Fi Peel (they/them) is a lived experience recovery collaborator working independently under a sometimes model. They are a sometimes peer worker; sometimes peer workforce supervisor; sometimes co-designer; sometimes consultant; sometimes policy advisor; sometimes consumer academic; sometimes human rights, LGBTQIA+, mental health and disability reform advocate; sometimes speaker; sometimes educator and sometimes mentor.
They are also a ‘re-emerging’ artist, fusing cross-disciplinary explorations of the arts, health and behavioural sciences, to explore madness, voice, and authentic hope. Since 2020 they have sought to break their institutional shackles in the production/direction of live performance with This Is My Brave Australia, Keystone 1889’s Christmas Spectacular and The Cooperative; the writing of non-fiction narratives with A zine by US, The Activist Practitioner and Mad In America; and op-ed pieces with the Western Advocate, Independent Australia and RiotAct. Alongside that were scripts written with Rebus Theatre and poems with Red Room Poetry; Shakespearean roles with Bathurst Shakespeare Players, operatic roles with The Cooperative and devised characters with Rebus Theatre. They also managed the executive production and hosting of the Communities of Collaboration Podcast in collaboration with Good Shout; the blending of paints, the pursuit of play and the relentless challenging of their own fears of mis-gendering as operatic dramatic soprano with The Song Company Chorale and Oriana Chorale.
Fi can be regularly observed in unusual behaviours such as rehearsal engagement absorption; crafting worlds in words laser focus; stretching vocal cords and harmonic sequences in curious ways; clumsy and self-conscious dancing or wandering across unceded country lost in thought, with headphones blaring mixed playlists from Brahms to Broadway, always in search of the next strand of inspiration.
Diagnosis: Utterly Mad, Prognosis: Terminal, Treatment: Artistic
The offer to participate in the Sync Australia program and to be mentored by Disability Arts leaders not only in professional development but with the capacity to pay that forward to others seeking to find their feet within mainstream Arts Industry practice is equal parts humbling, exciting and energizing!