themselves or others and most people would never know they had DID.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is commonly confused with DID, and even many therapists struggle to differentiate the two conditions but in fact BPD is only one of 5 personality disorders commonly overlapping with DID and only the 4th most common to do so and many people with the DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY disorder of DID will not have personality disorders at all.

Those with BPD may experience constant deflection into roles and derealisation but roles are not alters, compulsive deflection into roles is not the same as splitting, and derealisation is only one of several experiences that people with DID experience. So, in fact DID has no direct relationship to BPD at all and those with BPD experiencing derealisation and compulsive deflection into roles might be best joining a support group for those who understand, respect and relate to BPD.

So is there a Melbourne meet up group for those with DID? Meetup doesn’t have one yet and many with DID could be afraid of meeting people with seriously unchecked BPD issues or DID Wannabes (sightseers) excited to hear the experiences of those diagnosed with the condition in order to feign having what they find exciting or imagine will make them more interesting. Those with DID will naturally find this extremely offensive and tedious so it’s no surprise that there aren’t meet up groups for those with DID. Those who think they may have DID or DDNos or other dissociative disorders should see a professional qualified to explore the condition with them. Most people with a diagnosis of DID did not go out in search of a diagnosis and if you want to tune in to the stories of those with DID go buy a book.

I have three friends formally diagnosed with DID and have met with several others. Almost all have been relatively functional people. I am formally diagnosed with DID and other than also being a person with autism/information processing issues and immune disorders who has just come through cancer experiences, I’d say I’m also a reasonably functional person. I strongly value my hard won equilibrium and have no interest in losing that. Nevertheless, perhaps here is at least a place for other Melbournians who are formally diagnosed with DID to introduce themselves, be out of the closet and connect with others dealing with the same diagnosed condition.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.

This item originally posted here:

Dissociative Disorders, Melbourne meet ups?

Brand New Day

Save a penny, save a dime, save a dollar,
Save the time
you might have spent on holiday
something else may come your way.
You hope and wish and want and pray,
But whose to say you get what your order?
Sometimes the last thing you might ask for
Is delivered to your door.
And adventures, you may have in store.
A roller coaster, labyrinth, a challenge far beyond your norm.
A dark night of the soul or two,
a psycho-social thunder storm.
An army coming o’er the hill,
a nemesis you’d have to greet.
These and many more surrealisms,
may just ballet dance on down your street.
And they bear gifts, macabre and great,
they sweep aside the clutter and the waste,
they show you time and space, mortality,
they are perhaps the light and way,
they remind us all of gravity
and give us perspective of each brand new day.

By Donna Williams, Dec, 2011

Isolated

Isolation
Masturbation
Self Imprisoned soul.
Dissociate
Procrastinate
It’s your own empty bowl.
Or wake and shake the cobwebs off.
A muscle left to waste, WILL waste.
A mind, a body, a heart,
or speech, or daring,
or empathy, caring…
Want to complain?
But who was it threw the skill potential
swiftly down the drain?
We side with defences
cherish invisible fences
of the soul?
Then complain how hard it’s all become,
the bumps of life, the guests who didn’t come.
Go ask the tree if you’re alone,
the leaves and rain and wind are calling,
but all you see’s the silent phone.

By Donna Williams, Dec, 2011

Doubled Jointed

Perplexing
Flexing
limbs a kimbo
Contorting gymnasts
bend but don’t break.
Will you bend over backwards
to be ‘so normal’.
Double jointed is no mistake.

By Donna Williams, Dec, 2011

Frustration Nation

Who contemplated naming nations?
A history of waring factions,
winners losers
refugees and choosers
chasing dreams and venting their frustrations?
Some fought for flags,
Some fought for banks,
Some fought for bosses,
without thanks.
Some lost community within picket fences,
within me, me, me and mine, mine, mine
within consumer driven bought pretenses.
The cost of this, the cost of that,
you want your cigarettes, your latest gadget or your thirteenth hat?
Your dogs needs clipping, your cats need perms,
your house needs detoxing from the germs
their immunity once fought,
but not now, in a society where slightest risk means litigation.
Not a wonder that we think we suffer from ‘frustration nation’.

Family

Hold a hand and wipe a bum,
be a parent or a chum
keep the boundaries
or hand the buck
care to the point of co-dependency
or instead, don’t give a *%&$.

Preen the object, curl the hair, pageant girls and cowboy suit boys.
Five hundred dollar birthdays and gadgets by credit card
dog and cat and rabbit run amok in nice back yard.

Family roast dinner, and tinsel on the Christmas tree
Smiling times and happy smiles,
and orphans only live on TV.

Fighting in the car backseat,
‘do we have to have one like you?’
headrest imprints of muddy feet,
and fairy floss at the zoo.

Mother smother and father ‘who’,
Forever and ever, a bloodline we share
but with blood donors worldwide I can get that anywhere.

