When I completed an internship at the NFSA, I was excited to discover a personal connection to the NFSA collection.
I’m not the first intern to discover the work of family members in the collection. In my case, I found out that my aunt, Prue Borthwick, was part of the groundbreaking radio program Gaywaves (1979-2005 on Sydney community station 2SER). Prue grew up in Canberra and moved to Sydney in 1980. She was involved with the program from 1980 to approximately 1991.
In an interview I conducted with Prue, she told me about her many roles in Gaywaves, which was the norm for this passionate group of volunteer broadcasters. She explained: ‘My years with Gaywaves coincided with a time when I lived and breathed gay liberation. I was also active in the Gay Liberation Choir, AngGays (the Anglican gay group), the Christian Lesbian Collective and the Gay Christian Network. My work, firstly as a freelance book illustrator and then at Streetwize Comics, allowed me the time and space to engage as an activist.’
For Prue, connecting her personal experiences with her on-air persona and sharing them with the audience, was a natural process.
‘We took seriously the feminist slogan that “the personal is the political”, so it seemed very natural in that context to be sharing personal insights about your sexuality with others, as part of a movement. We were constantly reminded by our listeners and members of what it felt like to be closeted or struggling with negative stereotypes, or even self-oppression, not to mention active oppression by homophobic institutions and individuals.’
One of the shows that Prue produced was the infamous Lesbian Sex Special in 1982:
‘It was a mixture of personal stories, music and a soundscape. It was almost like poetry, where a group of us sat with a microphone in someone’s lounge room and recorded short phrases or words that we thought captured sexual sensations and actions.’
After airing the special the station received two complaints and had to face the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, which classified the program as ‘indecent’ and ‘obscene’. I actually think it is pretty cool that my aunt was responsible for such a controversy!
In the following clip from 2SER's Media Magazine program in 1992, Prue talks to Jackie Rundle about the 1982 controversy: