Mother’s Day, Briefs: Dirty Laundry and more—30+ things to do this week in Canberra
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Mother’s Day, a night of ridiculous showmanship and much more. Here’s how to spend this week in Canberra.
Special Events and Festivals
Briefs: Dirty Laundry
The Briefs boys are back with their hills hoist poised ready to air their Dirty Laundry in this brand-new party cabaret you don’t want to miss out on. Featuring a line-up of classic Briefs boys as well as some shiny new boys and toys, expect glitter stains, ballsy attitudes and more as they give you a night of intoxifying physicality, gob-smacking comedy, unapologetic truths, and ridiculous showmanship.
Wednesday 10 until Saturday 13 May | Canberra Theatre Centre, London Circuit, Canberra City | Book here.
French Australian Preschool Open Day
Come and say ‘bonjour’ at the French Australian Preschool for their Open Day! Learn all about their unique program that’s a fusion of French curriculum and the Australian Early Years Framework and how it will benefit your little one.
Saturday 13 May | 31 Astrolabe Street, Red Hill | frenchaustralianpreschool.com.au
Tapestry of Cultures Family Festival
Experience a tapestry of sights, sounds and tastes as the National Museum of Australia celebrate cultures and communities from around the world. In this special free festival you’ll be able to taste delicious food, browse market stalls, enjoy music and dance performances and get inspired with family friendly activities and workshops.
Saturday 13 May | National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton | nma.gov.au
Mother’s Day Market
Spend Saturday sourcing your gifts from incredible local vendors. You’ll be sure to find something for every Mum (or Mum figure). You could even bring them along to pick it out themselves!
Saturday 13 May | Fitters Workshop Printers Way, Kingston | thecbrwoman.com.au
Mumfest at Haig Park Village Markets
Say ‘cheers’ to all mums this Mother’s Day with a free cocktail making course, a pamper palace with mini manicures and mini makeovers, delicious sweet and savoury treats, loads of fabulous market stalls and more all at the fabulous Haig Park!
Sunday 14 May | Haig Park, Braddon | haigparkvillagemarkets.com.au
Super Sunday for Mother’s Day
Take mum out for a day at the markets where she can enjoy the vibrant atmosphere and see some of the best handcrafts and high-quality items on offer! Taste a wide selection of delicious food, see an array of fine jewellery, try on the latest styles from local designers and much more.
Sunday 14 May | 21 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston | obdm.com.au
Declutter Your Mind: A Meditation Day Retreat
Take a day to relax and refresh your mind with this Meditation Day Retreat. Designed for everyone (from beginners to experienced meditators), in this session you’ll learn meditation techniques that will dissolve turbulence and mental tightness, enjoy morning tea on the lawn, and be served a delicious vegetarian lunch—and leave feeling cherished, refreshed and mentally lighter.
Sunday 14 May | Ainslie Arts Centre, 30 Elouera Street, Braddon | Book here.
Double Witness | Floor Talk with the Artist
Artist Meng-Yu Yan 颜梦 will giving a floor talk to guide visitors through the Double Witness exhibition.
Meng-Yu Yan is a photomedia-based, cross-disciplinary artist who blends digital photographic methods with analogue manipulation, sculpture, time-based mediums, and installation. Infused with Daoist philosophy and a love for darkness, the artist enjoys playing “photographic games” with their audience; amalgamating shadows, mirrors, light, glass, and water to conjure visual dreamscapes.
Characterised by spontaneity and experimentation Yan’s practice conveys strong conceptual engagement with self-reflection and alienation. As a first-generation Australian-Chinese queer non-binary artist, Yan’s work consistently confronts the intersections between race, culture, spirituality, sexuality, and gender identity. Marked by fragmentation, multiplicity, and the unconscious, their self-portraiture is reminiscent of Surrealist photographers such as Claude Cahun and Duane Michals. Using photography as a medium to channel otherworldly and paranormal phenomena, they are fascinated by spirit photography, divination, performative haunting, and astrological practices.
Yan’s first solo exhibition ‘occulere – vision & concealment’ debuted at Dominik Mersch Gallery in 2017. In 2019 Meng was awarded the Ross Steele Scholarship to fund their residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France. Yan completed their Master of Fine Arts (Research) funded by the Australian Government RTP Scholarship at UNSW Art & Design in 2020. Their research explored queer spectrality and cultural haunting through experimental photography.
See more information about the Double Witness exhibition here.
Free event, register at Eventbrite
Thursday 11 May from 12.30-1 pm | CIW Gallery, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University
Screening: PETROL
Fresh from its return from New York’s New Directors/New Films festival, and a glowing review from The New Yorker, Australian audiences will have an opportunity to see Alena Lodkina’s new feature film PETROL at a special screening accompanied by a Q&A in Canberra ahead of its release at Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema on May 12 and Melbourne’s Cinema Nova on 15 June.
