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Aileen Moreton-Robinson: 20th Anniversary of Talkin’ Up to the White Woman

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It’s been 20 years since Aileen Moreton-Robinson wrote Talkin’ Up to the White Woman, the seminal work of Australian First Nations scholarship that exposed the blinding whiteness, and the serious limitations, of Australian feminist thought. 

In her book, Moreton-Robinson traces and honours the history of Indigenous women’s activism in Australia and lays bare some uncomfortable truths about white women’s complicity in racial oppression. She exposes, too, the prevalence of biased and blinkered thought prevalent within white feminist academia. Talkin’ Up to the White Woman has shaped the thinking of feminist and First Nations scholars across the globe.

To launch our Broadly Speaking series, we’re presenting the formidable Moreton-Robinson in conversation with critical race and whiteness scholar Fiona Nicoll. The pair will discuss the twentieth anniversary of Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: What’s changed in Australian and global feminist conversations since Moreton-Robinson first wrote the book? Is popular feminism’s emphasis on intersectionality a sign of progress? And where do traditions of Indigenous women’s sovereignty sit in relation to mass movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter?

Presented in collaboration with State Library of Queensland and RMIT Social and Global Studies Centre.

The Broadly Speaking series is proudly supported by Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family.

Our online bookseller for this event will be Neighbourhood Books.

#TWCBroadlySpeaking

Featuring

Aileen Moreton-Robinson

Distinguished Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson is a Goenpul woman of the Quandamooka people (Moreton Bay) and is Professor of Indigenous Research at RMIT University. She was appointed as Australia’s first Indigenous Distinguished Professor in 2016 and was a founding member of the Native American ... Read more

Fiona Nicoll

Professor Fiona Nicoll is a founding member of the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association and edited its inaugural issue in 2005. She has a track record of working with Indigenous leaders, artists and academics, through social history curation, collaborative arts projects, teach... Read more

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