DREAMWEAVERS is a series of short documentaries by award winning filmmakers Heather Forbes-McKeon and Yanni Dellaportas about three Mornington Peninsula-based women who have suffered adversity and inspired others.
The films focus on the women’s objectives, motivations, challenges they face in relation to their goals and what advice they have for others.
Ecologist and ethnobotanist Gidja Walker has worked for years protecting landscapes and overcame discrimination in a male dominated profession.
She is a mentor to young women entering the world of nature-based learning and an advocate for traditional owner custodianship.
Over many decades, Walker has contributed professionally and informally as a consultant and advisor to government bodies and community-based organisations. In 2006 she received Prime Minister’s Banksia Award for the Back from the Brink, an endangered orchid species recovery project.
Jacquie Beddows suffered a stroke and aneurysm when she was 50 years old in 2011. While no longer being able to work as an early childhood support worker, she established Singing for Wellness in 2015 and Art for Wellness in 2019 at Seawinds Community Hub, Rosebud.
Although still challenged in many ways, Beddows’ focusses on helping and inspiring others who have had life changing events. Dreamweaver- Jacquie Beddows won the My Local Hero category at the 2022 Peninsula Film Festival and was a finalist in the 2022 National Focus on Ability Film Festival.
Liz Hicklin is a 92-year-old author, poet, and raconteur who is an inspiration to local writers and women.
Her two adult daughters suffered from mental illness and committed suicide seven years apart when aged in their early 40s.
Hicklin challenges people’s views on ageing, particularly as a performer, and recently won a poetry slam at the Clunes Booktown Festival and was featured on ABC radio Melbourne.
The Dreamweavers series will be shown at Rosebud Cinema on the evening of Tuesday 24 October. After the screening a Q & A session hosted by former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty AO, will be held with the films’ subjects of the films. Net proceeds of the event will be donated to the Good Shepherd Refuge in the Bayside and Mornington Peninsula area.
Details: peninsulacinemas.com.au
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 17 October 2023
