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Fire

When

Event Status

It’s cold outside, but in the cosy surrounds of the Moat, we’re gathering for four consecutive Mondays of Indigenous storytelling.

Oral storytelling is almost a lost art in these days of blogs, high-speed broadband and e-books. But it’s a rare pleasure to pause in our busy lives and immerse ourselves in the magic and power of the spoken word. Australia has a rich oral tradition, which we’ll rekindle in these evenings, with the crackling atmosphere of fireside tales.

Bunjilaka curator Genevieve Grieves and Miles Franklin shortlisted writer Tony Birch will curate – and co-host – a series of intimate evenings around the themes of Country, Sky, Water and Fire.

These elements are rich sources for creating meaningful stories that engage with the Australian landscape, either personally or politically. The stories will be a mix of traditional and contemporary, reflecting the diversity of concerns and inspirations for Indigenous writers today.

Our hosts will be joined by a hand-picked selection of superb storytellers, including both performers and writers.

For Fire, we’ll be joined by Ellen van Neerven-Currie, Mandy Nicholson and Lionel Fogarty.


Fire

Hearth fire heart¨
smoke rises, pain unfurls¨
Carried. Maintained. Everlasting.

Genevieve Grieves

Featuring

Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Lit... Read more

Genevieve Grieves

Genevieve Grieves is an Indigenous educator, curator, filmmaker, artist, oral historian, researcher and writer who has accumulated nearly 20 years experience in the arts and culture industries. She is Worimi – traditionally from mid-north coast New South Wales – but has lived and worked on Kuli... Read more

Lionel Fogarty

Lionel Fogarty (b. 1958, Cherbourg, Australia) is a Murri man, born on Wakka Wakka land at Cherbourg mission. In his writing he demonstrates that he is a poet of language as much as of politics, repurposing both traditional poetics and the speech of his people to delineate current circumstances of o... Read more

Location

The Moat

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.