An exhibition to commemorate the 21st birthday of the South Australian Sex Industry Network
The South Australian Sex Industry Network (SIN) is a service by sex workers for sex workers and 2010 marks our 21st birthday.
SIN has been working to promote the health rights and wellbeing of South Australian sex workers since 1989.
Our beginnings are with the Prostitutes Association of South Australia (PASA) which was founded in 1986 as a reaction to police harassment of sex workers in Adelaide brothels. PASA quickly became an active and vocal sex worker rights group advocating for progressive law reform and other issues aimed at improving sex workers’ lives. A key issue impacting upon sex workers at this time was HIV and in 1989, PASA and the AIDS Council of South Australia (ACSA) began to work together to provide HIV/AIDS health promotion to the sex worker community and SIN was born.
Sex work is still completely illegal in South Australia and our fight for human rights, workers rights, law reform and recognition of our profession is not often visible to the public eye. As part of our 21st birthday celebrations we are showcasing our history and culture to the general public.
Come and immerse yourself in our history with interviews, slide shows, performances, literature and artwork to spark your interest. Or for a gold coin donation you can "ask the whore a question." You wont find a cheaper way to spend time with real sex workers!
Exhibition: 11AM until 8PM on the 2nd and 3rd of June, upstairs at the Dog and Duck, 127 Hindley Street, Adelaide.
The exhibition coincides with International Whores Day which celebrates the birth of the sex worker rights movement. In Lyons France on June 2nd 1975 sex workers staged a "church sit in" to protest police brutality and the lack of police attention to crimes against sex workers. Soon community members joined sex workers and challenged the police to distinguish who is and who isn’t a sex worker, making it difficult for the police to make arrests. This is widely considered to be the birth of the sex workers rights movement.
For more information about International Whores Day events in Australia for 2010, link here: Scarlet Alliance events page