Pearl's Story: How an arts festival cancelled a woman for using her voice

A female artist in Australia has been expelled from an arts festival after organisers discovered she had spoken at a Standing For Women event.

“Zambeesi Jacket” by Pearl Moon

Pearl Moon is a mixed-media artist who works in textiles and creates beautiful clothing for women.

Pearl was born in New Zealand in 1959. Her childhood was extremely traumatic, involving male violence, alcoholism and sexual abuse. Pearl moved to Australia in 1986 and worked from home as a sewing outworker. This work dried up in the 1990s. A single mother with no training outside sewing, in desperation Pearl was forced to earn a living in the sex industry.

In 2000 Pearl discovered that she is on the autistic spectrum and finally understood a lifetime of anxiety, social challenges and obsessive thought patterns. Since then, she has worked and developed a public profile as a textile artist. She now runs her own business, Boho Banjo, selling pdf patterns of her wonderful clothing designs. She met her husband in 2008 and the couple married in 2011.

Having been chosen as a finalist in the Australian Wearable Art Festival earlier this year, Pearl was subsequently expelled from the event due to her public defence of women’s sexed-based rights. She has detailed her experience in two blog posts which you can read here: Part One and Part Two.

I have also briefly summarised the situation below.

Pearl Moon

In February, Pearl applied to have her work showcased at the Australian Wearable Art Festival (AWAF) 2023 which is being held on the Gold Coast in August. She was delighted to be selected as one of the 40 finalists only a few weeks later and she immediately began work on the garment she intended for exhibition, a piece entitled, “Wedding Gown for a Woman Marrying her Garden”.

In March, Pearl attended two of Standing For Women’s Let Women Speak rallies in Australia; those in Sydney and Canberra. She spoke at the Sydney event, describing her concerns that gender ideology is debilitating women’s rights.

On 23rd May Pearl received an email from Wendy, one of AWAF’s organisers, indicating that she had issues with some of Pearl’s beliefs. Extremely worried, Pearl sent several emails in response but they went unanswered. When she was finally able to speak to Wendy by phone, Wendy talked about the Let Women Speak events, describing them as ‘anti-trans’.

On 4th June, Pearl received another email from AWAF stating that she had been expelled from the festival and could no longer take part.

A detail from "Wedding Gown for a Woman Marrying her Garden"

So thrilled to be chosen as an exhibitor, Pearl spent tremendous time and energy working on a garment for the festival. It is cruel and unfair that she has now been robbed of her opportunity to display her beautiful creation.

It is shocking that Pearl has been kicked to the kerb so callously because organisers don’t approve of her feminist beliefs. She is a 64-year-old autistic woman who has survived hardship, trauma and adversity and worked incredibly hard to achieve her goals. Pearl understands only too well the consequences of being born in a female body. She has every right to talk about her experiences and to defend the safety and wellbeing of her sex.

The AWAF has a Facebook page which you can find here. (I replied to a couple of their Facebook posts to ask on what basis they had expelled Pearl from their event. They deleted my comments and blocked me.)

If you would like to contact the AWAF organisers, you can do so here.