Society & Culture

NLA Fellow Dr André Brett uses the development of railway networks to interrogate the strong and enduring linkages between economic growth and environmental change.

Join Michelle Grattan in conversation with Dr Caroline Fisher as they discuss The Conversation's new book, 2020: The Year That Changed Us.

Join The Australian National University Lecturer and author of Goodna Girls, Adele Chynoweth, and National Library of Australia Director of Indigenous Engagement, Marcus Hughes, as they reflect on the lives and stories of the women of Goodna and the role of cultural institutions in preserving the stories and experiences of marginalised communities. Goodna Girls tells the story of children incarcerated in Wolston Park Hospital, an adult psychiatric facility in Queensland. It contains the personal testimonies of women who relate—in their own no-holds-barred style and often with irreverent humour—how they, as children, ended up in Wolston Park and how this affected their adult lives.

Join Peter Freeman and Dr Rachael Coghlan as they explore the lives of early Canberra architects Malcolm Moir and Heather Sutherland – their work, their impact on the developing city, the times in which they lived, and the legacy that remains. Peter Freeman is an author and Conservation Architect. His new book, 'THOROUGHLY MODERN: Moir + Sutherland Architects', studies the life and work of these two architects pivotal in the development of Canberra. Peter will be launching his book on Friday 20 November at the DESIGN Canberra Festival. More information about the book launch can be found online at: designcanberrafestival.com.au/ Dr Rachael Coghlan is CEO of Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre, and Artistic Director of the DESIGN Canberra Festival. This partnered online event has been produced by the National Library in association with Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre, and the Design Canberra Festival.

On the anniversary of Walter Burley Griffin’s 1913 appointment as Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction, join Peter Graves and Liz Lea for an online talk connecting the Griffins’ design of Canberra, with Indigenous dance, and traditional Indian dance.

Did you know the National Library has a board games collection? Not only do we have hundreds of board games dating as far back as the 1700s, the National Library is also home to the world's LARGEST board game, 'World in Flames'–we have the Guinness Book of World Records certificate to prove it! Join board game enthusiasts Stuart Baines and Aaron Minehan, with illustrator and game designer Sam Milham, as they take a look at some of the unique board games hiding away on the shelves at the National Library. While we can't loan out the board games in our collection, you can take a look at a selection here.

Grab your helmet and join long-time cycling enthusiast Daniel Oakman alongside National Library curator Susannah Helman as they talk about Daniel’s latest book, Wild Ride: Epic Cycling Journeys Through the Heart of Australia, and the collection material that tells the stories of the people behind these great cycling adventures. Australia is home to breath-taking landscapes, as rugged as they are beautiful. Some are driven to explore these places on foot, some from the air, but this book tells the story of the courageous men and women who explored this beautiful country on two wheels.

Join father and daughter, and Gamilaroi and Dunghutti people, Rod and Marlee Silva (Co-Founder of Tiddas 4 Tiddas) as they share their hopes for the future of Indigenous Australia with reference to their own experiences, stories and dreams. Marlee and Rod explore the importance of truth-telling in fostering cultural understanding and the cultural shift being driven through the Black Lives Matter movement. Although National NAIDOC week has been moved to 8-15 November 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marlee and Rod also touch on the 2020 NAIDOC theme of 'Always Was, Always Will Be'. Marlee Silva Marlee Silva is a 24-year-old Gamilaroi and Dunghutti storyteller. She is the Co-Founder of Indigenous Female Empowerment Movement Tiddas 4 Tiddas which exists as an Instagram page and podcast of the same name. Marlee is also an author, with her debut novel My Tidda, My Sister set to be released in September 2020. My Tidda, My Sister is available to pre-order now through the National Library of Australia Bookshop. Rod Silva Rod Silva is a Sergeant of NSW Police and a proud Gamilaroi and Dunghutti man.

'The more we are taking care of nature, the more we are taking care of ourselves.' Last summer’s bushfires left Australia profoundly changed. Lives and homes were lost; almost 13 million hectares of bush was incinerated. Food and fuel systems broke down, and city-dwellers choked on toxic smoke. From this tumult and devastation, what new vision will emerge? How have the fires forced us to rethink ourselves, our communities and our relationships with nature? Join social scientist Petra Buergelt, animal ecologist Dale Nimmo and planning expert Barbara Norman – whose family sadly lost a home in the fires – as they explore what will rise from the ash in the months and years ahead. Chaired by Nicole Hasham, Environment + Energy Editor at The Conversation. Presented by The Conversation, the world's leading free, fact-based news source written by academics and edited by journalists and The National Library of Australia.

