WEBINAR: Bold Voices, Bright Futures with Bebe Oliver and Arlie Alizzi
Wear it Purple Day began in 2010 as a response to LGBTIQA+ youth suicide with the aim of promoting inclusivity, empowerment and safety for LGBTIQA+ young people. Each year, it is an opportunity to come together and highlight the ongoing legacies of suicide prevention work done across LGBTIQA+ communities.
At Switchboard, our suicide prevention work is centered on building new narratives for communities that counter harmful pre-existing ideas around LGBTIQA+ people and suicide. Through telling stories and making our experiences visible, we offer alternative LGBTIQA+ realities that can connect and sustain us through experiences of distress. We imagine new ways we could exist in the world and, in doing so, we forge a collective pathway forward. In this way, our histories and our stories make our futures possible.
This Wear it Purple Day, Switchboard is delighted to bring you this exciting in conversation with two First Nations queer creatives, Bebe Oliver and Arlie Alizzi. Join us as we reflect on this year's Wear it Purple Day theme (Bold Voices, Bright Futures) and the role of storytelling, creative expression and visibility in creating communities, connection and building new narratives.
About Bebe Oliver
Bebe Oliver is a Bardi Jawi award-winning author, poet and illustrator.
As a leading advocate for Aboriginal advancement and self-determination, he is deeply committed to the empowerment and visibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators. Bebe is the Artistic Director and CEO of Blak & Bright, and the Deputy Chair of Magabala Books, demonstrating his drive for literary excellence and cultural representation.
Bebe’s highly celebrated and widely published work explores love, loss, identity, the intersection of Aboriginal and gay existence, and the rich tapestry of place and Country, making him a compelling and transformative voice in contemporary literature.
Bebe’s newest book, if this is the end (Magabala Books, 2024) is regarded as a fearless and honest exploration of identity, and “a queer Blak classic”.
About Arlie Alizzi
Arlie Alizzi is a Yugambeh trans man, a writer, and editor at Magabala Books since 2022. Currently based on Yawuru Country in Rubibi/Broome, he is a researcher and anti-racism educator who has been published by outlets such as the Sydney Review of Books, Liminal Magazine, The Lifted Brow, the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, SBS and Overland. He was the inaugural writer in residence at MPavilion for 2018, and in 2022, he was one of 10 fellows for the Judith Neilson Institute’s Long Lede program for long form non-fiction.
Webinar Details
Date: Friday 29 August 2025
Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm AEST
Where: online via Zoom
About Switchboard's Suicide Prevention Program
Switchboard has made it our core work to respond to suicide in LGBTIQA+ communities. We deliver peer programs to support LGBTIQA+ people with experiences of suicide and those who provide care to our communities, including:
A National LGBTIQA+ Lived Experience Network, where we provide free training and ongoing opportunities for community members wanting to use their lived experiences to advocate for change
An LGBTIQA+ Suicide Bereavement Program, which includes formalised 8-Week Groups, Drop-in Groups, Creative Bereavement sessions and QTIBPoC (Queer, Trans and Intersex Bla(c)k people and/or People of Colour) Grief Groups
Postvention support for organisations or groups who have experienced the suicide loss of an LGBTIQA+ person
CHARLEE, our online suicide prevention hub
Suicide skills and lived experience training: LGBTIQA+SB Lived Experiences of Suicidal Distress, ASIST and SafeTALK
Advocacy programs and campaigns that seek to create systemic change across the suicide prevention sector.