Lisa Bellear - Infinite Women

Born: 2 May 1961, Australia
Died: 5 July 2006
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA

The following is republished with permission from the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Lisa Bellear’s work as an artist, poet, photographer, broadcaster, activist and academic continues to inspire change and educate.

Lisa was a strong female voice in the community, even in the male dominated areas of politics and academia. With a Bachelor of Social Work, a Masters in Women’s Studies and a Masters in Creative Writing, Lisa lectured and worked as an academic at around 30 university campuses. She also began a doctorate on Contemporary Indigenous issues through radio and photographic texts.

In 1986, she joined two other women to start the long running radio program Not Another Koori Show at community radio station 3CR.

At 27, Lisa was elected as a councillor at Collingwood City Council, where she worked for a year before heading up the Koori Liaison Office at the University of Melbourne.

Dedicated to social change, she represented the stolen generation on the Victorian Stolen Generations’ Taskforce and the Victorian Sorry Day Committee. She worked as a council member of Reconciliation Victoria.

Lisa was a founding member of the Illbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative, Australia’s longest running Indigenous theatre troupe, and was the creative inspiration for their 2006 production, The Dirty Mile. Lisa was also a poet and published a book of poetry, Dreaming in Urban Areas, with University of Queensland Press.

A passionate photographer, Lisa began exhibiting her work in 1991 and her photos were used to represent Australia at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

Lisa was well aware of the role photography has in connecting people, saying: “As someone who was removed from their family and subsequently given photographs of my mother and other family members, I know how important… a photograph can be.”