Artist and advocate coming to festival

WHEN Eliza Hull chose to become a parent, her decision was not met with the excitement she expected.

The artist, who lives in Castlemaine, has lived with the neurological condition Charcot-Marie-Tooth since she was five, which led to muscle loss and affects the way she walks.

“When I decided to become a parent eight years ago, it was really the first time I experienced medicalised discrimination,” she said.

“My neurologist said I shouldn’t be a parent. I remember being so excited meeting my husband to be and wanting to start a family.

When she couldn’t find any media about being a disabled parent, Hull decided to take the matter into her own hands.

She wrote and edited the new book We’ve Got This, an anthology of stories from 25 parents with disabilities designed to change the perception of what a parent should be.

Now she’ll share the book in front of an Ulumbarra Theatre audience for the Bendigo Writers’ Festival in May.

“I wanted to show a real varied scope of what disability looks like in Australia,” she said. “There’s parents that identify as having a chronic illness, a disability, that are wheelchair users, parents with dwarfism and parents that identify as deaf.

“They were so thankful, they wished that this book was around when they were thinking of having a child… they were excited to share their story to help people with disabilities with their decision to parent.”

Hull’s daughter is now seven, and her proud mother said she has grown up with an exceptional sense of acceptance.

“She’s really open to diversity and differences, she’s a really caring child, she’s inclusive at school and she’s really proud to have a parent with a disability,” Hull said.

Catch the multitalented artist on Friday, 13 May at 5pm at Ulumbarra Theatre for the What Makes a Family panel, and then at 7pm for the What It Takes To Flourish panel.

For tickets head to bendigowritersfestival.com.au