I knew these things, but somehow ‘the advertising’ got in the way
but I’m awake now and I know, I’ve always known,

that being ‘needed’ is not being ‘loved’

and being ‘controlled’ is not being ‘cared for’

BUTTERFLIES by Donna Williams

if someone takes your disabilities and makes them your gilded cage
then you take charge of your disabilities like never before
for they are your fallibility, the keys to your cage

a key you allowed someone else to call theirs
because they taught you this was love and caring
and in the light of day you realise it had nothing to do with you

so you look in the mirror and say, wow, there’s a fool
and brush off the dust and say, ok, so the world is full of fools so I’m in good company

and you look at your life and say, wow, there’s an island
but islands can build bridges

and you look at your smile and say
wow, I’d forgotten I could wake up with this

and you look at your time and say
you ain’t Florence Nightingale, so follow that smile
because a heart shouldn’t be heavy
it should be light
because a heavy heart will never fly
and butterflies can.

Donna Wiliams

http://www.donnawilliams.net

http://www.aspinauts.com

Musically supported by The Aspinauts Donna Williams performs How To Be A Boy and Mirror from the rock musical Footsteps of a Nobody.  Filmed by Lindsay at The Guild Theatre in Oct 09, the show was well received and travels next to the USA in Jan 2010 before returning to Australia for a show in Geelong.

Info on upcoming shows can be found at http://www.aspinauts.com Read the rest of this entry »

A parent, Sarah O’Connor, has started her own blog drawing on her experiences with her autistic daughter, Beth.  I invited her to send me some interview questions.  Here they are. Read the rest of this entry »

Jame Jar, produced by Charlie Stuart for UK’s Channel 4 TV in association with Fresh Film UK and directed by Simon Everson, Jam Jar was filmed in Wales in 1995 about author, Donna Williams.

SYNOPSIS:

Bestselling author Donna Williams lives on a farm in rural Wales with her first husband, a man on the autistic spectrum.   Here they live according to a different culture and rules that are taken for granted in the world beyond their own.  Donna becomes a tour guide showing us the person beyond the labels on the ‘jam jar’.   Poetic and artistic, Jam Jar explores Donna’s meaning deafness, meaning blindness in the context of autism and the social, emotional and communication bridges she uses to navigate with the world. Read the rest of this entry »

When an artist has a condition there is always the question of how or if that condition influences their work.  I was sent an interview about my relationship to sculpting, particularly the relationship of my autism to my sculpting.  Thought I’d share it. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve made a slideshow from the photos from the shows of Footsteps of a Nobody.  Hope you enjoy it.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

The term autism is highly politicised with some claiming their child as THE face of autism or desperately clinging to sinking stereotypes disappearing until the waves of diversity within the label itself.  One of the face of that diversity is the aspect of personal space.  Read the rest of this entry »

I was never one to wear shoes as a kid and didn’t think much of socks either.  I felt they were suffocating my feet.  It was like being blindfolded or having your hands in gloves all the time.  So whether the ground was covered in frost or the Australian summer tarmac so hot the tar stuck to your feet, those shoes came off!  Read the rest of this entry »

baloombawop

Written and produced by Donna Williams

and performed by Donna and The Aspinauts

Once upon tough time, there were Grumpy Gallumphies who didn’t like strangeness it made them quite grumpy. Then a magical train arrived from a dream and those who could dare, they had dared to get in. It was off to Baloomba-wop where they had purple rain, and a shop that even sold new replacement brains!

They would meet Charlie Warmton whose best friend was a blanket, and the Brookenstein Fox who lives up on a shelf, and Bluster-McFluster with his technical gadgets and the Gimmety-Gimme with everything for herself. They’d meet Booger-Looger who picks his nose to perfection and the Whirly-twirl-girl who lacks any direction. And Gadoodleborger who runs a magical shop which just happens to be where the train is to stop.

But deep in Baloomba-wop, a Grumpy Gallumphy, the notorious Dame Grumpty-Doo-bee-the-Fourth. She is looking to change Baloomba-wop for forever. She’s determined to make all these weirdoes quite plain. Will she be stopped before everything’s ‘normal’, I wonder. Or succeed making all be exactly the same? Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time I was in Toronto, a place with icy ponds and mother of pearl rainbows sparkled in frost.  I was taken to CBS radio station to meet with a journalist, Peter Gzowski.  He was a toasty man, a voice like an open fire, a manner like Read the rest of this entry »