PETROL, the story of a haunted friendship between two young women, and the discovery of the world and self through a strange bond, is quintessentially Melbourne in its setting, the city where it was shot and edited.
Eva, an impressionable film student of Russian background, befriends an enigmatic performance artist named Mia who quickly takes hold of Eva’s imagination. As Eva moves in with Mia and their lives grow more and more entwined, Eva sets off on a surreal journey of awakening, haunted by dreams, fantasies and ghosts.
View the PETROL trailer here.
Thursday 11 May from 6 pm | Canberra Arc Cinema with Nathalie Morris | petrolfilm.com
Food and Wine
High Tea and the CWA
Join the National Archives of Australia for a high tea and hear how the Country Women’s Association has pushed for social change in Australia. Exploring the ideas behind ‘more than tea and scones’, the morning will start with a tour of the exhibition, Disrupt, persist, invent: Australians in an ever-changing world, followed by tea and canapes in the café.
Saturday 13 May | National Archives of Australia, Kings Avenue, Parkes | Book here.
Mother’s Day Wine Tasting
To celebrate Mother’s Day this year, the National Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Team (NZACT) has paired with Lerida Estate Winery to bring you an exclusive wine-tasting event – set right in front of the cheetahs and rhinos! With special guest appearances from some of their furry and scaly residents, light refreshments and a unique gift for every guest to take home, it promises to be a treat. All proceeds from this event will be donated by NZACT to Australian Seabird and Turtle Rescue.
Sunday 14 May | 999 Lady Denman Dr, Yarralumla | Book here.
Mother’s Day with Big River Distilling Co
Are you looking to do something remarkable with your family Mother’s Day? On Sunday 14 May Big River Distilling Co will host Mother’s Day gatherings with a special one-off cocktail and a gourmet grazing platter.
Small and large groups can be catered for. The cost is $60 for 1 person and this includes a cocktail and gourmet platter, then $20 for each additional person which includes their cocktail.
Space is limited, so please book here for your preferred session of either 12 noon or 2 pm.
Sunday 14 May | Dairy Road, Fyshwick | bigriverdistilling.com.au/collections/new-arrivals/products/mothers-day-event
Mother’s Day at the National Arboretum
Celebrate mum like she deserves this Mother’s Day. Our suggestion? Take her to a special lunch in the restaurant, high tea in the Village Centre or a relaxing picnic in the forests and gardens….there’s the perfect option for every mum at the National Arboretum.
Sunday 14 May | Village Centre, National Arboretum Canberra | Book here.
Mother’s Day High Tea at Parliament House
Treat mum this Mother’s Day with an exquisite high tea at Queen’s Terrace Café at Parliament House. There will be a delicious range of sweet and savoury treats with a choice of tea or barista-made coffee (as well as the chance to add a glass of sparkling wine for that extra special touch). Make a day of it, enjoy the beautiful views of Canberra, and explore the building’s architecture, surrounding gardens and art.
Sunday 14 May | Queen’s Terrace Café, 1 Parliament Drive, Canberra | Book here.
Mother’s day Brunch at the Alby
Nothing says ‘I love you Mum’ like endless mimosas at brunch. Spoil mama with fresh pastries, breakfast dishes, sweet treats, barista coffee, and bubbles this Mother’s Day.
Sunday 14 May | 45 Furzer St, Phillip | thealby.com.
Stage and screen
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap
The longest-running West End show, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is touring! For 70 years, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has kept millions of people from every corner of the globe on the edge of their seats. This genre-defining murder mystery features a brilliant surprise finish, so expect the unexpected.
Thursday 11 until Sunday 21 May | Canberra Theatre Centre, London Circuit, Canberra City | Book here.
Reuben Solo: Palindrome
This is an ill-fated evening of off-beat stand-up. In this performance there will be jokes about paradoxes and parachutes and One Direction. See you there?
Friday 12 May | The Street Theatre15 Childers St, Canberra City | Book here.
Crimes of the Heart
In this award-winning black comedy, the three MaGrath sisters are together in their hometown of Hazelhurst, Mississippi, for the first time in a decade. Without giving too much away, all we’ll tell you is that even crimes of the heart have consequences…
Until Saturday 13 May | Canberra REP Theatre, 3 Repertory Lane, Acton | Book here.
Eurovision 2023 at the NFSA
Get your friends together and build your team for a night packed with fun as the NFSA livestreams Eurovision! Along with their livestream and a complimentary glass of bubbles with every ticket, there will be bingo, wind machines, insane props, wild outfits and awards for the best-dressed team. And make sure you DON’T find out the Eurovision winner beforehand (and if you do, not to spoil it for those in attendance!)