Hungry feelers

Hungry feelers, feed me, feed me,
feed me feelings, love me, need me,
be my world
be my hero
be my savior
mamma, papa
be my mirror
be my icon
and I will be your
leeeeech

Teenage Angst

The toddlerhood of adulthood
the teenager throws a tanty.
Respect?
You know it all dinosaur.
Authority, I blaspheme you.
Heritage, I discard you.
Boundaries, I defy you.
Respect, I revile you.
My rebellion moment bores me.
I failed to scare you, control you, reduce you.
You stood strong, didn’t suck, held your ground.
In your hand, two cups of tea.

Deception Soup

Invested interest.
Stir the pot.
What is truth.
What is not.
Lost in whispers
outside the loop.
A steaming pot
of deception soup.

By Donna Williams, Dec, 2011

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.

This item originally posted here:

Donna Williams’ Poetry Jam – Dec 2011

Warmly,

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.

This item originally posted here:

Donna Williams’ December 2011 Christmas Art Sale

Those who exercise throughout chemo tend to do better and I suffer from Dysautonomia which is aggravated by the chemo. This interferes with my brain’s ability to regulate things like heart and breathing, messes with circulation, interferes with bladder and bowel function, causes brain fog, reduces brain function during acute episodes and is generally pretty awful. Exercise is one of the most important parts of working with Dysautonomia. I also live with immune deficiencies and of course exercise is really important in keeping what immune function one has.

Our post office is a 10 min walk there and back. Those buying a pack of my art cards throughout September to November will be encouraging me to do this walk and I’ll pop in 5 extra cards including a signed one from me. You can purchase 10 of one design OR specify in the comment box that you’d like me to send 10 varied cards and mention some you like. Here’s the link for those interested.

Warmly,
Donna *)

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

BIG THANK YOU TO:

Nikki Yokoyama
Anita O’Flynn
Marisol Villamil
Suzanne Ayres

for so far supporting this program.

This item originally posted here:

Buy art cards and get me walking!

This item originally posted here:

Introducing Photographic Art by Chris Samuel

The sale will only run to the end of August 2011. You can visit my online gallery to view the available paintingshere. If you find a work you like, take 50% off the listed price. That would be the price, plus postage and packing (which varies from $10 upwards depending on the size of the work). You then email me and I’ll tell you the postage cost for what you’re interested in and if you’re still happy, I invoice you via PayPal for the art work you are interested in. You pay for the art work and it would be with you within 7-10 days.

Warmly,

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of this country throughout Australia, and their connection to land and community.

This item originally posted here:

Donna Williams’ August 2011 Art-Not-Cancer Art Sale

Exhibition Opening 6-8pm July 21 2011
Exhibition runs July 19 – August 06 2011

The latest exhibition by Melbourne based graffiti maestro Duel represents this artists progression, passion and individuality. Duel’s new works have multi dimensional brilliance, are like an untamed life force, and bounce off the canvases immersing you in their energy. Colors and splats, ribbons and weaves, take you on a journey through Duels past, his development of style, and future innovations.

Kick Gallery is located at 4 Peel Street Collingwood & open Tuesday-Friday11am-6pm & Saturday 12-5pm

For further information contact Kick Gallery on 0412 243 818 or email info@kickgallery.com

This item originally posted here:

DUEL The Aerosol Assassin – an A-Z graffiti art exhibition

Edna Everage behaving like someone’s doting grandmother always felt more like the wolf from Red Riding Hood dressed in grandma’s clothes.

Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage 1970s

Les Patterson seemed synonymous with the drunks at the many parties held by my criminal family in the 1970s.

Barry Humphries as early Les Patterson

As an adult when I saw pictures of Barry Humphries I felt dread. I couldn’t help but see a leering, macabre clown. So I’m not at all surprised to find he’s now been cast in Peter Jackson’s film, The Hobbit as The Goblin King.

Goblins, described in Wikipedia, are legendary evil or mischievous creature, described as a grotesquely evil.

Barry Humphries as Les Patterson in the 1970s

I had nightmares of such a grotesque clown, the hungry eyes, the leering smirk like smile broadening into teeth. I was one of those kids who was wary of clowns, all I saw were dressed up men.

Perhaps my own experiences colored that. My father was friends with entrepreneur and TV host Kevin Dennis since the 60s and entertainer Smacka Fitzgibbon in the early 70s, both of them mutual friends of Barry Humphries, who my older brother told me came to the parties too.

barry humphries 1970s

I’m sure, rhe parties in the early 70s would fit in the film, The Hobbit. Our parties were places of wild decadence and extravagance, places of no boundaries, the stuff of film really. Our parties had the very lack of boundaries so openly celebrated, enjoyed and written about in the diaries of self confessed pedophile, Donald Friend, a close friend of Barry Humphries whose lifestyle Humphries refers to as ‘benevolent pedophilia’.

I’m sure you could find many a Goblin King at our parties back then. As for Hobbits, as an almost eight year old around the adults swanning it at our parties, I felt like a hobbit, seeking out places to feel safe. But those parties were never safe for children.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

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Barry Humphries as The Goblin King in a world of Hobbits