What is the Australian dream, and does it mean the same thing to us all? Join us as cross-cultural consultant and author Tasneem Chopra OAM leads a thought-provoking discussion between writer and appearance activist Carly Findlay OAM, founder of YARN Australia Warren Roberts, and writer, gender equality and mental health advocate Tarang Chawla, on what the Australian Dream looks like for people from diverse cultural backgrounds and life experiences. Further reading A selection of titles mentioned in the panel discussion are available through the National Library of Australia Bookshop.

Join author of The Catch: The Story of Fishing in Australia and avid fisher, Anna Clark, and senior lecturer at Macquarie University, Dr Leigh Boucher as they discuss the role of fishing throughout Australian history, from Indigenous innovations and practices through to fishing for sport and recreation today.

The first woman to head an Australian state or territory government, and first ACT Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett AO, has had a diverse career in both politics and the public service. Following the dismissal of the Whitlam government, Rosemary became President of the ACT ALP. Her negotiation skills proved of great use during the transition to ACT self-government, where she served two terms as Chief Minister: 1989-1990 and 1991-1995, and as ACT Discrimination Commissioner from 1996 to 2004. Not only has Rosemary served as Vice Chancellor at the University of Canberra, and Chair of the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies, she was also instrumental in bringing Nara as Canberra’s twin city and led a trade mission to Japan. Image: Greg Power, Portrait of Rosemary Follett during an Oral History Interview at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 28 February, 2012, nla.cat-vn6186349

Join Chet Van Duzer, Cartographic Historian and Board member of the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester, as he explores the early modern belief that there had to be a substantial landmass in the south to counterbalance the continents in the north. This hypothetical landmass was depicted on many maps beginning from c.1508, when such a continent appeared on a world map by Francesco Rosselli. Rosselli’s map showed a very large island at the South Pole, yet many maps from the sixteenth century illustrate a remarkable variant of this geographical myth: a continent-sized landmass that forms a ring of land around the South Pole, with open water at the pole itself. Chet will discuss the sources of this unusual view of the Southern Polar Regions found in classical, medieval, and Renaissance hydrographical theories and geographical texts.

Join Paul Sharrad as he explores some of the delights found while researching Thomas Keneally's papers, including the forgotten highlights from his career. Paul will explore the conditions under which writers in the 1960’s and 1970’s worked to survive, and how writers fit within the drive to create a national culture. How does a writer attempting to create a living from his work assemble a long-lasting career in negotiations with editors, agents, reviewers and markets? He will also question what the place of the writer who becomes a public celebrity is, and how 'middlebrow' writing is valued.

The need for a grand narrative in the life and obsessive collecting of Rex Nan Kivell is telling. His collecting stories, invented or elaborated, are engaging and, when examined, often untrue. Without doubt however, was the significance of the items he collected and frequently ‘boosted’ through imaginative tall tales. Examining key acquisitions made over decades, this illustrated lecture will test the stories surrounding them and what this can tell us today. The Treasures Curator is supported by the Australian Government's Catalyst-Australian Arts and Culture Fund. A Treasures Gallery Access Program, supported by National Library Patrons.

Join Professor Lyndall Ryan, AM FAHA, from the University of Newcastle, as she discusses her continuing work on documenting the frontier massacres across colonial Australia. Her project includes mapping these sites, to create a historically accurate record of the Frontier Wars (1788-1930).

Join two world-class writers and old friends, Garth Nix and Felicity Packard, as they chat about their childhood and university years growing up in Canberra; their work; and their most recent venture together, a pilot for Amazon Studios adapted from Garth’s Old Kingdom books. About the speakers Garth Nix Having sold more than five million books around the world, you will often see Garth Nix books listed in the New York Times bestseller lists, the Guardian and the Australian, with his work being translated into forty languages. His award-winning fantasy novels for young adults include Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen and Clariel, Shade’s Children, A Confusion of Princes and Newt's Emerald. Garth has been a full-time writer from 2001, having previously worked as a literary agent, book editor, book publicist, bookseller and part-time soldier in the Army Reserve. Felicity Packard Felicity Packard is a freelance screenwriter, script editor and producer with her name frequenting Australian screens. Felicity was one of the creators and writers of the true-crime drama franchise Underbelly, wrote and associate produced Wolf Creek season one for Stan, and most recently created and wrote for the Netflix political spy miniseries Pine Gap. She has won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for screenwriting and has won five-Australian Writers’ Guild Awards. Over her career spanning more than two decades, she has written hundreds of hours of Australian television drama for shows including Janet King, MDA, G.P. Blue Heelers and Home & Away.   Image: Garth Nix and Felicity Packard

