Dyke Haiku Australia is documenting the everyday stories and insights of Australian lesbians. We are currently sharing these in haiku form on Twitter. The aim for this project is to assist in the long process of social change in normalising queerness. We want to create more visible representation of our unique and varied culture in popular awareness, media and mainstream culture.

Although same sex marriage was legalised in 2017, there are still many experiences of lesbian life that are invisible to mainstream culture such as who we are, how we live and our experiences and stories. We want to use our platform to start to open up and amplify these experiences, allowing Australia and the world to see who we are.

Historically, the “visible” lesbian scene has often been exemplified by social misfits, villains in cinema, degenerates and society’s underprivileged or most commonly as male objects of desire and in porn. However, with raising levels of acceptance and “being out”, an increasing number of people can state to claim they personally know of at least one person identifying as lesbian. We see this a culture shift and an opportunity to break through some of these firmly held stereotypes.

Through Dyke Haiku Australia, we can start to create new lesbian histories.