‘Shhh!’

ALIA librarians at Mardi Gras

By Corinna Pierce, Convenor, ALIA Rainbow

For the 2023 Sydney WorldPride Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, library staff from around the country came together to parade and dance.

Supported by sponsorship from ALIA, Waverley Library Manager Corinna Pierce organised the float and led 60 queer staff and allies from all kinds of libraries and from all around the country in the parade.

Meeting other librarians, collaborating and sharing ideas, skills and resources was enjoyable for everyone, and the group received an enthusiastic reception from the public during the parade.

The theme of the float was ‘Shhh’, playing on an obvious library stereotype. To a remix of Björk’s song ‘It’s oh so quiet’, the group shushed the crowd during the quiet parts of the song before breaking out into a fabulously choreographed dance routine. The crowd participation was passionate and energetic. They joined in with the shushing with great hilarity and then, as the song exploded into dance party, excited roars arose from the crowd – every single time!

As the headline event for WorldPride 2023, the parade was watched by several hundred thousand people on the streets and millions on the television. It’s a fabulous way to get across our message that libraries are safe spaces that welcome everyone. The theme of WorldPride 2023 was ‘Gather, Dream, Amplify’, and we hoped to let everyone watching know that libraries are places where people can gather, dream and have their voices not ‘shushed’ but amplified.

Here is a quote from one of the participants: ‘I was out last night when a young chap came up and recognised me from the parade and said he loved ‘The Librarians’ float. He said he cried as we walked past and said when he was a child in rural NSW his local library was his only safe space … he now holds a doctorate in neuroscience.’ Libraries really do change lives.

Watch the video here.

Corinna Pierce Manager, Waverley Library corinna.pierce@waverley.nsw.gov.au