Dr Laura Millar, independent consultant and scholar in records, archives, and information management, discussed her new publication A Matter of Facts: the Value of Evidence in an Information Age. The safeguarding of authentic facts is essential, especially in this disruptive Orwellian age, where digital technologies have opened the door to a post-truth world in which “alternative facts” can be so easily accepted as valid. As Dr. Millar argues in her book, because facts matter, evidence matters. In her talk, she made the case that authentic and accurate records, archives, data, and other sources of documentary proof are crucial in supporting and fostering a society that is respectful, democratic, and self-aware. Dr Millar has consulted with governments, universities, professional associations, and other agencies around the world, from advising national governments on electronic records management to consulting with aboriginal communities on the preservation of indigenous sources of evidence. She is the author of several award-winning publications and has taught in several universities in Canada and internationally.

Kerry Reed-Gilbert, Wiradjuri woman, writer, artist and activist, passed away on July 2019 shortly before her memoir and final piece of writing was published. Fellow writers and activists, Yvette Holt and Samantha Falkner, joined us to pay their respects to Aunty Kerry. Reflecting on and celebrating her life and writing, they spoke to Kerry’s latest and final piece of work The Cherry Picker’s Daughter. The Cherry Picker’s Daughter explores Kerry’s story of love and loss, repeated dislocation, dispossession and the impact of life as an Aboriginal state ward living under the terror of Protection laws.During her childhood, fruit-picking meant the difference between going hungry or having a roof over your head. Kerry’s final piece of writing encompasses her early life, leading us through memories of losing her mother, her father imprisoned for her the murder of her mother, and the vital strength of family ties in Aboriginal communities while surviving the White Australia Policy and everyday racism. Kerry Reed-Gilbert was a Wiradjuri woman, writer, artist and activist and the inaugural Chairperson of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN). She was a member of the ACT Us Mob Writing (UMW) group and was FNAWN co-editor for the Ora Nui Journal collaboration between First Nations Australia writers and Maori writers.Kerry conducted writing workshops nationally and internationally and her poetry and prose have been published in many journals and anthologies internationally. Yvette Henry Holt is a national multi-award-winning poet, academic, serial photographer and habitual hiker, heralding from the Yiman, Wakaman and Bidjara Nations’ of Queensland. Her poetry has been widely published, translated and anthologised in both in print and online. In 2005 Yvette was awarded the Queensland Premier’s David Unaipon Award for her manuscript, anonymous premonition (UQP), the Victorian Premier’s Literary for Indigenous Writing in 2008, Scanlon Poetry Prize NSW 2008, Kate Challis RAKA Award 2010. Samantha Falkner is the current Chairperson for US Mob Writing Group of which Kerry was a member. Samantha is a Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal woman from the Wuthuthi / Yadhaigana peoples, Cape York Peninsula and Badu and Moa Islands, Torres Strait. She is the author of Life Blong Ali Drummond: A Life in the Torres Strait, published in 2007 by Aboriginal Studies Press. She has performed at several festivals and conferences and has had poetry and prose published: locally and nationally.Image: The Cherry Picker's Daughter: Book cover

Public Life, Private Man: Writing the Biography of Alfred Deakin The core challenge of political biography is to answer the question, ‘why politics?’. What inner need did it fulfil, and what emotional and psychological resources were mustered for its accomplishment? These questions are harder to answer for Alfred Deakin than for less complex political leaders. Deakin was a gifted orator and successful politician who was a father of federation and Australia’s most significant prime minister until the Second World War. Yet he was also a deeply private man, with an intense intellectual and spiritual life, who wondered often if politics was the right path for him.The 2019 Seymour Biography Lecture was delivered by emeritus professor and political historian Judith Brett, who will discussed the tensions and synergies between Deakin’s public and private lives. In 2017, Brett published The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, the final addition to her trilogy of books on the history of Australian Liberals. The first full-length study of Deakin in more than 50 years, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin went on to win the 2018 National Biography Award. Brett’s prior publications include Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard and this year’s From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting. The Seymour Biography Lecture is supported by Dr John Seymour and Mrs Heather Seymour AO. Image: [Portrait of Alfred Deakin seated at his desk] [picture]. nla.obj-136656646