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.

Aileen Moreton-Robinson

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 discuss the twentieth anniversary of Talkin’ Up to the White Woman. What questions and experiences informed the writing of the book, and how does it seek to understand power? How did Moreton-Robinson experience colonialism in academia? How do some feminist movements clash with ideas of Indigenous sovereignty – and what are some alternative ways of thinking?

A transcript of this event is available to read here.

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.

#TWCBroadlySpeaking

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work.

In this episode we’re talking to Robbie Arnott about his novel The Rain Heron, a lyrical, compelling ecological thriller about our relationship with the natural world. The Rain Heron is equal parts horror and wonder, and utterly gripping.

‘I think all stories are human stories, in a way. I knew [that] I wanted to write a lot about the environment, and I wanted to create these worlds that felt very visceral and tangible while also being quite fantastical… I tried to have all the imaginative elements as things that feel like they fit neatly into these people's lives and into the world they live in. I didn't want to over explain them or make it feel like I was heaping on a bunch of exposition about why there's a bird made out of rain... And I thought, if it's something that characters just accept, then they'll feel more human.’

The Rain Heron is out now through Text Publishing.

Transcript

Download a PDF transcript of this episode here.

Photo: Claudia Baxter

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work.

In this episode, Stella Charls speaks with Mirandi Riwoe about her novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain. It's a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced; about those who encounter discrimination, yet yearn for acceptance. 

‘I don’t believe in being prescient by giving [characters] thoughts and actions that would have been totally out of place, but I think there is a place for bringing the story … closer to what it actually probably was. […] Fiction is handy; you’re building up empathy for these characters that are representative of actual people, and what they actually did think.’

Stone Sky Gold Mountain is out now through UQP.

Transcript

A PDF transcript of this interview will be available soon.