Author: Fern Smith

‘Next of Kin’ relates to the theme PEOPLE – POLITICS – PROTEST as ‘the personal is political’ (Carol Hanisch feminist,1969). This work is a personal journey. The pencil was chosen for Next of Kin as it required an immediate response to a quandary of,’ Will the hospital accept my partner as Next of Kin?’

LGBTQI relationships definition of family differ greatly to John Howard’s “Marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others’. A salient reminder is Marco Bulmer-Rizzi was denied ‘next of kin’ status in 2016 when his partner was in a coma.