Retracing Queer Footprints
RETRACING GIPPSLAND'S QUEER FOOTPRINTS
As part of the 2025 Victoria's Pride celebrations, we are working with the Victorian Government and Midsumma to ensure statewide representation of LGBTQIA+ communities. Explore the queer history of the Gippsland Area (Gunaikurnai country) with our project Queer-ways: Retracing Gippsland's Queer Footprints.
We will be travelling to Gippsland on our third regional road trip and illustrating a new augmented reality map. Add your locations of queer significance to our digital queer map below so that we can visit and illustrate them!
By retracing queer footprints, we can step into a future where all of our histories are celebrated and acknowledged.
JOIN US IN GIPPSLAND
DATE: SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER
TIME: 11-3
LOCATION: Warragul Goods Shed
Warragul, VIC, 3820
Join us at the Warragul Goods Shed on Saturday, 23 November to chart your queer stories and sites onto a map of Gippsland!
The stories you share will feature in our augmented reality Queer Map of Gippsland, a permanent record of Gippsland's rainbow community, that will return to the local area early next year for exhibition.
Add your footprints
We're seeking submissions of your queer locations of significance and experiences in Gippsland. We'll accept all stories, happy or sad because it is important to represent the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ experience. No story is unimportant, so if you know a location to add, fill in our form and add your footprints to our Digitial Queer Map of Gippsland.
Tell us your story, whatever it is. Did you have a queer awakening? Or maybe a significant experience that made you the queer you are today? Where did it happen? All stories are welcome, big or small, from the past or present.
All personal information collected remains secure and is used to help us confirm that our map represents the experiences of all of Melbourne's LGBTQIA+ community. If you have any issues with supplying personal details, please leave these sections unanswered. Locations added to the map will be anonymous and will not include any personal details.
DIGITAL QUEER MAP OF gIPPSLAND
To browse our map, click the symbol in the top left corner to pull out a menu that lists all locations. Here you will be able to filter between community stories and stories collected from the archive.
Alternatively, click on the symbols in the map to read more about the significance of each location to Gippsland's Queer History.
If you would like to explore the map in full screen, press the symbol on the top right corner. This will direct you to our Google My Map site.
Please allow two business days from submission for your story to appear on the map. Although we intend to represent all peoples and stories, some submissions may not be fit for our project and will not be listed.
OUR SUPPORTERS
Queer-ways: Retracing Geelong's Queer Footprints has been made possible through the support of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Queer-ways was established on the unceded traditional lands of the Wurundjeri nation in the Kulin alliance.
This project focuses on the geographical location referred to as “Gippsland" in Gunaikurnai country. The map we have utilised is based on previous settler-colonial cartography and may not accurately reflect the Aboriginal cultural landscape.
In the future, we hope to find and develop the technology to integrate Indigenous nations into the Queer-ways map. If you are not aware of the rightful custodians of the land on which you are located, you can learn more at www.aiatsis.gov.au.
Queer-ways acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders, past and present, and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We encourage you to take steps towards learning more about how you can support Indigenous communities in the fight for sovereignty.