Fi Peel

Fi Peel is a theatre maker, performing artist and composer. They took part in Sync Australia in 2022.

I’m mindful of a critical cultural divide between what masquerades as the social model of disability, more accurately defined as the social identity model as I continue to witness an over-reliance on the idea that that cultural affirmation will naturally translate into the intentional work of dismantling barriers, reconstructing inclusive policy and insisting upon reflexive application to practice. This dangerous assumption creates a much greater risk of exploitation in an increasingly voyeuristic culture of trauma mining, in pursuit of inspo-porn and ultimately ultimately influenced my own decision to step away from advocacy in federal policy reform.

Delving now deeply into composition to explore themes of voice, silence, and sacred identity and focusing intentionally on the development of It Takes a Company, a lived experience arts company born as a result of my time in Sync Australia, I’m reminded that timing isn’t just about metre. It’s about the instinct and curiosity. It’s about embracing true identity in all its complexity, consonance, dissonance, resonance, harmony, suspension and silence. It’s about expansion and contraction; exit and entry; tension and release; theme and variation; sturm und drang. It’s about authentic musicality. It’s about creating time to rest and play. t is not ‘either’-’or’ but rather ‘and’.

As a theatre-maker and performing artist, the theme of timing fascinates me and continues to teach challenging lessons.

Fi Peel

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