Ellenborn, Kathy / anu sand

Description

Agent TypePersonIdentifierUMA-AG-000000188Activities & OccupationsFeministsHistoryKathy Gill was born in a Yorkshire (England) coal-mining town in 1949, and grew up there in an extended Irish-descent, catholic, working class family. From leaving home at the age of 18, she had male-stream jobs, and travelled and worked in different countries.

At 34, Kathy came out as a Lesbian into the Melbourne Women's Liberation Movement, Australia. The women's building in North Melbourne became her second home. Collective-working, non-violent action training and all the other politics, skills and ways of thinking and being and working with radical dykes was very exciting for her. She became a Lesbian Feminist activist.

International Women's Peace day for nuclear disarmament, on 24 May 1983, was the first event she helped organise. Moreover, she became involved with Women's Liberation Switchboard, a consciousness-raising (CR) group, Women Against Violence and Exploitation (WAVE), International Women's Day organising. In Women for Survival, she was part of organising the bus to Pine Gap for the women's peace camp, and later the Victorian travelling peace bus as part of Sound Women's actions in December 1984.

Back in England, in London, Kathy identified as a Lesbian Separatist and changed her second name to acknowledge her mother (Ellenborn). In her forties, Kathy moved up north to a market town with a lively dyke community and more campaign and issue groups and networking including a Dyke Separatist gathering. She re-named herself Anu Sand, Anu from Irish goddess, Sand from beautiful beaches.

At 60 years of age, and with her partner of 14 years, Sorre, living nearby, she become an activist again. She is involved with wRite-On Dykes (supporting women worldwide), organising a music event as a fundraiser for Women in Tune (WIT) music festival in Wales and is part of the Labrys Trust, setting up a community phone line for older dykes.

This collection is No.10 of the Victorian Women's Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archives

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Names

Given NameanuFamily NamesandOther NamesKathy GillKathy Ellenborn

University of Melbourne Archives

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Ellenborn, Kathy / anu sand