Sunday 14 May | National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, McCoy Circuit, Acton | Book here.
Double Witness | ‘Love and Death in Montmartre’ Film Screening
As part of the public program of the Double Witness exhibition, the CIW Gallery is hosting a special film screening of Love and Death in Montmartre (蒙馬特之愛與死, Evans Chan, 2019, 110 mins) with an introduction from curator Ari Heinrich.
Acclaimed filmmaker Evans Chan’s evocative documentary is a tribute to the life, work, love and death of Qiu Miaojin 邱妙津, the iconic, openly lesbian young writer and artist from Taiwan who took her own life in Paris in 1995. Weaving performance, interviews (including with her teacher Hélène Cixous and American poet Eileen Myles), and footage of Qiu’s short films, Chan’s deeply researched, and beautifully composed film places the self-exiled pioneer queer writer’s legacy in relation to Sinophone women literature as well as Taiwan’s gay rights movement that eventually led to the same-sex marriage law, the first in Asia, in Taiwan in 2019.
See more information about the Double Witness exhibition here.
Free event, register for you free ticket at Eventbrite.
Thursday 11 May from 5.30-7.30 pm | Seminar Room, Australian Centre on China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University
Music
Among the Birds and Trees: Musica Viva Australia
Sometimes a concert can be like a walk through a beautiful garden, with gorgeous blooms, intriguingly patterned ferns, and now and then a dramatic grass tree shooting skywards. The rather unusual line-up of instruments for this program offers just such an experience for the listener: a world of glowing sounds, with something entrancing around every corner of a gently twisting path.
Thursday 11 May | Llewellyn Hall, ANU, William Herbert Place, Building 100 | Book here.
Ruth O’Brien: Songs for Abby EP Launch
Canberra singer-songwriter, Ruth O’Brien is getting ready for the launch of her second EP, Songs for Abby. Written to and about Ruth’s cats, Abby and Monti (also known as Kitmas and Chicken), the concept is to capture both the tension and the pure joy that can arise when cohabiting with furry lounge lions. It promises to be the prrrr-fect evening for cat and music lovers.
Saturday 13 May | The Street Theatre, 15 Childers Street, Canberra City | Book here.
The Turner Brown Band featuring Nikki D Brown and Dom Turner
It’s the ultimate joint Australia/USA musical collaboration! Seeing Australian slide guitarist and music producer Dom Turner (of awarded blues act Backsliders) and Ohio-based ‘Sacred Steel’ lap-slide guitar as well as vocal sensation Nikki D Brown come together, expect an eclectic and uplifting gospel-blues musical feast.
Saturday 13 May | Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 137 Reed Street North, Greenway | Book here.
The Australian String Quartet presents Utopias
Enter worlds of fantastical visions, intimate revelation, and quiet hope for the spirit of mankind as the original string soundscape from Thomas Adès, Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor and Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.9 is played in this concert.
Sunday 14 May | Gandel Hall, National Gallery of Australia, Parkes Place East, Parkes | Book here.
Exhibitions
Double Witness
The renowned queer Taiwanese writer Qiu Miaojin took her own life in Paris, leaving behind what many consider her masterpiece: the epistolary novel Last Words from Montmartre, in which she chronicles the breakdown of her three-year relationship with her girlfriend Xu; her musings on love and art; detailed descriptions of everyday life; and discussions of her relationships with other women. The novel takes place between April and June in 1995. It was completed just before Qiu’s death. Qiu was 26.
In 2019, also at the age of 26, Sydney-based artist Meng-Yu Yan travelled to France for a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts. Yan filmed Double Witness, a series of 20 video letters that follow the artist as they retrace Qiu Miaojin’s final days in Paris. Mirroring Qiu in age, ethnicity, sexuality, time, place, and gender identity—and even as their own relationship of three years broke down—Yan began to experience a blurring of boundaries between their own life and that of Qiu. The artist’s own feelings of heartbreak, guilt, betrayal, passion, and love began to mirror those expressed in the novel. The artist became Qiu’s double.
Double Witness is as much an act of haunting as it is an attempt to re-animate Qiu Miaojin’s last months in Paris. An intensive endurance performance, the series of videos positions the artist as medium in both the psychic and artistic senses as they engage in a kind of literary séance by reading Last Words from Montmartre and retracing Qiu’s steps on the dates outlined in the book dates which now coincide with the timing of this exhibit here at the CIW Gallery.
Using temporal connections to engage with the lost history of queer kin, Double Witness is part of the artist’s research into “Queer Spectrality”: a term used to describe the ways queerness has been disavowed and rendered spectral throughout history and across cultures.
Free event, no registration require.
