Welcome dear friends, to a picture of me posing with several WA Politicians, in the WA Parliament foyer. Obviously fans of the WA parliament will have already seen this collage pop up in their FB feed but at the risk of boring those people I’ve screen cap’d it to share with y’all (in other words, apologies for the poor image quality.)
Source: https://www.facebook.com/ParliamentWA/photos/a.333971124135509/1099429560922991/
Almost two months ago I headed into the WA Parliament building for a photo op to officially open the new Edith Cowan Tough Nut Brooch display, now a permanent fixture in the foyer in the WA parliament building. You might remember my previous post, where I explained the pin I designed and made to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the election of Australia’s first female parliamentarian, Edith Cowan, in 1921. Named the EC 100 pin, these were sent by Christine Tonkin MLA to all female-identifying state parliamentarians to acknowledge and celebrate the milestone.
In the top photo above (going left to right) are the two Presiding Officers, (and let me state the obvious – they’re both women in WA right now) the Honourable Michelle Roberts MLA – current Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and the Honourable Alanna Clohesy MLC – current President of the Legislative Council, and me, followed by my friend and the commissioner of the EC 100 pin, Christine Tonkin MLA.
Inside the permanent display is an Edith Cowan 100 Commemorative Pin (my hunch is that it’s a hand-cut prototype but to my shame I forgot to check the back of it to confirm this) and a reproduction of the original Tough Nut pin, alongside the gum nut and leaves I drew when designing the piece (and a few more leaves and nuts added by the display designer), some sketches/process drawings from designing the pin, as well as an image of Christine and I with a finished pin. Also in there is an excerpt of my statement from the leaflet accompanying the pins, that explains the history of the pins, and why we chose to update this symbol for 2021.
If you ever happen to be in the foyer of the Western Australian parliament, check it out (I can recommend the art tour, they have quite the collection of works by WA artists as you’d expect). Located right by the spiral stairs, it’s hard to miss.
