Catherine Dwyer is a filmmaker and researcher best known for writing and directing the widely acclaimed 2020 documentary, ‘Brazen Hussies’- an entertaining and detailed investigation of the Australian women’s liberation movement in the 1970s.

As a documentary archive producer Catherine has recently worked on Trailblazers (2024) about the rise of the Matildas soccer team, Her Name is Nanny Nellie, (NITV 2024) addressing historical racism in the Australian Museum’s archives, and for the award-winning documentary series Queerstralia (ABC, 2023) about Australia’s queer history.

For this Fellowship - Suzanne Bellamy and the Lost Culture of Women’s Liberation – Catherine will delve into the life of women’s liberationist, artist and scholar, Suzanne Bellamy who died in 2022. Bellamy expressed the wish that “the filmmaker/historian Catherine Dwyer undertake a creative, possibly multi-media project using my archives […]to continue her work in documenting the story of our women’s movement.” As Catherine states, “As we grapple with the unfinished business of those turbulent years, this project will help to understand the cultural moment we are in today and show how everyday people do in fact change the world.”

Catherine Dwyer is a 2026 National Library of Australia Fellow supported by the Stokes Family.