62177
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Holland-Moore, Anah
Description
Agent TypePersonIdentifierUMA-AG-000001544
Place of BirthGlasgow, ScotlandActivities & OccupationsWomen's rights activistsGenderFemaleHistoryAnah Holland-Moore VWLLFA No. 159. Anah Holland-Moore was born on 2 May 1947 in Glasgow Scotland. She migrated to Australia on the £10 scheme, with her parents and younger sister, when she was four years old. She was educated at Catholic primary and secondary schools and spent the last two years at Morwell High. She left school at 17 to work in the printing section at the SEC (State Electricity Commission) in Melbourne. After that time, Anah gained several diplomas in health, wholistic healing, massage and cooking. And ran several small businesses including tea rooms, cafes and catering businesses. She joined the La Trobe Valley Women’s Refuge collective as a volunteer to begin with in 1980 and started paid work in 1981. Anah was married and divorced, had six children and came out as a lesbian in the 1980s.
Anah was the organiser of many lesbian events in country Victoria, from the Summer Fair Women’s and Children’s Festival in Daylesford, 15 - 16 December 1984, to the National Lesbian Cultural Celebration and Conference in Daylesford. 3 - 12 January 1998, and all the innumerable dances at the Daylesford Town Hall in between. Anah also attended many of the lesbian gatherings around Australia including the Lesbian Festival in Perth in 1993 as well as the L40 Reunions from 2001 where with her considerable expertise around food and special needs diets she was hired to taking charge of the kitchens at all subsequent lesbian camps including the Spring Reunions in Victoria as well as several lesbian gatherings interstate.
Anah’s Croning Ceremony was a significant occasion where she was inducted as a Crone around a fire on top of a grassy knoll in Yandoit with her friends on 6 June, 2005. Anah wore her magnificent Croning Cloak that had been especially handmade for the occasion which included various small creative additions contributed by Anah’s friends and is preserved for posterity in the VWLLFA collection. Anah celebrated her birthdays in style; for her 60th in 2007 all the guests had to dress as pirates and her 70th in 2017 was also an occasion to remember as Anah, with her extended family present, slowly and gracefully ballroom danced around the floor in style. Anah’s respect for and acknowledgement of Aboriginal people was also a priority in her life.
It was a shock when Anah was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and it was her determination to combat the disease while continuing to live her life to the full that kept her going. Anah initiated the establishment of the Long Breast Press collective in 2005 and took part in writing and publishing Willing Up and Keeling Over: A Lesbian Handbook of Death Rights and Rituals in 2007. The Long Breast Press book, Walking to the Edge, Lesbians Are Everywhere: An Australian Lesbian Travel Anthology, published in 2020 just after Anah died, includes Anah’s story, Golden Memories of Gay Games, accompanied by a coloured photo of Anah and describes how she won a gold medal at the Gay Games in Amsterdam in 1998 for her skill in Ballroom Dancing.
Anah’s knowledge across a range of various subjects was phenomenal and included being able to identify many Australian birds, helping to rebuild her old cottage in Yandoit and designing and maintaining her own country-sized garden. She loved dogs and always had one or two keeping her company. It was a wrench when she had to move closer to medical facilities and bought an old run-down house in Maryborough which she then proceeded to renovate to her satisfaction with the help of a builder, designed and planted the garden full of indigenous plants and had four chooks in the purpose built chick coop in the back yard.
Despite increasingly poor health, Anah continued to be the cook at the residential lesbian feminist gatherings around Australia and sometimes the organiser as well if no-one else put their hand up. Her experience and expertise in the kitchen was the stuff of legend. She always did a great job of ensuring that everyone’s special diets were catered for, and she would have been the most skilful, relaxed and friendly cook ever in the lesbian community kitchens. And as such, and because she was also wise and cheerful and had a great sense of humour, Anah was a dearly loved and much appreciated member of the radical lesbian feminist community here in Victoria.
