22 November 2024
President of the Legislative Council, Hon Alanna Clohesy MLC and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Hon Michelle Roberts MLA, were pleased to host the launch of ‘We hold up half the sky’, the culmination of the 2024 Parliament of Western Australia - Edith Cowan University Artist-in-Residence program on Tuesday 5 November.
This year’s Artist-in-Residence is multi-award winning artist Jo Darvall, who resides in Fremantle. Darvall created a suite of artworks during her residency with her principal artwork, a beautiful triptych titled 'Holman and the Mill Workers', celebrating May Holman MLA - Australia’s second female Member of Parliament.
During her first campaign Holman travelled through the mill towns of the South West, speaking from the ‘cow catcher’ of timber trains and addressing audiences from fallen logs. She advocated for a diverse constituency that included timber workers, orchardists, railway workers, potato growers, and dairy farmers. May Holman delivered a two-and-a-half hour speech in 1926 supporting the Timber Industries Regulation Act, one of the first pieces of worker health and safety legislation anywhere.
Next year, WA Parliament will celebrate 100 years since of the election of May Holman to the Legislative Assembly on 3 April, 1925.