Weekend Pass

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

‘When you talk about a lack of “insert minority” into “insert any industry”, what you’re also saying is that you’re not willing to support the people who are actually there.’ Aminatou Sow is a writer and cultural commentator. She co-hosts with Ann Friedman the hit podcast Call Your ... Read more

In 2017, Aretha Brown delivered an impassioned speech at the Invasion Day Rally in Melbourne, fighting to make Indigenous history education mainstream. Her delivery and ideas led her to be elected as Prime Minister of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament, the youngest ever person — and the fir... Read more

‘I wanted what we all want: everything. We want a mate who feels like family and a lover who is exotic, surprising. We want to be youthful adventurers and middle-aged mothers. We want intimacy and autonomy, safety and stimulation, reassurance and novelty, coziness and thrills. But we can’t have... Read more

‘I think if we’re talking about popular feminism’s inclusion of trans and gender-diverse people, non-binary people, we’re not even scratching the surface.’ Bhenji Ra is an interdisciplinary artist. Her practice combines dance, choreography, video, installation and club events. She is th... Read more

‘The absolute strength and pride of who I am today comes from these strong and resilient arweet murni-gurrk (old wise women).’ Caroline Martin is a direct descendant of the Briggs family and Custodian of Boonwurrung Country. She has worked in management and senior policy across arts, culture an... Read more

‘I am a feminist therefore I commit feminist acts. I’m not going to undermine the political importance of what I do.’ La Trobe University historian Professor Clare Wright has worked as an author, academic, political speechwriter, historical consultant, and radio and TV broadcaster. Her latest... Read more

‘I’m not your mother, I’m not your bitch.’ Since her debut album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, Courtney Barnett has been celebrated as one of the most distinctive and compelling voices in rock, an artist who mixes insightful observations with devastating self-assessme... Read more

‘Sometimes, there can be a slightly condescending assumption that anything unlikable about a female character is a mistake, as if they’re a contestant in a beauty pageant and have to seem charming and upbeat all the time.’ Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of five novels – ... Read more

Fatima Bhutto was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and grew up between Syria and Pakistan. She is the author of several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, was long listed for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and the memoir about her father’s... Read more

‘Let me remind any women of any generation still worried by the tag … feminism is about equality, political equality, economic equality, cultural equality, personal equality, social equality. That’s it, it’s as simple as that.’ Fran Kelly is one of Australia’s leading politic... Read more

‘Whilst I’m aware that #notallfeminists are anti-sex work, there’s a pretty gaping chasm between “not being against” and being an ally.’ Gala Vanting is a writer, sex worker advocate living and working as a migrant settler on Gadigal land. Her work weaves through the brot... Read more

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction and the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award. In 2019 she was hon... Read more

‘Identifying myself as a feminist writer is still important and still a political stance, but I need to be constantly aware of the implications, power relations, and more importantly, the responsibility that comes with it.’ Intan Paramaditha is a fiction writer and an academic. She holds a PhD ... Read more

Jamila Rizvi is a diversity, equity and inclusion expert, best-selling author, and sought-after public speaker. She is Deputy Managing Director of Future Women, an organisation that helps women who face barriers to employment return to work and advises employers on gender equality. Jamila is an aut... Read more

Jax Brown (they/them) is an esteemed disability and LGBTQIA+ rights activist, writer, educator and consultant. Their tireless commitment to LGBTIQA+ disability human rights and advocacy has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). Jax utilises their experience as a queer, trans... Read more

‘The freedom I want is located in a world where we wouldn’t need to love women, or even monitor our feelings about women as meaningful – in which we wouldn’t need to parse the contours of female worth and liberation by paying meticulous personal attention to any of this at all.’ Jia Tole... Read more

Maria Tumarkin writes books, essays, reviews, and pieces for performance and radio; she collaborates with sound and visual artists and has had her work carved into dockside tiles. She is the author of four books of ideas. Her fourth (and latest) book Axiomatic won the 2018 Melbourne Prize for Lit... Read more

‘I see an unashamedly feminist country where the patriarchy is dismantled, where access to abortion is unambiguously legal, where the safety of women is of the utmost importance and violence against women is confronted as the crisis that it is.’ Mehreen Faruqi is the Greens’ Senator for New S... Read more

Michelle Law is a writer and actor working across print, theatre and screen. Her work includes the play Single Asian Female and the SBS show Homecoming Queens, which she co-created, co-wrote and starred in. Her latest play, Miss Peony, will be staged at Belvoir St Theatre. ... Read more

‘The most subversive thing a woman can do is talk about her life as if it really matters.’ No voice coming out of the Arab Spring was as urgent and essential as Mona Eltahawy’s. Her new book, The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls, is an incendiary call to arms from a journalist define... Read more

‘Sometimes they’ll say, “I went through this, but it’s nothing like what you went through.” But I tell them that, if I drown in 60ft of water and you drown in 30ft, we both still drowned.’ Monica Lewinsky is a social activist, global public speaker, consultant and Contrib... Read more

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

‘Most cities are gender-blind and disregard women’s experiences. Engaging with the stories of women and girls is crucial for making cities safer.’ Nicole Kalms is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design and founding director of the XYX Lab at Monash University. Examining the nexus ... Read more

‘We can’t get away from the fact that women with disabilities are vulnerable. Society is slowly changing, but as much as people hate hearing it women are already on the back foot and then you add a disability … we’re so much further behind.’ Nicole Lee is a family violence survivor an... Read more

Patricia Cornelius is a founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. She’s a playwright, novelist and film writer. She’s the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize and the 2019 Green Room award for Life Achievement. She’s been awarded the Victorian, NSW and Queensland PremiersR... Read more

‘As we commit to each other to build this movement of resistance and liberation, no one can be an afterthought.’ Raquel Willis is a Black queer transgender activist, writer and speaker dedicated to inspiring and elevating marginalized individuals, particularly transgender women of color. She is... Read more

‘That the voices of Women of Colour are getting louder and more influential is a testament less to the accommodations made by the dominant white culture and more to their own grit in a society that implicitly – and sometimes explicitly – wants them to fail.’ Ruby Hamad is an author and PhD ... Read more

Santilla Chingaipe is a filmmaker, historian and author, whose work explores settler colonialism, slavery, and post-colonial migration in Australia. Chingaipe’s first book of non-fiction detailing the untold stories of convicts of African descent is forthcoming, and the critically acclaimed and aw... Read more

Sarah Krasnostein is the best-selling author of The Trauma Cleaner which won the Victorian Prize for Literature, the Victorian Premier’s Award Prize for Non-Fiction, and the Australian Book Industry Award for General Non-Fiction. She was nominated for the Walkley Book Award and was a finalist f... 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

Sophie Black is a journalist, broadcaster, writer and editor with a focus on the environment, politics, media, the internet and parenting in the end times. She writes regular features and opinion for The Guardian and The Monthly. Black has worked in senior management across cultural and media organi... Read more

‘Being too much of one thing and not enough of another had been a recurring theme in my life. I was, like many young women, expected to be small so that boys could expand and white girls could shine. When I would not or could not shrink, people made sure that I knew I had erred.’ Tressie McMil... Read more

‘The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.’ With five novels – White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time – and two collections of essays – Changing My Mind and Feel Free – Zadie Smith has attracted countless awards, critical accl... Read more