Place of BirthGlasgow, ScotlandActivities & OccupationsWomen's rights activistsGenderFemaleHistoryAnah Holland-Moore VWLLFA No. 159. Anah Holland-Moore was born on 2 May 1947 in Glasgow Scotland. She migrated to Australia on the £10 scheme, with her parents and younger sister, when she was four years old. She was educated at Catholic primary and secondary schools and spent the last two years at Morwell High. She left school at 17 to work in the printing section at the SEC (State Electricity Commission) in Melbourne. After that time, Anah gained several diplomas in health, wholistic healing, massage and cooking. And ran several small businesses including tea rooms, cafes and catering businesses. She joined the La Trobe Valley Women’s Refuge collective as a volunteer to begin with in 1980 and started paid work in 1981. Anah was married and divorced, had six children and came out as a lesbian in the 1980s.Anah was the organiser of many lesbian events in country Victoria, from the Summer Fair Women’s and Children’s Festival in Daylesford, 15 - 16 December 1984, to the National Lesbian Cultural Celebration and Conference in Daylesford. 3 - 12 January 1998, and all the innumerable dances at the Daylesford Town Hall in between. Anah also attended many of the lesbian gatherings around Australia including the Lesbian Festival in Perth in 1993 as well as the L40 Reunions from 2001 where with her considerable expertise around food and special needs diets she was hired to taking charge of the kitchens at all subsequent lesbian camps including the Spring Reunions in Victoria as well as several lesbian gatherings interstate.
Anah’s Croning Ceremony was a significant occasion where she was inducted as a Crone around a fire on top of a grassy knoll in Yandoit with her friends on 6 June, 2005. Anah wore her magnificent Croning Cloak that had been especially handmade for the occasion which included various small creative additions contributed by Anah’s friends and is preserved for posterity in the VWLLFA collection. Anah celebrated her birthdays in style; for her 60th in 2007 all the guests had to dress as pirates and her 70th in 2017 was also an occasion to remember as Anah, with her extended family present, slowly and gracefully ballroom danced around the floor in style. Anah’s respect for and acknowledgement of Aboriginal people was also a priority in her life.
It was a shock when Anah was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and it was her determination to combat the disease while continuing to live her life to the full that kept her going. Anah initiated the establishment of the Long Breast Press collective in 2005 and took part in writing and publishing Willing Up and Keeling Over: A Lesbian Handbook of Death Rights and Rituals in 2007. The Long Breast Press book, Walking to the Edge, Lesbians Are Everywhere: An Australian Lesbian Travel Anthology, published in 2020 just after Anah died, includes Anah’s story, Golden Memories of Gay Games, accompanied by a coloured photo of Anah and describes how she won a gold medal at the Gay Games in Amsterdam in 1998 for her skill in Ballroom Dancing.
Anah’s knowledge across a range of various subjects was phenomenal and included being able to identify many Australian birds, helping to rebuild her old cottage in Yandoit and designing and maintaining her own country-sized garden. She loved dogs and always had one or two keeping her company. It was a wrench when she had to move closer to medical facilities and bought an old run-down house in Maryborough which she then proceeded to renovate to her satisfaction with the help of a builder, designed and planted the garden full of indigenous plants and had four chooks in the purpose built chick coop in the back yard.
Despite increasingly poor health, Anah continued to be the cook at the residential lesbian feminist gatherings around Australia and sometimes the organiser as well if no-one else put their hand up. Her experience and expertise in the kitchen was the stuff of legend. She always did a great job of ensuring that everyone’s special diets were catered for, and she would have been the most skilful, relaxed and friendly cook ever in the lesbian community kitchens. And as such, and because she was also wise and cheerful and had a great sense of humour, Anah was a dearly loved and much appreciated member of the radical lesbian feminist community here in Victoria.
Dates
Date02/05/1947-14/12/2020
Names
TitleMsGiven NameAnahFamily NameHolland-Moore
Description Control
Source of DescriptionJean Taylor
Holland-Moore, Anah (02/05/1947-14/12/2020), [UMA-AG-000001544]. University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 23/04/2026, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/62177