Until 16 June 2023, weekdays from 9 am-5 pm | CIW Gallery, China in the World Building (188), Fellows Lane, The Australian National University | ciw.anu.edu.au/events/double-witness
Dream City Demolition
Dream City Demolition presents a series of new works by Katie Hayne documenting Canberra’s changing urban places through painting and installation. In capturing Canberra’s dynamic landscape, Hayne draws attention to the materiality of places and questions the environmental impact of concrete and urban renewal.
Thursday 11 May until Sunday 4 June | M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Cres, Griffith | m16artspace.com
Drift
Presented by Katherine White, this explores the sensation of uncertainty induced by climate change, particularly through first-hand experiences with bushfires. It also delves into personal anxieties about the future and the precarious state of the world while seeking solace in nature.
Thursday 11 May until Sunday 4 June | M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Cres, Griffith | m16artspace.com
On Show 2023 – Transition
This exhibition represent the transitions artists go through, including the transitions occurring and affecting us in the world today. Created by The Canberra Art Workshop members, it demonstrates how artists grow and change.
Thursday 11 May until Sunday 4 June | M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Cres, Griffith | m16artspace.com
Homage
The 2022 Indigenous Artist-in-residence exhibition is back at Craft ACT! The program facilitates access for the artist to national cultural, tertiary and research institutions and their collections, curators and researchers. This group exhibition of new work by each artist is held annually, and a catalogue produced about the program is disseminated internationally. Don’t miss out.
Until Saturday 13 May | Craft ACT, North Building, 1, 180 London Cct | craftact.org.au
Two-Tone
Two-Tone is a collaborative exhibition featuring two contemporary artists, Louis Grant and Madisyn Zabel, who primarily work within a glass discipline. Head along to see the stunning work that opens up a discourse around dualities, contrasts and material in person.
Until Saturday 13 May | Craft ACT, North Building, 1, 180 London Cct | craftact.org.au
Boundaries
Showing the works of artists Julie Ryder, Mel Robson and Bev Hogg, this is another Artist-in-Residence exhibition that you shouldn’t miss.
Until Saturday 13 May | Craft ACT, North Building, 1, 180 London Cct | craftact.org.au
You Are Here presents Cahoots Lab
Dance, music, glass, cinema, theatre, interactive art, workshops, sculpture, sound, projection, digital art, poetry, and more—this is for everyone who loves art. Inviting the local community to a unique showcase of experimental artworks, Canberra’s very own experimental and interdisciplinary art festival is back for 2023.
Cahoots Lab consists of events featuring works from 19 exciting Canberra artists working in diverse art forms including dance, music, glass, cinema, visual art, theatre, interactive art, sculpture, projection, digital art, poetry, and more!
Until Sunday 14 May | Various locations | youareherecanberra.com.au
Sport
Raiders v Eels
Cheer on the Raiders in their first Saturday night home game of the season as the Canberra Raiders host the Parramatta Eels.
Saturday 13 May | GIO Stadium, Battye Street, Bruce | Book here.
ACT Brumbies v Highlanders
See you at the Brumbies? This time they’ll be taking on the Highlanders.
Sunday 14 May | GIO Stadium, Battye Street, Bruce | Book here.
The Mother’s Day Classic
Who doesn’t love supporting a worthy cause close to many women’s hearts, on a day dedicated to women? Once finishing the run you get to feel the buzz of the event village, entertainment, music, and food stalls. The Mother’s Day Classic is truly such a cherished event in Canberra.
Sunday 14 May | Rond Terrace, Parkes Way, Parkes | mothersdayclassic.com
Workshops, webinars and more
2023 Ann Moyal Lecture: Professor Genevieve Bell
Head online to watch Professor Genevieve Bell speak for the inaugural annual Ann Moyal Lecture.
Monday 8 May | Online | nla.gov.au
Neuroscientist Dr S. Mckay will be In Conversation on her book Baby Brain
If you think baby brain is bad for you, think again – because neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay (author of The Women’s Brain Book) has looked at studies and talked to experts from all over the world and the proof is in: giving birth is one of the best things to ever happen to a woman’s brain.
Head along to this event to hear her in conversation with Dr Fiona MacKinnon, a mother of two with a passion for science communication.
Thursday 11 May | Harry Hartog, 153/11 University Avenue, Australian National University | Book here.
Mother’s Day Floral Workshop (Fyshwick)
Create your own bouquet for Mum, because flowers are always a beautiful gift. Imagine handing your Mum a bunch that you curated. Each bouquet will have 15 beautiful stems from Joanne Flowers Manuka and you will also receive a $20 Canberra Outlet Centre gift card to use on yourself (or mama).
Saturday 13 May | Canberra Outlet 337 Canberra Avenue Fyshwick | Book here.
Feature image: Pew Pew Studio.
