Dylin Hardcastle is an award-winning author, artist, screenwriter and scholar. Their novel, Language of Limbs, was published earlier this year to critical acclaim, and is written against the backdrop of the first Mardi Gras, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and early struggles for liberation.

Dylin has used Pride History Group's historical material and publications as a key source when researching their novel and will share their experiences of immersing themselves in these impactful histories.

Diane Minnis has made an impressive and enduring contribution to Sydney's LGBTIQA+ community and is a founding member of Pride History Group. She attended National Pride Week in Sydney in 1973, and was part of the early Gay Solidarity Group. Diane is also a '78er' - attending and helping to organise that first Mardi Gras march, and has continued to give her time to our queer communities over many years. In 1978, Diane and John Witte helped found the Gay Trade Union Group.

For three years in the 2000s, Diane was an elected Board member of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. In 2017, Diane co-founded First Mardi Gras Inc., a community organisation of 78ers, and she still serves on the Management Committee. Diane is currently a board member of InterPride, an international organisation that is working to improve the human rights of LGBTIQA+ people across the world.

John Witte was a long-term activist first in Sydney Gay Liberation and then in the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Railways Union. John is a 78er and was a player commemorating the first Sydney Mardi Gras and the 1973 National Pride Week. John and many of the people involved developed a skill set and enthusiasm which led inevitably to the formation of the Pride History Group and its collection.

In Newcastle he is a member of Hunter Rainbow History. The group engages with the local LGBTIQ+ community and the University of Newcastle's Living Histories digital archive.  It uses the archive to give a queer perspective on Newcastle’s local history and does regular queer history talks and walks.

Francis Voon (mcap, ba, grad dip ed, b th, dip bus, cpe) lives, loves and works on the unceded lands of the Gadigal. Francis has previously recorded an oral history with the National Library of Australia, specifically on his involvement with the Yes Equality Campaign engaging with stakeholders from LGBTI-led and supportive faith and multicultural communities.

Francis has had access to opportunities across the multiverses of psychotherapy, education, religious, cultural, health, not-for-profit, advocacy, queer / LGBTIQA+ / equity-deserving gender-bodily-kinship-sexuality, kink-friendly, diversity-friendly, nonviolence and performing arts communities.