Tiddas, Mothers, Aunties: First Nations Matriarchies

In this panel event, voices from different generations and First Nations backgrounds come together to explore First Nations community and family networks, and how they relate to conceptions of motherhood, parenting and the transmission of First Nations knowledge systems. Ali Cobby Eckermann is the Windham Campbell Prize-winning author of memoir, poetry and verse novels, including Inside My Mother, and a survivor of the Stolen Generations. Dr Jackie Huggins’ decades of work as an author, historian and academic have focused on First Nations identity, activism and the question of feminism’s relevance for Indigenous women. An education academic and frequent media commentator, Dr Amy Thunig’s forthcoming memoir Tell Me Again explores the shaping of identity amidst intergenerational trauma and poverty – and deep familial love. For this wide-ranging conversation in partnership with Blak and Bright, they join host Bridget Caldwell-Bright for an insightful conversation about the women they have known, loved and learned from, and the women they are. This event will open with a Yarn Bomb from emerging Kamilaroi artist Emily Wells. This event will be photographed and recorded for use by the Wheeler Centre. The bookseller for this event is Readings. Presented in partnership with Blak and Bright.  

Celebrating our return to the stage and the rejuvenation of the arts and culture communities, Spring Fling is a short series of big ideas offering a delectable picnic spread of events with leading thinkers, writers and creators from Australia and abroad. Spring Fling is supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.