Questions for the Nation: Perth
When
Saturday, 29 Jul 2017, 04:30pm - 05:45pm
Event Status
Past event

What are the most important questions facing Australians – today and in the future?
The Wheeler Centre is roaming Australia, collecting the nation’s most urgent questions and thrashing them out with some of the sharpest thinkers we know. We’re doing it in panel discussions at Brisbane Writers Festival, Perth’s Disrupted Festival of Ideas, Darwin Festival and National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle.
At these sessions, we’ll scan the horizons, break deadlocked debates and dust off the issues rotting for too long at the bottom of the nation’s too-hard basket. What are the faultlines and tensions in Australian society, and where do we turn for fresh ideas for the future? Who do we want to be, and how are we going to get there?
In partnership with the State Library of Western Australia’s Disrupted Festival of Ideas, social researcher Rebecca Huntley hosts a discussion on the present and future of the nation. Join Sisonke Msimang, Nayuka Gorrie, Zoe Coombs Marr and Brad Ness for their take on the most important question facing Australia today, before the microphone turns to you: what questions should Australia be asking?
Presented in partnership with the State Library of Western Australia’s Disrupted Festival of Ideas.
Featuring

Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia’s most respected researchers on social and consumer trends, and head of research at Essential Media. She is the author of Still Lucky: Why You Should Feel Optimistic About Australia and Its People.

Nayuka Gorrie is a Gunnai/Kurnai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta essayist and screenwriter.

A towering presence in Australian wheelchair basketball, Brad was the Australian flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Rio Paralympics, and won a gold medal in Beijing, and silver medals Athens and London Paralympics. Brad set up basketball teams for kids with disabilities in Cantu and Rom... Read more

Sisonke Msimang is the author of Always Another Country: A memoir of exile and home and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela: A biography of survival. She is a South African writer whose work is focussed on race, gender and democracy. She has written for a range of international publications including... Read more

Zoë Coombs Marr is a performer, writer, artist and comedian. She grew up in Grafton, where she and her best friend staged a musical instead of going to schoolies week. Zoë has performed stand up comedy extensively in Australia, London and New York. Her solo show, Trigger Warning, won the 2016 Me... Read more
Location
Discovery Lounge, State Library of Western Australia, 25 Francis Street, Perth WA 6000
More detailsWatch, Listen, Read

Listen
Kevin Jared Hosein: Hungry Ghosts [Podcast Exclusive]
23 Sep 2023

Read
Spring Fling 2023: Programmers Picks
22 Sep 2023

Watch
Jeff Goodell: Heat
20 Sep 2023

Watch
Polly Barton: Porn
18 Sep 2023

Read
Watch, Listen, Read: Above and Beyond the Spring Fling 2023 Program
18 Sep 2023

Listen
Chloé Hayden's Lightbulb Moment
9 Sep 2023